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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast. I'm your host Thomas Helfrich. We are on a mission to help you cut the tie to everything holding you back so you can unleash your entrepreneur. We release five shows weekly, all types of guests, and they are really powerful, impactful things to help you move forward. So hit that follow button. That's my only ask. The follow button on your favorite podcast player, Apple, Spotify, crush that follow button. Thank you so much for listening and enjoy Never Been Promoted.
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Hey. Welcome to Never Been Promoted. Hi. I'm your host, Thomas Helfrich. We are here today. We'll have to talk about how entrepreneurs can get better in entrepreneurship by cutting ties to things kinda holding them back. And we have really cool, guest today, Juliana VanLaanen. I hope I said it right. I'm terrible at names sometimes, but, she's the founder of, 2MamaBees. So we're gonna talk about her journey and learn what was hard and easy and harder and then got easier and then how she built her business and a little bit about her. If you guys have never been here before, that is our mission. We wanna help you get better entrepreneurship. I want you to learn from other entrepreneurs because they're on that journey, and you might be, one day too. And if you can learn one or two things from it, you'll be in good shape. I have a simple call to action. I always ask. Just go to neverbeenpromoted.com. Check out the stuff. You can get to the YouTube channel, the podcast, all the cool articles of all the guests we've had. It's an easy place. But enough of that. Let's go and bring Juliana on stage. Juliana, how are you doing today? Hi. Good. How are you? I love your intro. Oh, I'm so good. Thank you. It gives me time to, like, sometimes run and go get a coffee. Yeah. It's the perfect amount of time for me to run upstairs, do an instant coffee, come back. But I was prepared today. So pretty. You were locked in. You didn't leave, so I could No. I didn't. I was there. Freak out a little. Sometimes peep sometimes the guests take off during that. I'm like, they don't know how long this is. Where'd they go? Where are you joining us from today? Where where where do you call home today? I am in sunny South Florida today. Oh, not bad. I'm in Atlanta, and it's cold.
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Oh, it's not bad. Too far, though. Actually, I love Atlanta. It's good city.
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You know, you get you get the right mix of cold to appreciate the warm is what I say. Mhmm. It's it's like two weeks total where you just don't wanna go outside, so you don't.
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Yeah. Exactly. And I think I think are you did you said you split time? I think off camera you said Wisconsin, was it? Yeah. And that is not two weeks. It's like a good four months that you don't wanna go outside. So
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Oh, yeah. I mean Yeah. For well, if longer. Like, that's because you've tolerated it. Those you know, Not you you said, you know, you're already snowbirding in Florida. Do did you, does every year, does it get longer? Like, you're like, yeah. I just don't like, I keep pushing it and pushing it longer till You know what's crazy is I feel like it gets shorter
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because winter has been starting later, if you will. So it's been warmer a bit longer. So then we try to enjoy it for as long as possible.
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Yeah. Now are you Gulf side or you go Atlantic Side for South Florida? I'm yeah. I'm the Atlantic Side. Atlantic Side. Yeah. In Fort Lauderdale. Every time we go down there, I'm like, I really just like the Gulf Side better. I don't know why. It's more it's more Midwesterners
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on the Gulf Side. That's for sure. Yes. This is There is. This is a busy life.
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On the side. Yeah. Well well, listen. Do do a small, you know, an intro. Tell me about, like, you know, the what's the name of your company and all that kind of thing, but what does it do? And then and let's let's back into kinda your story of how you got there.
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Perfect. So I'm Juliana VanLaanen, and you did a good job of pronouncing it. And I am the cofounder and CEO of 2MamaBees. We are a luxury manufacturing company. We manufacture playhouses, wings that primarily children's products. And we actually sold in pretty much all the big box stores now. So Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, everywhere, people buy kids' toys.
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What's, when you guys say kids' toys, are you talking like, out like, big outdoor stuff or, like, what how do you mean that? Because that that's a pretty big market.
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Yeah. It is. No. We focus primarily on the outdoor market. We do have some indoor products. We have a play kitchen, but our primary focus is on swing sets and outdoor playhouses. So two story swing sets or one story.
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Or a combo. Right? Actually, we definitely have to have those. Right? Yeah. We do. Actually, we do. We sell, one of our larger swing sets. We sell it as a standalone unit where it has no swings as well. So we do. So so how did you even get into that? That's a that's a cool industry. I feel like it's, like, you know, it's like it's a it's been around for a while. Our kids been swinging and playing forts and doing stuff. So how did how did you get into that and decide that was the one? Yeah. You know, it's been around for a while and was so
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dormant in the way that business was conducted. So when we started, it was very organic in its nature that it was a backyard Etsy shop. So myself and my business start partner, decided to start a backyard Etsy shop. She had a son who had, been diagnosed with autism. And going through that, she kind of lost herself. There was a bit of depression. And so we really were just looking to, like, find a way to occupy time where she felt like she was doing something and she was feeling good about herself. And so it was as organic as the fact that we just built things for our own homes and then decided we would put them up on a tee and see if anybody wanted to buy them. Through that process, she had, which is now one of our bigger competitors, a playhouse in her backyard. And she had gutted her backyard or completely redone it. And when she did that, it was kind of an eyesore in the corner, which is where the industry kind of stood. It just became dormant where the thing that you were buying back in the seventies was still the exact same product that they were selling to our generation. And I think, you know, design changes immensely throughout the years. Think of interiors of homes. Why have children's products not developed and changed as well? So we ended up painting the playhouse in our backyard. We had no idea how we would sell it, ship it, anything, and we threw it up on the Etsy shop. Within a year, I quit corporate America. We had over a thousand sales, and we realized the market does want a change. They recognize the fact that they don't want the swing set that is going to have probably the most use in your backyard, especially when your children are younger, to be the eyesore in the corner that you wish wasn't even there.
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Well, exactly. And and people spend tons on their kids. Right? And you don't wanna look at any else. You need something safe that looks good, and the kids wanna play in it. Because once it gets junky, no one plays on it. That's the Yeah. That's problem.
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That's true too. And I think I think what we really tried to design and develop then was a company where we encompassed all of it. So the aesthetics were now a 17 time award winning manufacturing company based solely on aesthetics. And then also, we're manufactured in America by second generation Amish artisans. So we create pieces that are heirloom quality, meaning your kids can play on it. And because of the time was designed, it would still be beautiful and be able withstand your grandchildren playing on it one day as well. So, you know, it's not That's awesome. Yeah. It's not the product that you set up, and then a year later, you're like, it's falling apart, and you tell your kids can't swing because you don't know if it's gonna crack in a half. Yeah. Well Or when you're doing it when you first started, I always love these kind of things. You didn't have all the tool I mean, like, the things you have today.
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Did was it, like, more local and you just showed up and built it? Or how did you even you know, how do you do that? Because there's there's a lot of instruction. There's, like, a lot of things that goes on. We have to get someone to go else to go build it or what. So tell me about, like, the early days of, hey. We'll just do it this way and soon as you had some money and talk to me about that a bit. So,
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I mean, we never there wasn't, like, so much of this forward thought process. It really was when we first would ship the items, we would fully assemble them, and then we would hand build crates around them. And that's how we would ship them. Soon after, we realized freight has a lot of issues with damage, especially when you're kind of building a product in that nature. So then we would paint the playhouses. We would rub them down with Vaseline so the paint didn't stick to the paper, and we would repackage them in the box. And at that time, because they were our competitors' playhouses that we were buying by the semi truckload, they had all the instruction booklets. All of that was already done for us. All of the liability was on that other company. Taking that on, I mean, it was it was a lot to take in. There were a lot of like, steps along the way where we've grown and developed and, you know, really perfected our craft, but it wasn't one day success, that's for sure. I mean, it was quicker than what you would think. We took our company from a backyard Etsy shop to big box in two and a half years, which is pretty unheard of. Now. Yeah. But the market never changed again. So we were bringing a product that hadn't existed in at least in its nature.
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So so so I understand. Right? You were just buying the out whatever was normally there, like, that you buy, and you just made it look good.
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Yeah. We would just literally, we are in a warehouse for fourteen, sixteen hours a day, myself, my business partner, and then we obviously hired some employees as well, hand painting playhouses all day long. And then, yeah, grossed. We would rub them down fast lane. I don't know how our Etsy customers, they were so they loved the product too. They just adored it. Now looking back, like, hindsight, I'm like, I don't know how we got away with that. Like, if somebody sent me a product and it was all slimy, I'd be like, what is this? But, you know, I think there is, Etsy is just a different platform. At least it's handmade. So people people do give you grace when it comes to that kind of quality because they understand the handmade aesthetic part
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of it. Well, yeah. I mean, in in your case there too, you say here's a you know, we include two dozen rags for you to wipe it down. And and listen. Warning for sure. Yeah. Never you. And and I just think of, like, you know, I was I I try to find, you know, one of one of the things we wanna do in the show is we want people to listen to come away with something of could I do that? And what I you you you pick playhouses. I like it because it's a little bigger ticket. It's, it was a niche that, like, hey. This looks like crap, but, like, you did two big things there. One, you didn't say I'm gonna go reinvent the wheel. I'm just gonna improve the mouse trap or improve the wheel. And second, you you pick something that, you know, you saw you saw a need. Like, this looks like crap. I think people would pay for something that looks better, and then you just it's a markup game. Yeah. And and and I think if people think, okay. Should people go jump in the Playhouse business? Probably not. Like, you you got seems like you got that there. They probably could. But the idea is you just started in a garage. You started in, like, you know, let's just try this. Let's see what happens. And even today, I think you probably today could take that same playhouse and just be like, hey. Put it through an AI machine, make it look pretty, and we'll just put it up there. See if everybody wants to buy it, then we'll paint it. We don't have to do it. Yeah. I mean, it is that is crazy because that really is how how far technology has come in such a short period of time that you look at it. But, yeah, it really was that organic. I remember when we
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was just window boxes and we were scared of the saw. Like, we had the reciprocal saw, we went to turn it on and we both ran away. We're like, maybe we should rethink this. Like, but, you know, it was it was a lot of like just hard lessons and, growth. And I don't really think there's anything that nobody could do. You know, like, I honestly do believe it. If I could sit there and build window boxes when I didn't even know how to use a hammer, I think pretty much if you can put your mind to something and you're determined to make it work, yeah, you could you could definitely learn it and grow through it. What was your corporate role prior to that? I was the president of a global transportation technology company.
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It so did you almost the same thing. Yeah. Was it did it help you in any way from a business standpoint or just, like, knowing logistics or something? Like, did you draw upon any of your experience?
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Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think, you know, I'm I'm a mom. Actually, my oldest is gonna be going to college this next year, and she wants to go to nursing in school. Something well outside of my comfort zone. I can't even, like, look at blood. But, you know, she just she's focused on, like, how difficult the schooling is gonna be. And I'm like, the schooling is gonna be hard, but once you're doing it, the day to day aspects of it, it's like, it just becomes second nature. So, yes, I started in that company in marketing and worked my way up. I've absolutely been able to translate a lot of what I was able to do at that company into how I now run 2MamaBees. Every part of your life, you know, if you're learning and growing, you should be able to utilize those tools, you know, in other aspects.
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Yeah. Well and I think I think sometimes it's it's a matter of, there's a lot of good things that can happen. Like, you gotta draw upon things you've learned that you'd love to do, do well, don't wanna do. And I think that's the big thing is understanding, like, where you're like, I just don't wanna do that. Like like, I don't want a business that does this. I don't wanna do that part of the business. And then then you can go solve it. It's when I think a lot of people don't move forward because I think that's an easy one. I think people can say, I don't wanna do this. I do wanna do that. But it's when they have the unknown, and you're gonna hit some of those when you when you go on your own, as you did, I'm sure. What what you did was you said, let's just do it anyway. So and and the worst you'll do is close the shop. Right? Like, the if no one buys it, easy. We have a pretty playhouse. We'll go sell locally or put it on Craigslist or something. Right? Like Yeah. But you you weren't afraid of the unknown. And and I'm maybe talk about that a little bit because I can't imagine you weren't like, I have no idea what we're gonna do, how we're let's just do it. And so that's the right model. But talk to me about how you overcame maybe the unknown fear.
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You know, I do think at the time, I had a safety net. Right? So I was still working in corporate America. It was such like a weekend job. It was like we'd get wine and play with big construction tools, really intelligent. Right? But as the company grew and expanded, it did become the reality started to sink in a bit more. And there was a transition when I had to go to my corporate America job and say I'm leaving, which everyone was very shocked. And they're like, for an Etsy shop? Like, what is she talking about? But taking that leap of faith for me, it it was a risk. And I didn't have a fallback plan. That is for sure. There was no safety net catching me. I am a single mom. I have three kids that depend on me. So I think betting on anything in life, I will always bet on myself. I'm I know my work ethic. You know, at the end of the day, I know who I am as a human being. I know how I show up. I know how I showed up for a company that wasn't my own. So how do I think I'm gonna show up for a company that's mine now that I get to live my dream that I'm inspired to wake up and do every day. There was nothing about preemption and prioritization technology that, like, got me raring to go out of the bed every day. I wasn't like, yay. I can't wait to do it. You know what I mean? Like, it was a great job. It was a solid job. I know that we helped people. And so I could find ways to, like, analyze that. But was it mine and it was what I wanted to grow and develop? No. To mama bees, it's I get to make decisions every day to better the company even down to most recently, we're implementing, our instruction booklets to be made out of seed paper. Sustainability is huge for me. I sit on sustainability committees, like, I I didn't even think that I would get that into sustainability until I was in it. And it's so interesting to me. And so finding ways to create a more sustainable company is something that I love to do. It interests me to a point that after I go to bed at night, I'll read a book on it instead of just watching a TV show. So, yeah, I think everybody knows themselves. Mhmm. There are some people in life who a lot of people in life that work better in a nine to five position. But if you have, like, that drive and that will to create something and you know that
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you have the will power to really see it through, then I do think you should bet on yourself. You know, you have one life. We have literally one life to live. So Absolutely. I and I I love you to and how long how long have you has this been? So so give me a time frame from you know, you said in two and a half years, you got the big box, but how long has it been since, you know, leaving saying I quit to, you know, now?
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02/2019 late two thousand nineteen, we started the Etsy shop. October of twenty twenty one, we launched our own brand of products. We were in big box stores by '20 late twenty twenty two, early '20 '20 '3. So we just hit year three on our own brand. I quit corporate America in 2020.
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So Are you guys can you are you allowed to share revenue of kind of how you've grown or anything?
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Yeah. We've I mean, we've done over 4,000,000
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in revenue. That's amazing. And and and, in this year?
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No. Not not in this year, but,
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but we've done we've done well. It's been a good year for us. It's been a good year for us. That's amazing. Well, congratulations on that success. Thank you. On your journey to the big box, you know, this is unfamiliar land, so I'm asking just because I'm sure lots of other people are I would have no idea how to do that. Do you wanna talk can you talk about, like, that process and what and did you have to go were you already gonna go build your own brand? Did you have to do as part of it? Like, talk about kind of how not your own brand. I'm sorry. Your own products lines. Did talk about the big box and how, you know, you got in, how you negotiated it. How how does that go? Because I I don't have a perspective on that at all. Yeah. I mean, every
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store is different. We're sold in 110 retail locations. So we sell a number of different ways. We sell direct to the consumer through our own website. We sell to like b2b, so meaning a lot of like outdoor shed, places will carry our line, and they set it up in store, which means they own their inventory. And then we sell online DBS is what we call it in our world. And so primarily, we are sold DBS, which means, we're up on a website. So we're online, but not in store yet. In store plays take a long time. Just to give you an example, Costco is buying right now for spring summer of twenty twenty seven, which means they've already bought everything else that they need up until that point. So it's That's crazy. Yeah. It's hard to find a niche in it, but they are so forward thinking. That being said, the conversations go differently every time. The I'll give you one example because I do think that it's an incredible opportunity and probably not as many people know about it. Walmart has incentivized, I wanna say it's $35,000,000,000 that they're, putting towards domestic manufacturing. We are domestically manufactured. We're domestically manufactured and domestically sourced, and we give back in America. So, the program is called Walmart Open Call. And I say yes to everything. My business partner does not. She is, like, a hard pass on a lot of things. I am a I say yes to everything. So we got an email from a business called RangeMe, where you can actually set your products up online and buyers see your products. And so when this opportunity came, it was this Walmart open call. I submitted our products. I didn't even know what I was submitting our products for. Again, I had no idea what Walmart open call was. I just saw Walmart and thought that would be a great opportunity, especially with Sam's Club. And so in doing so, we got accepted. Yeah. I don't even know how many applicants. Thousands. I'm guessing between five and ten thousand applicants. They narrow it down and they have 200 to 300 people come. They fly them out to Bentonville, Arkansas where their corporate headquarters are, and you pitch in front of a buyer. I mean, they do a lot of other things. It was an incredible experience. I can't say enough good things about Walmart, Sam's Club, and what they do and how they treat their employees. We got to do a plant tour, and it is mind blowing how they machine things and how the process works. It was very interesting and I love things like that. But from there, we got a deal with both Walmart and Sam's Club. But it really was extremely intimidating. Everybody had a pitch. The Rock was there with his tequila brand. He had a pitch the same way we did. There's nobody that's not immune to sitting in front of your buyer. Yes, they are intimidating people. You know, they're making choices for you that could change the entire trajectory of your life, and they did for us. They changed
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the trajectory of our company. It gives you it takes a whole new and and you guys probably could have stayed boutique and just hit the other, you know, tractor of shed, all the other places you could sell it, it just it's a it's a harder build. Right? I mean, this this gets you on the map. Were you worried, though, being carried on a Walmart on their on their online piece, or it would it it would hurt brand? So the idea being you guys seem like a more like, I I look at it and think, oh, it's a higher end brand. I wouldn't expect to see that on Walmart ever. Costco maybe maybe Sam's because they have, you know, a little bit, but not Walmart. So did does that play into it how how your your brands proceed based on where you put your stuff?
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No. We're sold at Saks Fifth Avenue. I mean and we're the only Playhouse company that Saks Fifth Avenue has ever carried. Walmart is gaining a lot of traction on Target. So I think, you know, there's obviously a conception that people have in their minds. Everybody gets that. The play for us was Sam's Club. But not because we don't benefit exceed the benefit of working with Walmart. We do. Our products sell when people see them set up. There is not floor space in Walmart to set up our products. There's floor space in Sam's Club. Sam's Club will set up your product and they'll stick it on like a giant, you know, UC swing set. Oh, no. I I get it. No. And I I agree with you. Kinda like, if you see it, you're like like, you'll see gazebos and you're like, I would never buy that online, but in person, it looks great. Right? Yeah. Exactly. No. I get that. It's makes sense for them. So seeing the quality in person was is really, like, the play for us. So we're being sold right now on Sam's Club online with a deal to go in store for $20.26.
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It's great. And you're Yeah. Where where do you guys how how'd you go through the manufacturing piece of that to me is another one. It's like, okay. You made a switch from and this I talked to me talked to me. So you literally made a switch from, like, hey. We'll buy stuff. Try to find a discounted that's good, whatever else. Right? Just try to get your sourcing of your materials. Then you're gonna go we're just gonna go make our own stuff. So, I mean, I to me, in my head goes, oh my god. Like, there's probably patents. There's trademarks. There's, like, I can't get that design now because we tell me about how you think through that and the how long of a process that is to get to a place where you can actually build your first and package it. Yeah. So,
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we you can't patent a playhouse, but we do have trademarks. And, obviously, you can't, like, infringe on our design within a certain percentage. There's all these legal ramifications, but, we do have trademarks. Our first run, we did from overseas. So we actually had a boots on the ground, in China, and, we had a sample sent. That entire process from conception to completion, I would say, took us about a year. So we started the Etsy shop and then we decided, okay, we're gonna do this in 2020 and had the product here, like, in America by October of twenty twenty one, which is when we started selling it. Now mind you, that was COVID. So we went through a lot of hurdles along the way. 40 foot high q, which are those giant shipping containers. We were originally quoted when we started this process, 5 to $8,000 for the shipping container. We paid $38,000 per shipping container, and we had to bring over six of them.
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I'd make it local.
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Yeah. And we if there was no you couldn't change your mind about it. At that point, the products are we are already committed to it. So we're like, okay. We're two feet in in it. We're we're doing this. But this is again where owning your own company and being able to make your own decisions for me is so invaluable. So although we were happy with the product, the consistent quality wasn't there. It wasn't and it didn't tell the brand story that I wanted to tell. You know? So year one, we we did sell through our inventory that we brought. We moved all manufacturing to America. And so it was, it was a big year. I mean, a lot of companies probably would have gone under, and we still turned a profit.
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That's awesome. When you when how'd you pick the, the local, like, so to speak, the US One? Like, is a different process? Is it more relationship based? Is was it still, like, you needed them to source all the materials for it? Like, tell me about I know any of my manufacturing, so I'm asking you just because I'm sure lots of people from here will be like, I have no idea how I'd even do this. So how do you go pick a man China sounds dreadful because I I feel like in in for sure, anything I put there is gonna be on, like, you know, Alibaba six months later and every color manageable and in exactly the same product. There's nothing to do about it. And so so US manufactured, this gives you an edge because people will say, you know what? It's a one time buy in my life. I might as well buy this one.
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Yeah. And if you're buying it from Alibaba, I'm sorry. You're not getting the same quality. I think people understand that too. Even with our competitors, they understand the quality that they're gonna they're gonna obtain. So it was very, again, organic. I think I read a lot. I watch a lot of podcasts. We were named, Women Entrepreneurs of the Year by the TOT in very early twenty twenty two. The TOT was a huge, online retail place. It was like organic products. So all of our products are low VOC. Like we went through all the steps to make sure that everything like no PFA, then everything is non plastic as much as possible except for, like, the swing seats and the slide itself. And so we were named women or, yeah, women entrepreneurs of the year next to, like, six other women, owned companies. And so I was reading their bios, and there was one in particular, a company that I had purchased one of their products for my own children to play with. And I was amazed by the quality. The quality stood out to me. Also, the it just the craftsmanship as a whole and then the fact that almost the entire unit was preassembled. You could tell it wasn't from China because I didn't have to really do any assembly, which is one thing with our products as well. Even our, like, our rain two story playhouse, which is our largest swing side, takes one and a half to two hours to build. Our competitors of the same size take eight to ten hours to build. So that's domestic manufacturing at its finest. Right? That's how we make sure that we are reinventing the wheel because we're creating ease of assembly. We're creating all the elevated experience for our customers.
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Does it, like, show up on a forklift truck and they bring it? Or Just a big box.
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It's just a it's a big box, but it yeah. It just comes in a box. They're on a pallet too. So we ship we ship a number of different ways. For big box, we have to ship small parcels. So that's broken down to a couple boxes. But yeah. So I was reading through the bios and the one particular bio she had mentioned in it that she was previously manufactured by Amish artisans out of Pennsylvania, and she brought all of her manufacturing in house. And I was like, wow. That means that her manufacturer needs some business. So I don't know if you know how many Amish manufacturers there are in Pennsylvania, but there's about seventy two hours worth of phone calls. And I literally, like, just on the phone book, called and hung up. A lot of them didn't answer, and I was like, did you manufacture for dah, dah, dah, the company? No click. And when the gentleman answered the phone and said, yes, I did. I said, I'll be on a flight tomorrow. And I was, I was on a flight the very next day. And since then, we have built such an incredible relationship with our manufacturing team that they have actually reinvested in us and created their own 2MamaBees manufacturing facilities. So now we have four manufacturers that manufacture solely for two mom movies.
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That's awesome. That's good. Yeah. I love that. What I hear there is hard work, tenacity, and just get it done. You didn't you didn't say, oh, I should call or write late. Like, let's just pick up the phone call. I'm glad they had phones. I'm not sure that was a I was gonna ask, like,
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They do. They do. You know, it's much like a facility that you would you would think you would see. It's just the way that the power source. So our facilities, we actually just won a Stevie Awards. Women, we won building sustainable supply chains, for the Stevie Awards women in business, based on our manufacturing process and everything that we do and put into it. And so they are run by solar panel generators, and they are allowed to have forklifts because they're run with propane. So it it is interesting. I find it interesting as well. But, you know, we we had to jump through a lot of hoops with that too. We're sold at Target, and we had to tell Target we have to fax everything. That we don't there is no email, you know? So they were like, we have to fax purchase orders, and we're like, yes. We have to that's it's a religious exemption. And so they had never done that with the manufacturing facility before. We were there first, but it's been a seamless transition. There's no hiccups with it. We have the right people in place. I was gonna ask you how you got how you got the logistics. I was wondering if you guys just took it in from the and then you'd converted it to what they needed. So I don't know if you but you now you sent it right to them in a fax. Yeah. Yeah. No. They wanted to know what to do with a fax. Point. Yeah. They were set up to to handle a lot, to not handle all of the business that we've now been able to give them and then the future business. And so that's been a lot of growth along the way. But they're like family to us. When I go to Pennsylvania, which I do quite often, I mean, I'll stay at their home. Like, they're I mean, we're all in this together.
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So Do you have to put the outfit on? Like, a little the little bonnet thing? I would if they wanted me to. They don't offer offer. Hey, guys. If you're listening to this first of all, yell at your kids because they're not supposed to be. Second, one of the guys that's coming on the show, and I I met him at the The Blocks, the, this entrepreneurial reality show I was on. I was on the blocks. We're both in the blocks. There you go. I was on season 18. Going as a judge. I'm actually going in February to be a judge now. Very cool. Now did you do the grad did you 18. I just got done, like, not so ago. Oh my god. I was 16.
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Yes. And I well, mine hasn't aired yet, but I I won. Most valuable company.
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Nice. Very good. We are I can't disclose. I will say I I won my potter, got second every year, every time.
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Good
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job. And the one time I one of the first ones I did win, the people who may have held the red shirts the entire show, I beat them. That's all I know. That's right. I got my Coke fan on this boat. I have a red shirt for a couple of days in there too. Oh my gosh. I don't have one. I never got one. The same same Oh my gosh. I got it didn't go with any of my outfits. Hopefully, it looks like you don't feel I just want the same outfit today just so for for because I think I would like I just got the email
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two days ago for them asking me to come back to be a judge. I I I cannot say enough good things about the blocks. It was great. Anybody that I meet. Yeah. I actually opened another business with two of the people that I met for my season. We own
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a VA, virtual assistant, and BPO in Belize now together as well. Nice. That's great. See, I I listen. So, I think that's how we connected to is through, I think a post I put to interview interesting entrepreneurs and and it's, you know, it's the the simplest marketing tech we make for me is just a post it. So just Yeah. Just write something on it and hold it up to the camera. It's easy. That being said, like, one of the guys there, he, he builds barns, and so he was he grew up Amish. I don't know if escaped is the right word, but he's no longer in the Amish community, and he builds barns. And he has video of him building a barn by himself in, like, a week. And I'm like and he's, like, probably a buck 30. And I'm like but I'm like, this guy is, like, as strong as strong yet. And it's like, he's such a cool dude. So, anyway, I Yeah. You know, dude. So congratulations on on, most valuable company. I agree that you're gonna keep going. Thank you. Exit strategy. Are you are you thinking get big box exit? Let let some private equity take it and you, ruin it and you go do it again? Yep. Cool. Perfect.
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Yeah. That's the plan. Executing on it now.
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Very good. So, you know, obviously, big box stores are probably not watching this, but there might be a business owner or two that owns, like, you know, the the local, you know, Ace Hardware or whatever. Who who it's kinda shameless plug time. Right? Who who could you help, give them a better line of product or something unique that gives them an advantage to get people into the stores? You know? Because if someone goes there and buys, like, the the the your, you know, the playhouse and stuff like that, they're likely gonna need some stuff, new drill bits, things like like so who who should get ahold of you is probably the question.
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Yeah. I mean, really, anybody in the retail space. I think we're I told you we're sold in a 10 retail locations, primarily online. There were a couple that really gave us a shot when we first kind of put our brand out there. And so I don't say no often at all. You know, I love to give people the opportunity to grow and follow their own dreams too. So I don't if you're selling products online that would align with us, which, you know, a lot of people do sell online products, of course. Yes. I could see hardware stores being a place where we would sell our product, Lowe's and Home Depot are ones that we're having conversations with. But, you know, if you have a dream and you're just gonna start doing some kind of ecommerce, you can always call us. We love to give those
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small mom and pops. A lot of times, it's like the moms that call and they're like, I just wanna do something. And I was like, so did we. You know? So did we. So I mean, like, I think, like, especially if you have someone who's like, hey. You basically they're making margin, no inventory, and you're handling everything else, returns, whatever, like, whatever else is there. That's a I mean, give you a call. I'll be like, hey. Listen. You you make this much margin every time you sell it, and it it's like a to me, that's an easy no brainer business if you know how to run ads or have the ability to place something so, you know, communities wanna buy it. I think that's a it's a good way to get started, I think, from a business.
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I I completely agree. If you know how to run ads, like, there I mean, there's there's money to be made in ecommerce. That's for sure. It's where everything seems to be going.
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Well, it grows every year. What about the future? So you said you, you know, you already have another business. You say yes to everything. So do you have do you have these times you get the entrepreneurial ADD creeps in too much and you're like, I gotta pull that back? Do you
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I mean, I definitely have ADD. Don't we all? I have I tell my kids that all the time. They'll be like, I have ADD, and I'm like, you and the rest of the world. Okay? All of us do. But yeah, I run a couple other businesses. I love to grow things. I love to watch things grow, but T mommy's is my main priority. It is my fourth baby. It is the love of my life. And growing it is so fun. It really has grown me as a person, as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as all of the things. So what's next is, we're in the middle of a raise, execute on our raise, and then watch that trajectory soar through the roofs and exit to a good company, a company that I know would keep the brand alive. I'd love to stay on in some capacity as a consultant or other. I don't ever wanna walk away from two mom movies completely, but I would love to see what
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somebody with real dollars behind it could build Right. And move this company into. I think it's I mean, surely yeah. You're proving the model, and you picking the right partner will be huge for you. And that was kinda my last question. It's like, how do you double it or more? You know, how do you 10 x it? Like, well, the 10 x, you gotta double it first. So how for you doubling it, is it it's the right investment partner, and, I guess, just commerce channels. Right? It's it's it's closing the Costco deal or the Sam's deal, period.
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Exactly. Which is what my main focus is right now. There's, like, a lot of domino domino effects when it comes to big box too. When one of them sees you doing it, the other ones all get jealous, and they're like, we want it too. And so, you know, if you're able to find a product and you can make it fit, then, yeah, you can you can grow it if you just have tenacity, determination, and a relentless will to survive all the really hard conversations. No sleep.
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Is there a bigger competitors to you that could buy you as well as part of this journey?
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Yeah. Yeah. We have some really big players in our market. Spin Master is huge. They bought Melissa and Doug for right under a billion. Oceanic is huge.
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Yeah. There's there's a few That's a that's a Melissa and Doug is a big brand for some just to up and buy them for around a billion.
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They sold at a 18 time multiple.
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Yeah. You'll take that. Someone gives you 18 multiple, and how do you take it?
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Today?
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Yes.
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No.
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Oh,
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18 time we're going. I know where we're going, and it'll be a way bigger number than what I would get today.
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So it's always a question, how much is enough? Right? Someone goes, here's a hundred million dollar check, and you get 50% of it because you got a partner. She says, no. I want a billion.
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I would hard pass it. I really would. See, look, you don't see anything. That's all I was getting to. I mean, I know I know how to use I know how to use the calculator, and I know I'm I'm the one who sits in on the conversations. Right? So I I know where we're going.
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If we're your the hard no, McPartner goes yes now. She says yes to those things. That is for sure.
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That's what I was gonna ask. I was just trying to say to you. Know the podcast stuff. She's very shy. She's very, like, the That's okay. Yeah. She didn't go on the blocks with me. I brought my director of marketing.
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So Yeah. You we we, we we don't want people to suck on the show. So, like, you know, for for you to get invited in to cut the tie, you know, the community there, you you can't suck on the show is my rule. No one has yet. There's been one person I'm pretty sure might have been a serial killer, but we're not gonna talk about him. That's why we prescreen everyone now.
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True story. True story. Oh my gosh. That's funny.
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Yes. Very cool. Listen. If there was a question today I should have asked you, but I didn't, what would that question have been?
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Oh, like, what would be my book recommendation for running a company? I think that's all it's That's a good one. Mine is now I'm gonna butcher the name, and I definitely don't know. I'm I'm building healthy habits. It's like an emotional intelligence. It's kind of like a remember those books when we were kids and they were to choose your own adventure where you would pick a different chapters? You take a test at the beginning, and then I don't you don't start at chapter one and it'll be like chapter 39. You really need to focus on that one. You can build a habit in thirty days and even it gives you a lot of like the the history on emotional intelligence versus your IQ. So your EQ versus your IQ and your EQ EQ is actually, you see higher grossing CEOs, more successful CEOs typically have a higher EQ than an IQ. So I think it's just a way to help form better habits, if you will, on how to also communicate effectively with people that are, you know I mean, they communicate with people all day who don't think the way that I think. That's for sure. I have Amish manufacturers. So
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What's the name of that again? So I'll do a small Google search while we're talking here. What does it mean? Okay. Yeah. I could have probably Googled it too.
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Healthy habits, emotional intelligence.
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Habits, emotional intelligence. Yeah. Emotional. So this is the power of of a podcast that's live. We can just do this,
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let's see if we can find it. Alright. Yeah. It It's kinda like one of those ones that I reference on a regular basis. Sometimes I'll just, like, randomly take the test again to be like, what am I what am I lacking this month? Is it a black book with gold lettering, emotional intelligence habits with by doctor Travis Bradbury? Okay. Yes. Yes. Travis Bradbury. It's a great book.
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It's, it's not on sale, but you can get it. I'll tell you right now. Sorry, guys. Okay. It's okay. Well, you know and she doesn't have affiliates. Just says that was an offered thing. It was not set up. So it's,
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not her business. She's just I'm not getting paid for this. Although, you know, maybe I should call him because I have talked about it on one or two podcasts now. Maybe
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he should call you and just send you the check. That's what I'm saying.
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At least reimburse me for the book.
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Right? Give you a free offer copy. Juliana, thank you so much for coming on. This is a fantastic story. And truly, like, from the ad that I ran of do an interesting entrepreneurial story, this is one. So thank you for sharing it with us. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I'm gonna put you in the periwinkle room. I'll be right back with you, but thank you. Thanks, Juliana. Thank you so much for coming on today. Listen. That's a great story. I love when people, find something, they go do it, and and I you know, we didn't dive in it too deep, but that motion from, hey. By the way, I'm gonna quit my president, John, that I make good money at that's secure and I still like, but this is better, and I'm not sure. That takes guts. I mean, you know, that is that that's that's knowing what you want, not being afraid of it, and that's, that's really admirable. So good for you, Juliana, for doing that, and it's very inspiring for, anyone and, you know, and especially young women out there as somebody who has two daughters. I I'll tell you that's, I like to see that. Get out there. Go do it. Until we meet again, I want you to get out there. Go cut a tie to something holding you back, and go unleash your entrepreneur.
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Hey. Before you go, hit that follow button on your favorite podcast player, Apple, Spotify. Crush that little follow button so you get the latest episodes as they come out. Thank you so much for listening to the Never Been Promoted podcast.