Hi, this is gift biz on rapt episode 94,
Speaker:I looked out about halftime and the squirrel had emptied my
Speaker:bird, Peter,
Speaker:and I said,
Speaker:this has got to stop.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific
Speaker:insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Before we get into the show,
Speaker:I have a question for you.
Speaker:Do you know that you should be out networking,
Speaker:but you just can't get yourself to do it because it's
Speaker:scary. Are you afraid that you might walk into the room
Speaker:and not know anybody or that you're going to freeze?
Speaker:When you get up to do that infamous elevator speech,
Speaker:where you talk about yourself and your business?
Speaker:Well, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't need to
Speaker:be scary.
Speaker:If you know what to do to help you with this,
Speaker:I would like to offer you a coffee chat for the
Speaker:price of buying me a cup of coffee.
Speaker:We can sit down and I'll tell you everything that I
Speaker:know about networking and how I have personally built two multi-six
Speaker:figure businesses,
Speaker:primarily through networking to learn more about this opportunity.
Speaker:Just go over to Bitly forward slash network Ninja.
Speaker:That's B I T dot L Y network Ninja.
Speaker:And now let's move on to the show.
Speaker:Hi, there it's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped
Speaker:podcast, whether you own a brick and mortar store sell online
Speaker:or are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have joining us,
Speaker:Tom degular with squirrel await bird cafes.
Speaker:Tom grew up on a farm in central Illinois and had
Speaker:a rewarding career in agricultural sales and marketing.
Speaker:When he retired in 2008,
Speaker:one of his chores was to keep the bird feeder full.
Speaker:This chore led the way to his retirement advocation of the
Speaker:squirrel away for a cafe.
Speaker:These unique squirrel proof bird feeders are sold through several retail
Speaker:outlets and also at craft shows,
Speaker:flea markets and online Tom enjoys the craft shows and flea
Speaker:markets the most because of the direct contact with those with
Speaker:a squirrel problem,
Speaker:there's a lot more to this story.
Speaker:So let's jump right in.
Speaker:Welcome to the show,
Speaker:Tom, thank you for having me.
Speaker:I am thrilled that you are here and as our listeners
Speaker:know, we like to kick this off by having you describe
Speaker:yourself in a little bit of a different way.
Speaker:And that is by telling us what your ideal motivational candle
Speaker:would look like.
Speaker:So if you were to tell me the color and the
Speaker:quote on your self-made candle,
Speaker:what would that be?
Speaker:I suppose it would be multicolor.
Speaker:Although if I had to pick one would probably be blue
Speaker:because I like blue and the slogan,
Speaker:or my message would be fool of squirrel and feed a
Speaker:family. There you go,
Speaker:right along with your product right now.
Speaker:I have read your brochure.
Speaker:So I know a little bit about how this idea formed,
Speaker:but I'd love for you to share with our audience,
Speaker:how this all came about.
Speaker:And then also describe what the product is.
Speaker:Well, it started back,
Speaker:I suppose,
Speaker:in 2008,
Speaker:when I retired and my wife told me that one of
Speaker:my jobs would be to keep the bird feeder full.
Speaker:And so I would happen to be watching football one day,
Speaker:watching the Chicago bears since I live in the area.
Speaker:No bears.
Speaker:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker:I looked out about halftime and the squirrel had emptied my
Speaker:bird, Peter,
Speaker:and I said,
Speaker:this has got to stop.
Speaker:I didn't sign up for a program that strenuous to keep
Speaker:the bird feeder falls.
Speaker:So I guess that sent me a quest,
Speaker:trying to figure out if I could be smarter than the
Speaker:squirrel and keeping him from eating all my bird feeds.
Speaker:So that started,
Speaker:I looked in stores and found that the ones that I
Speaker:thought would work were very expensive.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they can range up to a hundred dollars or so for
Speaker:the really good ones.
Speaker:And so I thought,
Speaker:well, I could do this.
Speaker:And so I started out with several designs,
Speaker:a lot of things that didn't work,
Speaker:obviously, but then came up with something that did and seemed
Speaker:to be attractive enough to sell.
Speaker:So I went to the flea market and tried to peddle
Speaker:some there just to see what it would be like.
Speaker:And I sold more than I thought I wouldn't be able
Speaker:to. And then that just kind of mushroom from that point.
Speaker:So how long was it from that afternoon when you were
Speaker:sitting watching football to when you actually had a product in
Speaker:terms of research?
Speaker:Cause you probably went to find the solution to just buy
Speaker:something different and then that didn't work.
Speaker:So in terms of advice to our audience,
Speaker:how long did that take you?
Speaker:Probably six months.
Speaker:I would say to six to eight months before I thought
Speaker:I might have a saleable item,
Speaker:you might say,
Speaker:and then it's developed since then number originally,
Speaker:why it was not as attractive,
Speaker:not as durable.
Speaker:So it's kind of grown from that point,
Speaker:as I jokingly say,
Speaker:I'm now on version 8.25.
Speaker:So my S my son tells me,
Speaker:what are you going to do next?
Speaker:Put Corinthian leather on the purchase for the birds or what,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so I don't know what else I can do to it,
Speaker:but I'd see,
Speaker:they're trying to be one of several things trying and make
Speaker:it more attractive,
Speaker:more affordable,
Speaker:more profitable,
Speaker:one of the other and more durable.
Speaker:So those are the things that I tried to strive to
Speaker:make it better.
Speaker:So you just keep working on it over and over.
Speaker:Yeah. And that's probably also why you like the craft shows
Speaker:because you can actually talk to people who are either using
Speaker:the product already or looking at it and making comments.
Speaker:That's correct.
Speaker:Several of the improvements have been made just because of comments
Speaker:from customers.
Speaker:And that's how you find out how to make your product
Speaker:better. Absolutely.
Speaker:I couldn't agree with you more and gift biz listeners.
Speaker:I hope you heard that if you were doing something else
Speaker:and didn't catch that listening to your customers,
Speaker:they can be a gold mine for what else you can
Speaker:do, either product extensions or how you can enhance a product
Speaker:that you currently have.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And so for our listeners who may not know specifically about
Speaker:your product,
Speaker:because there are a couple of other feeders on the market
Speaker:that claim to help with this problem,
Speaker:how is yours different?
Speaker:First of all,
Speaker:I would say probably the key thing that makes it a
Speaker:good bird feeder and very discriminating I would say is that
Speaker:it has Springs on the purchase so that whenever the bird
Speaker:lands on the perch,
Speaker:why he can set an eat,
Speaker:whereas anything larger than say a Cardinal,
Speaker:whether it be a grackle or larger bird,
Speaker:or certainly a squirrel or chipmunk,
Speaker:why they just can't seem to negotiate that.
Speaker:And so that's one of the big things that makes it
Speaker:do what it does.
Speaker:Plus the fact,
Speaker:the top of it is dome shape.
Speaker:So even if a squirrel was hanging by his toenails from
Speaker:the wire,
Speaker:he just barely gets his nose down far enough to sniff
Speaker:it. And so that's just very frustrating to them.
Speaker:And didn't,
Speaker:you also do something else to the top so that they
Speaker:can't get in,
Speaker:they can't take the top off.
Speaker:Right. That's just one of the last things that made it,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:version 8.0
Speaker:was that I put a finial on top of loop video.
Speaker:So you could run the wire through the top,
Speaker:the lockdown,
Speaker:the top of the lid,
Speaker:because I had a lady that sent me a picture of
Speaker:a squirrel,
Speaker:completely encased in the tube of the bird feed.
Speaker:And if you,
Speaker:if you would have had a court big enough,
Speaker:as wide as the bird feeder was,
Speaker:you could put a stamp on him and mailed him to
Speaker:California. You know,
Speaker:it, it was very humorous.
Speaker:So that's what brought about the finial type lockdown system.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:And that's not safe for the squirrel either.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we're not here to hurt squirrels.
Speaker:We just don't want to leave it.
Speaker:Exactly. They have their place.
Speaker:And I just feel that it's on the ground cleaning up
Speaker:anything that the birds kick out,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:exactly. So you're doing this more as a retirement hobby,
Speaker:but it's truly a business too.
Speaker:I don't know if you felt that it was going to
Speaker:continue to grow and blossom as it has,
Speaker:but so as you were doing this,
Speaker:you might have had a little bit of a different motivation
Speaker:behind you than someone who's trying to build a product to
Speaker:make a business,
Speaker:to be able to quit working nine to five or that
Speaker:kind of thing.
Speaker:But I am quite sure there had been some struggles along
Speaker:the way,
Speaker:as you were developing the product.
Speaker:Can you share with us one of those struggles Or one
Speaker:of the biggest is if you're introducing a new product or
Speaker:making a new thing or trying to design something that's better
Speaker:or is unique,
Speaker:what have you is where do you get the materials?
Speaker:How do you get the parts?
Speaker:Is there things that can be bought off the shelf to
Speaker:make it,
Speaker:or how are you going to do it?
Speaker:And so one of the big things was for example,
Speaker:the lid and how do you,
Speaker:where do you get a dome lid?
Speaker:And so you look in hardware stores or wherever it might
Speaker:be trying to find domes,
Speaker:or look on the internet,
Speaker:where do you find them?
Speaker:And the first real innovation for a dome lid for me
Speaker:was I went to one of the local hardware stores and
Speaker:found clip on lampshades that were plastic.
Speaker:And they were a dome shaped and they had a clip
Speaker:on. So I took the clip off and I could paint
Speaker:the inside of the lampshade.
Speaker:And then I used that as mana my first dome lids.
Speaker:A lot of it is trying to find the materials or
Speaker:the right things to build what you're going to build or
Speaker:make what you're going to make if you're in the production
Speaker:side. So was that for the prototype or was that for
Speaker:the actual product when it comes to,
Speaker:That was probably,
Speaker:that was probably a little later on.
Speaker:And the first one was just the top,
Speaker:a PVC pipe,
Speaker:four inch wide top.
Speaker:I had to make the length of the tube and it
Speaker:had to find a tube that would fit the top.
Speaker:So you got to try to figure out what fits with
Speaker:what and what will go together to make what you want
Speaker:to make.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Now, are you making all of these yourself still?
Speaker:Yes, I am.
Speaker:I make them all in my shop.
Speaker:I've got a little shop outside of my house and that
Speaker:is production central.
Speaker:And so I will build them there.
Speaker:And I usually do it in a,
Speaker:like a factory type mode.
Speaker:I've make a dozen bird feeders in a batch.
Speaker:You might say,
Speaker:and put the parts together.
Speaker:And one day I'll make purchases and one day I'll make
Speaker:ports. And so you have to kind of economize your time
Speaker:as much as possible whenever you get into some production.
Speaker:Sure. I mean,
Speaker:we talk about that a lot just in terms of office
Speaker:productivity to batching.
Speaker:So you're applying this over into more of a production arena
Speaker:as well,
Speaker:Right? It's not as much fun as just making one bird
Speaker:feeder from start to end,
Speaker:but it's the only way I can get enough made to
Speaker:make it worthwhile,
Speaker:to go to the shows and cover the retail and online
Speaker:requests that I might get.
Speaker:So I know that you're right now,
Speaker:not at home,
Speaker:you're out traveling.
Speaker:Cause that's the luxury of being,
Speaker:I'm only going to call you semi-retired since you've got all
Speaker:this going on.
Speaker:So what do you do then when you're not around,
Speaker:do you have enough?
Speaker:Do you have someone who can fill orders?
Speaker:Are you,
Speaker:do you just delay?
Speaker:Well, what I did on my website for this point,
Speaker:I just said no orders through the month of January,
Speaker:I won't be able to fill any.
Speaker:So just left that message on my website.
Speaker:And I got a call as I was coming down from
Speaker:one of the retailers.
Speaker:And I just had to tell him,
Speaker:sorry, I'm not going to be around.
Speaker:I can't send you a dozen more or however many evermore
Speaker:you want for your store.
Speaker:So you'll just have to wait.
Speaker:The nice thing about being retired and having it as a
Speaker:sideline is what else are they going to do?
Speaker:Right. So,
Speaker:okay. So let's continue on.
Speaker:And considering that our listeners are all looking at probably growing
Speaker:and building their business,
Speaker:and you've had a lot of experience in terms of sales
Speaker:and marketing.
Speaker:And now you're applying a lot of that to your product.
Speaker:What was the next move after you got the product?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's working it's alive and well,
Speaker:you tested it at that first show to see that there
Speaker:was interest out there.
Speaker:What else did you do to get the word out?
Speaker:I started a website for one thing to get the word
Speaker:out that way.
Speaker:And that,
Speaker:and I had friends where I lived,
Speaker:as far as the retail side,
Speaker:I had a friend that worked at the local hardware store
Speaker:and I went by there and I says,
Speaker:take a look at this.
Speaker:See what you think.
Speaker:Is it something that would be worthwhile to you and tell
Speaker:you what I can sell them to you and see if
Speaker:you can make them the right amount of money.
Speaker:But the other key to the whole process was I really
Speaker:didn't need the money.
Speaker:Fortunately, my life's been good and I wasn't needing the cash
Speaker:so much as this.
Speaker:This was more about hobby or avocation.
Speaker:And so I decided I would donate some of the monies.
Speaker:Well, actually all the monies to some good cause.
Speaker:And so after being in the agricultural business all my life,
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:well, we're staying in food.
Speaker:Well, let's put it into the food bank.
Speaker:And so that's what I ended up doing.
Speaker:And that was another motivator for either retailers or customers to
Speaker:purchase the product because they knew it was going for a
Speaker:good cause as well.
Speaker:So there was a lot of winners involved in purchasing the
Speaker:product As well.
Speaker:U S made a lot of people.
Speaker:Now that's a big trigger too.
Speaker:And not Only us made made by you.
Speaker:Sure. Yeah.
Speaker:So really important point there too,
Speaker:is that this is a give back.
Speaker:And I know there are also a segment of people who
Speaker:are listening here,
Speaker:who are thinking about that.
Speaker:They're going to be done with what their lifetime career has
Speaker:been, but they're not done yet.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they either like business or they're doing crafting or that type
Speaker:of thing.
Speaker:So this idea of taking a portion of the profits or
Speaker:what you're saying in your case,
Speaker:almost all the profits and donating them,
Speaker:giving, paying them forward to something is very attractive to a
Speaker:buyer. So you feel like you're doing a lot for your
Speaker:case, the food bank and the consumer does as well.
Speaker:Well, in my case,
Speaker:it just basically turns out I'm spending my time and,
Speaker:and whenever it goes to the donations to the bank,
Speaker:but that's,
Speaker:to me,
Speaker:it's, that's other people's money.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I, that's not a problem because it doesn't cost me anything
Speaker:except for my time.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:a retired person,
Speaker:their time is all extremely valuable,
Speaker:but not worth anything,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and in case.
Speaker:So in that aspect,
Speaker:why I think it's just a good thing happening all the
Speaker:way around.
Speaker:Didn't I read somewhere that you said that you were paying
Speaker:yourself a dollar and a quarter.
Speaker:Well, I say that my brochure,
Speaker:I says the maximum I will ever take of that is
Speaker:what my wage was.
Speaker:Whenever I was a kid to bring back my youth,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it was like a dollar and a quarter an hour.
Speaker:As I remember growing up on the farm,
Speaker:that's what my dad paid me for cutting weeds out of
Speaker:the beans or whatever the job was on the farm.
Speaker:Actually, I'd never have taken that dollar and a quarter,
Speaker:but I've got the option to say,
Speaker:if things get tough,
Speaker:I w I can still pull that dollar in a quarter
Speaker:and not be lying to people.
Speaker:Okay. Or telling something that's not true.
Speaker:Well, and I'm quite sure the reward of doing this and
Speaker:the satisfaction is also huge payment for you.
Speaker:Certainly, certainly it's makes you feel good.
Speaker:And so that's great.
Speaker:Let's talk a little bit about the craft shows.
Speaker:Now you,
Speaker:this is besides the,
Speaker:I think maybe handful,
Speaker:maybe it's more of retail shops that you're in your favorite
Speaker:thing to do is going out to craft shows and flea
Speaker:market. How many do you do in a year?
Speaker:It has dwindled down somewhat,
Speaker:but I'll do maybe a half a dozen or so somebody,
Speaker:if they were interested in that trade could do one every
Speaker:weekend, probably,
Speaker:but I'm retired.
Speaker:I find it fun to go to a flea markets.
Speaker:Craft shows that venues seems to be the most fun because,
Speaker:well, you get to talk to a lot of people,
Speaker:somewhat. Whenever I used to do the flea markets,
Speaker:or when I do the flea markets,
Speaker:I even bring my golden retrievers shook and he probably gets
Speaker:more attention than I do,
Speaker:but I tell people that he's in charge of customer relations.
Speaker:And so they come by and pet him and he enjoys
Speaker:that. And he's worn out by the end of the day
Speaker:from being petted,
Speaker:everybody wins,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:Yeah. And I know because that's how I ran into you
Speaker:was at one of the craft shows actually right before the
Speaker:holidays and your booth.
Speaker:I didn't even know what you were displaying because there were
Speaker:so many people in your booth until I got closer as
Speaker:I was going down the aisle,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:okay, because I'm always looking for guests to know with interesting
Speaker:products, new stories and your booth.
Speaker:There were so many people I'm like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:what is that?
Speaker:Let's go find out.
Speaker:And there were so many people there.
Speaker:What do you do when you got a crowded group right
Speaker:around your booth?
Speaker:How do you manage and work with everybody?
Speaker:Well, the interesting thing I've found is marketing is if I
Speaker:can show the product in action that has tremendous impact on
Speaker:people and to actually visualize how they might utilize it in
Speaker:their home.
Speaker:Early on,
Speaker:I took several videos out my patio door of squirrels,
Speaker:trying to get at the bird feeder and bird setting on
Speaker:it. It's cetera.
Speaker:I put it together in like a two minute video,
Speaker:which I show on my website as well.
Speaker:And then there's a second video of just birds coming with
Speaker:nice serene music,
Speaker:but it's more like the squirrels making their various attempts to
Speaker:attack the bird feeder and failing people,
Speaker:get a big kick out of watching that.
Speaker:And there,
Speaker:they can see how it works.
Speaker:And then with a few small demonstrations of the features of
Speaker:the product,
Speaker:Y and then I tell them the closing thing is usually
Speaker:that, well,
Speaker:all the proceeds go to the food bank.
Speaker:So 50,
Speaker:60 people are going to get fed with each bird feeder
Speaker:sold. So if you're interested,
Speaker:why here it is not really.
Speaker:Don't have to put a lot of pressure on anybody to
Speaker:purchase it.
Speaker:And so it's just a lot of fun and they end
Speaker:up and the customer enjoys it.
Speaker:The funniest part is the,
Speaker:it's probably the funniest enjoyable.
Speaker:Two minutes they'll have particularly the husbands,
Speaker:if they were drug along with her wives or whatever that
Speaker:they'll have while they're shopping at the flea market,
Speaker:Really humorous,
Speaker:I have to say it,
Speaker:it is on the website.
Speaker:Gift is listeners.
Speaker:We're going to talk about the website at the end,
Speaker:and it's also going to be on the show notes page,
Speaker:but it is extremely entertaining.
Speaker:You should take a look at it for sure.
Speaker:A couple of things that Tom just mentioned in terms of
Speaker:working with the craft shows is product inaction action.
Speaker:And the video we've heard this before,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:when you hear about how to display and how to attract,
Speaker:especially if you have a new product that is going into
Speaker:a retail shop,
Speaker:any of those demo videos are really,
Speaker:really helpful for selling your product.
Speaker:And you're saying time,
Speaker:you just used your own camera,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:I may.
Speaker:I put the video together and I went to Dreamweaver and
Speaker:put the well,
Speaker:not Dreamweaver,
Speaker:but one of the,
Speaker:the movie sites that I could put the movie together and
Speaker:put sound to it and some sound effects and all of
Speaker:those kinds of things,
Speaker:just to make a low cost production movie for two minutes.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:low cost,
Speaker:but high value.
Speaker:Right. And that was fun in itself.
Speaker:Just making that and putting that together as well.
Speaker:Now, at this point,
Speaker:my experience with the bird feeder is I can't do any
Speaker:of those squirrels falling off videos very much because they're pretty
Speaker:smart animal.
Speaker:And so they don't even try anymore.
Speaker:So I don't have any of those action shots and I
Speaker:can, I can utilize.
Speaker:So, I mean,
Speaker:they learn and then they're then mission accomplished,
Speaker:Right? It's kind of a 10 step program for them.
Speaker:I think the other thing I want to bring up the
Speaker:Tom was mentioning in about in a craft show,
Speaker:but this could be really in any type of a purchase
Speaker:when you're talking to a customer and you're doing some type
Speaker:of give back.
Speaker:I really liked the way he phrases everything that says,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's $10 off of every purchase that goes to the food
Speaker:bank. And then he does the extension of that then feeds
Speaker:60 families.
Speaker:So when you're showing some type of a benefit for your
Speaker:product, if there's an further extension to it,
Speaker:that brings the point home even further.
Speaker:It makes sense to think through an,
Speaker:add that then to your conversation.
Speaker:Cause like you said,
Speaker:then it's pretty easy.
Speaker:People are ready to go,
Speaker:the wallet start opening and you're going to be making a
Speaker:lot more bird feeders.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:I'm, I'm making about as many as I want.
Speaker:The thing about it is when you're retired and you're doing
Speaker:this for the enjoyment of it,
Speaker:sometimes just so much enjoyments enough,
Speaker:It could easily flip a switch to being real stress.
Speaker:Certainly. And I just enjoy it.
Speaker:So that's where it's nice for me.
Speaker:If one was in business,
Speaker:obviously you want to grow your business as much as possible,
Speaker:and I'm just not interested in growing it much larger than
Speaker:what it is right now.
Speaker:I'm fine with where it is.
Speaker:I love that you say that too,
Speaker:because when we're entrepreneurs,
Speaker:it doesn't mean you always have to be bigger,
Speaker:larger, more money.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:certainly if you're doing this for lifestyle where you can be
Speaker:at home with your children or something like that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you have to make a certain amount of income,
Speaker:but there does come a point where it's no longer fun.
Speaker:You're no longer energized and passionate about it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:Tom, you've got the perfect situation because you can do as
Speaker:many or as few as you want.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's what retirement's all about.
Speaker:And I've had people say,
Speaker:well, you ought to go on shark tank,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and show this,
Speaker:you got the video and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:wait a minute,
Speaker:this is not suitable for shark tank because they want to
Speaker:make money.
Speaker:And I give all this money away.
Speaker:So they wouldn't be interested at all.
Speaker:Right. I mean in success has many Different looks,
Speaker:right? And this is success for you.
Speaker:You're giving back.
Speaker:So that makes you feel great.
Speaker:You clearly love making the feeders.
Speaker:I'm imagining you've got music going on in their work room
Speaker:or something,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:Oh, certainly I have my Cirrus on all the time with
Speaker:whatever music or radio program I might be interested in hearing
Speaker:fabulous Forward.
Speaker:I just want to ask you one more question,
Speaker:just drawing on the experience that you've had in the past.
Speaker:Are there any other suggestions or words of wisdom that you
Speaker:would give us in terms of sales and marketing when you
Speaker:have a new product coming to market?
Speaker:Well, let's see.
Speaker:Whenever you asked me for words of wisdom,
Speaker:that's one of the things,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I always thought it'd be nice to be wise,
Speaker:but I don't know that I'm there yet.
Speaker:So I guess the thing is to do the things that
Speaker:you enjoy doing is the key,
Speaker:because if you don't what you're doing in your business,
Speaker:why it's work and if you enjoy it,
Speaker:it's play.
Speaker:And so that's the biggest thing I could suggest to people
Speaker:that might be getting started in some type of adventure or
Speaker:adventure, whichever you want to call it is do the things
Speaker:that you enjoy and everything else will come together.
Speaker:If you're enjoying it,
Speaker:people will know that you're enjoying it and they will catch
Speaker:on and you'll do fine.
Speaker:Right. I think also if you're not enjoying it,
Speaker:you're not going to be able to keep with it for
Speaker:very long.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Okay. We're going to go now into our reflection section.
Speaker:And this is called look at you where people can kind
Speaker:of relate to whether they have the same traits or the
Speaker:same thought or that kind of thing.
Speaker:If there was one natural trait that you have,
Speaker:which has made you be successful in terms of putting this
Speaker:all together,
Speaker:what would that be?
Speaker:Probably a bit,
Speaker:got a good sense of humor,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:because Of watching the squirrels or what,
Speaker:well, Everything you gotta,
Speaker:you gotta just take stuff lightly enough and hopefully entertainingly enough
Speaker:to make it fun for you to do.
Speaker:And like I said,
Speaker:in my situation,
Speaker:that's one of the big things for sure.
Speaker:And being focused in what you want to do as far
Speaker:as what you're going to make or what you're going to
Speaker:sell or whatever the case may be.
Speaker:I've always enjoyed being with people.
Speaker:And a little bit of the edge of each one of
Speaker:those relationships is probably ground on seeing the funny side of
Speaker:life or just trying to be observant on things that maybe
Speaker:other people don't see Whole thing about it being observant too.
Speaker:That's how you identified the need to have a solution to
Speaker:the squirrel problem in the first place.
Speaker:Right? Well,
Speaker:that's true.
Speaker:You figure that well,
Speaker:like in my case,
Speaker:whenever I solved or partially solved my problem,
Speaker:or then it became,
Speaker:well, maybe some other people have that problem as well.
Speaker:And so maybe they'd be interested and then just kind of
Speaker:going on from there to making the product,
Speaker:as I said before,
Speaker:more affordable or more durable or find a new ways.
Speaker:The only thing that I have manufactured for the bird feeder
Speaker:itself is the tubes that I use for the major body,
Speaker:the bird feeder.
Speaker:And I use a PVC material that's clear and you're not
Speaker:going to find that kind of stuff in the hardware store.
Speaker:So I had to go to an extruder,
Speaker:a gentleman that was making those kinds of things and made
Speaker:it to the size that I needed.
Speaker:And so whenever I have a new order of tubing,
Speaker:why I am making a commitment for 800 more bird feeders.
Speaker:So that point in time is always critical because I have
Speaker:to ask myself,
Speaker:do you want to make 800 more of these suckers or
Speaker:not? And so I ordered a batch this fall,
Speaker:so I guess I'll be in the business for awhile.
Speaker:Well, that's good.
Speaker:I'm like feeling like I need to go order mine soon
Speaker:though, just in case I'm seriously,
Speaker:you're going to be seeing an order coming from me,
Speaker:but I know it's going to be delayed because you're in
Speaker:Florida golfing.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:It won't be till February,
Speaker:sometime. So just back off a little bit,
Speaker:relax and go from there In terms of balancing your retirement
Speaker:life with making the bird feeders,
Speaker:do you set out like certain days that you're going to
Speaker:make them,
Speaker:or do you have any set schedule or you just kind
Speaker:of fly free and just do what you need to do
Speaker:in the time?
Speaker:Well, weekends are used,
Speaker:see, during the summertime golf plays a big part of my
Speaker:life, I guess,
Speaker:because I live real close to a golf course and that's
Speaker:one of my retirement enjoyments.
Speaker:So I do a lot of that.
Speaker:And most of the actual sales occur as far as shows
Speaker:in the fall because of Christmas and holidays and that type
Speaker:of thing.
Speaker:And then again,
Speaker:around mother's day father's day,
Speaker:you got to think in terms of when people are looking
Speaker:for something that maybe they don't find,
Speaker:they don't know what to buy,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:for that grandmother or whoever.
Speaker:And so that's the time that this just kind of pops
Speaker:for, I guess you might say,
Speaker:because everybody has a squirrel story or grandma or grandpa or
Speaker:mom or dad,
Speaker:or whoever has had that problem.
Speaker:My neighbor,
Speaker:my friend,
Speaker:everybody ever,
Speaker:well, not everybody.
Speaker:Well, if you're a bird feeder person.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:So they've had a challenge.
Speaker:So that's what I try to zero in on,
Speaker:far as that time is concerned.
Speaker:Of course my significant other,
Speaker:my gal,
Speaker:Dorothy, she actually helps me build these things.
Speaker:And she's my best salesman because she can go to these
Speaker:craft shows and make it sound better than maybe what it
Speaker:is. I don't know,
Speaker:but she does a good job for me.
Speaker:So we spent a lot of time on weekends together,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So there's always something to fill the day.
Speaker:Yeah. You just kind of choose it as you need to.
Speaker:And except when you have the bigger orders that you,
Speaker:then you definitely,
Speaker:I probably still have that work ethic of Monday through Friday,
Speaker:you ought to be doing something productive that's in your brain.
Speaker:But so that is probably the major times that I do
Speaker:it. And I do it during the day from the most
Speaker:part, although sometimes you got to buckle down and work harder
Speaker:at it to meet the orders or meet the needs for
Speaker:the next coming show.
Speaker:Tom, is there a book that you've read either recently or
Speaker:in the past during your career that you think would offer
Speaker:some good advice to our listeners?
Speaker:Well, I've read a lot of motivational books in my career.
Speaker:I guess I did.
Speaker:And areas of trying to improve my capabilities,
Speaker:my skills,
Speaker:as far as sales and marketing,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:I just purchased the book,
Speaker:the undoing,
Speaker:trying to figure out what that was all about.
Speaker:That's the last book that I picked up and went through.
Speaker:So gift biz listeners,
Speaker:just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can also listen to audio books with ease.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to
Speaker:get a book for free on me if you haven't done
Speaker:so already,
Speaker:all you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make your selection.
Speaker:That's gift biz,
Speaker:book.com. Well,
Speaker:at this point,
Speaker:Tom, I would like to invite you to dare to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:I think what,
Speaker:what would be inside my box if I had a longer
Speaker:term goal,
Speaker:is that up to this point,
Speaker:I've figured out through the sales and what I've given to
Speaker:the food bank or what other people have given to the
Speaker:food bank through the squirrel away bird cafe,
Speaker:it's over 380,000
Speaker:meals that have been brought about because of this bird feeder
Speaker:and given to the hungry people that take advantage of the
Speaker:food bank.
Speaker:And I guess if I was looking at that gift,
Speaker:it would say a million meals.
Speaker:That would be the thing that would be a goal,
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:I don't know if I'll make that.
Speaker:If you get tired of,
Speaker:of doing something,
Speaker:I hope I don't get tired of it,
Speaker:but that would probably be in that box.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And honestly,
Speaker:the first thing I thought of when you just said that
Speaker:is definitely a business person,
Speaker:you're still thinking business because your goal is so specific,
Speaker:1 million nice round even,
Speaker:and specific,
Speaker:I could have said 1,000,002,
Speaker:I suppose,
Speaker:maybe that would have been more realistic.
Speaker:No, I like the million.
Speaker:Perfect, nice and clean.
Speaker:So gift biz listeners the best way I think for you.
Speaker:And I believe the only way you could see and,
Speaker:or order one of these,
Speaker:if you were interested is on the website,
Speaker:correct time.
Speaker:Well, unless you're in the Geneva area,
Speaker:the, the local hardware store carries them.
Speaker:They're the main retailer that handles the product.
Speaker:But online seems to be the way,
Speaker:or I try to put on my website and this shows
Speaker:that I'll be at.
Speaker:And most of those are in the Chicago land area.
Speaker:What is the website?
Speaker:It's squirrel proof.biz,
Speaker:nice and easy,
Speaker:right? And that has the videos on it.
Speaker:It probably got more information on the website about squirrel and
Speaker:squirrel proofing,
Speaker:your bird,
Speaker:feeder, et cetera,
Speaker:and so forth,
Speaker:then you'd ever want to know,
Speaker:but it's everything you need to know about.
Speaker:My business is on that website,
Speaker:along with phone and everything else,
Speaker:if you want to talk or emails,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:also that there'll be a show notes page attached.
Speaker:So if you are out and not able to capture the
Speaker:information right now,
Speaker:just jump over to your computer,
Speaker:get on the show notes page and you'll have all the
Speaker:information there.
Speaker:Tom, thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate all the information you've given us a little
Speaker:bit of a different view of how you can take a
Speaker:craft and really integrated into your retirement world and enjoy it.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you talk about fun and being happy and the humor and
Speaker:just doing this because of your love of creating and then
Speaker:also giving back.
Speaker:And it's just,
Speaker:it's a wonderful story.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate your sharing it with us today.
Speaker:And may your candle always burn bright.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
Speaker:you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift
Speaker:biz quiz to four four two,
Speaker:two, two.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
Speaker:next episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
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