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Ballsy Moves! From Idea to 7 Figures in 7 Months with Adam Hendle
Episode 6717th November 2021 • This Shit Works • Julie Brown
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Has an amazing idea ever come to you in the shower? Yes of course it has - that is when all great ideas come to us. BUT! Have you ever taken that great idea and turned it into a 7 figure business. I’m betting the answer is no. And that my friends is the difference between having an idea and acting on that idea. 

Welcome to Episode 67 where I am joined by Adam Hendle the founder of Ballsy on how he turned an idea into a multimillion dollar business in just 7 months. 

Drink of the Week: The Tainted Love Shot

https://www.topshelfpours.com/tainted-love-shot/

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson, a full-service branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency with team members in Boston, LA, Miami, and NYC. https://nickersoncos.com/

Julie Brown:

Website- ​https://juliebrownbd.com/

Instagram- ​https://www.instagram.com/juliebrown_bd/

LinkedIn- ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-brown-b6942817/

Youtube- ​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIwWVdayM2mYXzR9JNLJ55Q

Facebook- ​https://www.facebook.com/juliebrownbd/

Adam Hendle

Website: https://ballwash.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamhendle/

DISCOUNT CODE: JULIE20

sound/music by www.freesound.org/people/setuniman/


Transcripts

Julie:

Has an amazing idea ever come to you in the shower?

Julie:

Doug.

Julie:

Yes, of course it has.

Julie:

That's where all great ideas come to us.

Julie:

Well, Have you ever taken that great idea and then turned it

Julie:

into a seven figure business?

Julie:

And bedding.

Julie:

The answer is no.

Julie:

And that my friends is the difference between having an

Julie:

idea and acting on that idea.

Julie:

Welcome to episode 67 of this shit works.

Julie:

I'm your host, Julie Brown.

Julie:

And today I am joined by Adam handle.

Julie:

The founder of ballsy on how we turned your shower idea into a multimillion

Julie:

dollar business in just seven.

Julie:

Months.

Julie:

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

Julie:

A full service, branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency

Julie:

with team members and Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

Julie:

Visit them at Nickerson C O S.

Julie:

Dot com.

Julie:

The shower is the place we get the best ideas.

Julie:

I've already mentioned that, but those ideas aren't usually about.

Julie:

Showering.

Julie:

Let me explain.

Julie:

If you look at the shelves in your shower, how many of the products that

Julie:

line, those shelves and corners and suction cup baskets are made for women?

Julie:

99% of the products made for the shower are made for women.

Julie:

Men's products are usually relegated to two in one shampoo and conditioner

Julie:

combos, or a three in one products mean to clean you from head to toe with not

Julie:

a hint of difference between the skin on your face and the delicate skin.

Julie:

On your balls.

Julie:

I don't have my own balls.

Julie:

So I'm making an assumption that the balls are delicate with how much you guys cry

Julie:

over a mere graze to the nether region.

Julie:

For our guests today, this observation came at a time when he was actually

Julie:

looking for more high quality men's personal care products.

Julie:

Adam, an entrepreneur in e-commerce Wiz realized that there were no products

Julie:

specifically designed to tackle common below the belt issues such as sweat.

Julie:

Odor and chafing.

Julie:

His aha shower moment led not only to ballsy his first flagship product

Julie:

ball wash, but to a whole new niche in the men's grooming category.

Julie:

It's for the payer down there.

Julie:

So how did Adam take that moment of inspiration and turn it into a seven

Julie:

figure business in seven months?

Julie:

Let's find out how.

Julie:

Adam, welcome to the podcast.

Julie:

Yeah.

Adam:

Well, thank you so much, Julie.

Adam:

I really appreciate it.

Adam:

It's good to be here.

Julie:

Every great company has a founder story, a story describing how

Julie:

and why that company came to be and why it's different from other companies.

Julie:

I just hinted at your founders story, a moment of frustration and

Julie:

inspiration that you had in the shower.

Julie:

Can you elaborate?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

absolutely.

Adam:

So it was just, as you had to put it a shower moment.

Adam:

Aha.

Adam:

Idea about shower products.

Adam:

So, this was back in probably 2016.

Adam:

Now it's basically just looking around.

Adam:

So happened to notice on this day, how many different products my wife had.

Adam:

And again, it's like females, I've always had different products

Adam:

for different areas of the body.

Adam:

We're males have kind of been relegated to like value washes and just not

Adam:

very high quality, men's care items, especially, four or five years ago.

Adam:

And also around that time, I was seeking out some of these

Adam:

more high quality men's brands.

Adam:

but honestly they all felt just kind of lame to me.

Adam:

They were more like GQ, upscale, apothecary style brands and just,

Adam:

they weren't fun and inviting.

Adam:

And I.

Adam:

You know, basically we could take a bold, fun men's, brand pair that up

Adam:

with an area of a guy's body that has been overlooked for whatever reason.

Adam:

And, uh, ballsy was born.

Adam:

So in ball wash, like you said, it was, it was that kind of aha moment idea.

Adam:

The shower.

Adam:

I literally jumped out of the shot.

Adam:

Google search later to my surprise and delight, you know, no one had

Adam:

ever created a product called ball.

Adam:

And I was like, all right, I'm either onto something here or I'm absolutely insane.

Adam:

And that kind of started, the entrepreneurial journey and to figure

Adam:

it out and answering that question.

Adam:

And now, here we are four years later after launch and we've grown it

Adam:

substantially and it's been a, it's been quite the roller coaster ride.

Julie:

So, this is what sets you apart from most people, because I would

Julie:

have an idea like that in the shower.

Julie:

I'd be like, geez, there's nothing to wash my balls with.

Julie:

And then that would be it.

Julie:

I wouldn't create, a multimillion dollar company with it, but I'm

Julie:

assuming you didn't know the first thing about creating a product.

Julie:

So how do you go from, okay.

Julie:

I have zero experience creating., a product

Julie:

to actually formulating a product, like how does that happen?

Adam:

Yeah, that's a really good question.

Adam:

So honestly, my first thought was to go to YouTube and look up different,

Adam:

like how to make body washes.

Adam:

And that led me to whole foods and bite a bunch of essential

Adam:

oils and different ingredients.

Adam:

Trying to make my own wash out of the gate.

Adam:

And, uh, that was fun.

Adam:

But I quickly realized I am definitely a better writer entrepreneur than a chemist.

Adam:

And that put me on the path of finding somebody that was going to

Adam:

help me bring this idea to life.

Adam:

So I spent the next six or so months after that, finding different personal

Adam:

care manufacturers, calling them nine times out of 10, basically

Adam:

being not laughed off the phone.

Adam:

Um, I only had $5,000 set aside to launch this.

Adam:

And like that is laughable when it comes to launching an actual physical product.

Adam:

, but that's what I had set aside is like this small validation could

Adam:

I get a hundred to 500 units make and see what happens here?

Adam:

, Six months into it.

Adam:

I finally knocked on the right door and, it was a smaller, personal care brand,

Adam:

a manufacturer at the time that focused on a more natural products, family run.

Adam:

And within five minutes of the phone call, she was like, I'm

Adam:

in we absolutely love this idea.

Adam:

We talked to a lot of brands.

Adam:

We think there's something here and we'd love to be, a partner with you and

Adam:

scale it up with the budget that you.

Adam:

And that was kind of the first break and we spent the next, six months

Adam:

or so formulating that first person.

Adam:

As you kind of alluded to, I'm not Sure.

Adam:

I'd found that out firsthand.

Adam:

But I kinda knew what I wanted in the product and how I wanted to react and

Adam:

what, I don't want it to feel like smell like and those ingredients.

Adam:

And, um, we worked together, you know, uh, several rounds

Adam:

of formulation back and forth.

Adam:

And then about six months later, December of 2017, we

Adam:

launched ball wash to the world.

Julie:

So you've launched it just in time for Christmas.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

So we had 500 units.

Adam:

We actually, we launched a black Friday, and we sold out of those 500

Adam:

units that weekend and it was like,

Julie:

purely online?

Julie:

This is a online campaign that you designed.

Adam:

Yeah, exactly.

Adam:

So we launched it on a, at the time ball wash.com.

Adam:

We had two products at ball wash and then nut rub, which is a solid cologne,

Adam:

a beeswax based solid cologne, which is also great for below the belt.

Adam:

So we launched those two products, and as I mentioned, we sold out of,

Adam:

our initial batch of ball wash in the first 48 hours and was like, Okay.

Adam:

this is great.

Adam:

And this is also terrible because we have just entered into

Adam:

December here and we're sold.

Adam:

Um, So I called up our manufacturer and said, Hey, good, good and bad news.

Adam:

can you make me any more?

Adam:

And we ended up making and selling 15,000 units, in December

Adam:

of that year, uh, in 2017.

Adam:

And then we were kind of off to the races.

Julie:

So talk to me a little bit about how you're like, okay, this is the money

Julie:

I have to set aside to start a company.

Julie:

You know, my husband started his own company.

Julie:

I started my own company.

Julie:

I know how scary that is, especially when you're using your own money,

Julie:

which we did for both of our companies.

Julie:

So like $5,000 for people who don't know is just not a lot of money to start

Julie:

any business, let alone one, in which you're creating a product that has cells.

Julie:

Did you ever think about going out and getting outside investment money

Julie:

or was you, were you like breathing the sink or swim with this $5,000?

Adam:

I mean, so a little bit about a background on myself.

Adam:

Um, I've been involved in e-commerce startups and, startups in general

Adam:

for the past 10, 10 or so years.

Adam:

So over that time, I've basically gained a lot of different skills.

Adam:

From, copywriting to a label design, a website launch, like I

Adam:

really can do basically a to Z.

Adam:

So I knew all I needed to do with that money was get a product made.

Adam:

So I knew I didn't have to pay anyone, anything else for the rest of it.

Adam:

Um, so even so that was still a very small budget for it, but yeah,

Adam:

I wanted to see could I launch it, could I run a few ads and see what

Adam:

happened before we started scaling it up and then yeah, to your point after.

Adam:

When we sold 15,000 units, uh that's when I started to think, you

Adam:

know, should we raise some money for this and continue to grow it?

Adam:

So we went down that path and I say, we, because in jail January, I reached

Adam:

out to an ex co-workers name's Brock, where I worked at an e-commerce

Adam:

startup called store envy with Andy.

Adam:

I absolutely loved working with the guy and the day that I left store

Adam:

and he said, one day, we're going to work together on something else.

Adam:

Little did I know it was going to be, you know, uh, around balls.

Adam:

, but I brought him in in January and we basically spent all of 2018.

Adam:

Answering the question of was that just like a little spike and just kind of

Adam:

a holiday moment, or is this a brand that we can really sink our teeth into?

Adam:

So we worked on ballsy part-time again, I was at a different startup called FameBit.

Adam:

He was still at sworn VC and through an acquisition.

Adam:

, So we basically spent all of 2018 building that out.

Adam:

We edited a third product and we hit, uh, $8 million in our first full

Adam:

year and said, okay, let's, let's go ahead and take this full-time.

Adam:

And, and that's what we did in 2019.

Julie:

So you were afraid like maybe, oh, maybe this is like a novelty.

Julie:

People are just buying it for Christmas or Valentine's day or something like

Julie:

that, but it's not, it's a viable product that you are filling a

Julie:

void in the marketplace that maybe people didn't even know were there.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, we're creating a new category, you know, in the space and yeah, I

Adam:

mean, we definitely leverage gifting and, there is a novelty aspect to that.

Adam:

Like it gets that we can get into a little bit more, and How we use that in

Adam:

our marketing and our, we bootstrapped.

Adam:

Uh, but the thing I'll I'll note there is.

Adam:

At the end of 2018, when we're getting towards that age, a million dollars in

Adam:

revenue, I said, all right, let's go out and raise money and build out a team.

Adam:

And we started having conversations.

Adam:

We actually had a couple of offers on the table and, basically November it

Adam:

blew up and we said, you know what?

Adam:

Let's just do this ourselves.

Adam:

I think we can finance the inventory.

Adam:

my partner Brock knew somebody that, that does inventory financing loans.

Adam:

So we basically.

Adam:

Decided to continue to bootstrap it.

Adam:

And here we are in 2021, we've bootstrapped the whole way.

Adam:

We've never taken on any capital.

Adam:

And, and we've also grown the brands, uh, to the state with really only

Adam:

four full-time team members, three of which are my best friends.

Adam:

So.

Julie:

are you managing shipping?

Julie:

Like that sounds to me like, Ooh, like, I couldn't even imagine, like,

Julie:

especially with that first order of 500 where you were like, holy shit,

Julie:

now we have to ship this everywhere.

Julie:

Like, how did you manage that?

Julie:

Did you have systems in place for that?

Adam:

So the first, yeah, the first orders I shipped myself

Adam:

and yes, it was holy shit.

Adam:

This is not what I want to be doing Right,

Adam:

now.

Adam:

It was really exciting at first, like, uh, you know, like it doesn't like packing

Adam:

up those first orders and you're like, man, like these are going to people.

Adam:

I don't know this is incredible.

Adam:

Uh, but that quickly fades into.

Adam:

I cannot be spending my time doing this.

Adam:

That was fun for a moment.

Adam:

And our product manufacturer at the time said, Hey, we'd be happy.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

To help you with your fulfillment.

Adam:

Which worked out really good for the first two years, the

Adam:

business they made the products and then they would ship them out.

Adam:

Um, and then we basically got to a point where we outgrew what they could do.

Adam:

And then we've moved since then to, a three PL um, who does fulfillment for us.

Julie:

So let's talk a little bit about your advertising.

Julie:

Cause it is cheeky.

Julie:

It is fun.

Julie:

How are you?

Julie:

You relied heavily on social media, like Facebook groups and

Julie:

things like that your advertising.

Julie:

How did you decide that this is the w did you decide that, okay, this is

Julie:

where we think we will have the most impact in our advertising dollars.

Adam:

So the first ads we launched for black Friday were, uh, Facebook ads.

Adam:

I think I had about four different ad sets and three of

Adam:

them were targeted towards males.

Adam:

And one, I targeted towards females and I didn't really think too

Adam:

much about the female audience.

Adam:

I'm like, this is a male product or marketed towards males.

Adam:

And I just, wasn't thinking clearly about that.

Adam:

And lo and behold, the female audience.

Adam:

Was a quadruple the amount of row ads, the return on our

Adam:

ad spend that the males were.

Adam:

And I said, okay, no, this makes a lot of sense.

Adam:

Like once the light bulb hit, I was like, okay, okay.

Adam:

Well one, like it's a fun product for a female to buy for their guy.

Adam:

Um, in two, like they seemed to really latch onto the product story with the

Adam:

ingredients and then it's higher quality, you know, and it's natural as possible.

Adam:

And then the other part of that outside of just gifting is, you

Adam:

know, females and women buy a lot of these types of products in general.

Adam:

For their households.

Adam:

Uh, I'd always bought my own products.

Adam:

So I think it just kind of overlooked that, but I quickly realized that a lot

Adam:

of guys, the women in their life buy these products and to this date, you know,

Adam:

60 to 65% of our customers are female.

Adam:

So a larger majority.

Adam:

And then.

Adam:

Um, so that was a really eyeopening kind of light bulb moment early on.

Adam:

And then we've got to leaned into that and done, I think, a better, a better

Adam:

job of just speaking to two females.

Adam:

Whether it's in our retargeting with our emails or just in the copy of

Adam:

the ads themselves to be able to talk specifically to moms, for buying it

Adam:

for their teenage boys, going through puberty as this like fun way to say.

Adam:

Hey, you're going on with somebody down there, you know, there's something

Adam:

going on and it's like this awkward conversation, but, and this is probably

Adam:

not for all moms, but for, they came to us and they gave us this idea and

Adam:

they said, Hey, we're using these as puberty packs to talk to our boys

Adam:

during this like, awkward time where they can kind of laugh about it.

Adam:

But it's also like, Hey, like it's actually time to start thinking

Adam:

about like, taking care of

Julie:

it's so funny.

Julie:

Cause like I'm of the age where a number of my friends have teenage boys and all

Julie:

of the girls are like, my kids smells

Adam:

Yeah.

Julie:

bad.

Julie:

No, that's great.

Julie:

I hadn't even thought of that.

Julie:

But now, now that again, it's like the blaringly obvious is, are things that you

Julie:

miss sometimes, but that, that is perfect.

Julie:

Yeah.

Adam:

It, and again, I can't say that I had a master plan to,

Adam:

you know, market towards moms.

Adam:

I think honestly, we were a little bit more worried that.

Adam:

Moms might get upset about how bold our marketing is and flag it on Facebook,

Adam:

but we've never had any issues on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest in

Adam:

terms of, uh, balls as a category.

Adam:

And I think it's because we strike a certain balance between being bold,

Adam:

fun, and playful, but also being very professional and upscale and

Adam:

the way that we market our products, like, you know, something called.

Adam:

Ball washer and nut rub.

Adam:

There could be absolutely ridiculous looking.

Adam:

I mean, it's ridiculous sounding when you say it out loud, but like,

Adam:

if you look at the way that our labels are designed and our product

Adam:

photography is done, like I think.

Adam:

It gets people's attention on Facebook and Instagram.

Adam:

You'd be like, is that, does that say ball wash?

Adam:

Are we talking about balls?

Adam:

And then they click through and it's like, wow.

Adam:

This actually is a full men's brand that is like taking this seriously, even though

Adam:

balls are funny or as serious as it can.

Julie:

it's funny that you're like, oh, is this real?

Julie:

Because it leading up to us having this conversation, I sent your

Julie:

website to a number of my guy friends, and one of them wrote back.

Julie:

He's like, so this is a show, right?

Julie:

No, it's not a joke.

Julie:

It was like, he's like, I literally looked at it and he was like, she's kidding.

Julie:

She's like throwing me a joke right now.

Julie:

Like I was like, I'm not, so

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, it's something that we had to go against.

Adam:

I mean, balls for whatever reason have always been kind of funny.

Adam:

you know, like, you know, getting hit in the balls and you know, there's Always

Adam:

been, you know, Saturday night live skids about, you know, Pete and sweaty balls and

Julie:

Yeah.

Adam:

these things balls and just a

Julie:

Oh, no, it's fine.

Julie:

And I'm a golfer too.

Julie:

Do you know how many ball jokes we tell over the course of 18 holes?

Adam:

No doubt.

Adam:

No doubt.

Adam:

So yeah, I mean, we, we lean into that, Right.

Adam:

Because it is funny and it is shocking and you have to do something

Adam:

to stand out, especially now when like online advertising is getting

Adam:

more and more crowded, you need to turn heads, but Once we turn

Adam:

somebody's head, get their attention.

Adam:

Like it's really on us to tell a more in-depth story about why we've

Adam:

chosen the ingredients we have.

Adam:

We make everything in the us.

Adam:

Like it's a small, independent business that we're, you know, we

Adam:

really believe in product quality.

Adam:

And to get that across to customers is key.

Julie:

So it's funny.

Julie:

I was having dinner a couple of weeks ago with some, with a couple of friends.

Julie:

Um, one couple is, um, Todd and Joe, and then another couple Jeff and Sue.

Julie:

And I was mentioning that I was interviewing you because Todd listens

Julie:

to the podcast on his morning runs and Sue listens to it in the car.

Julie:

I don't think the others listened to it.

Julie:

And so Todd is so funny.

Julie:

He was like, wow.

Julie:

I want to ask Adam question.

Julie:

I said, okay.

Julie:

He goes, is the tank going to get any logs?

Julie:

I asked that question or I may I'll see how it goes.

Julie:

I'll see where the flavor of the conversation is.

Julie:

He goes, I think he's missing some spots back there.

Adam:

That's not that crazy of a question.

Adam:

We get people, asking all sorts of questions in that regard.

Adam:

But yes, the taint is covered.

Adam:

We like to say it's for your nuts buttoned body.

Adam:

So, uh,

Julie:

think he will die laughing when he hears this on his morning run.

Adam:

yeah, that's great.

Julie:

Now one thing I want to talk about, because I think it's super

Julie:

important is I know that giving and giving back is a big part of your company.

Julie:

so let's talk a little bit about, the things that you're involved

Julie:

in as a way to give back, because I think that's important that

Julie:

people know that about the company.

Adam:

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Adam:

So, um, we've had two programs.

Adam:

the largest one is our ball wash, give a SAC edition, which is a give back.

Adam:

But I think what's really important about that is that bottle on the back.

Adam:

Shows men how to check themselves for testicular cancer.

Adam:

And obviously one of the best places to do that is in the shower.

Adam:

There's a little illustration, like a 1, 2, 3 guide on how to check yourself.

Adam:

And then we do donate a portion of profits to the Movember foundation.

Adam:

So we partnered up with them last year.

Adam:

, we raised $75,000 and donated it to them, for testicular cancer awareness.

Adam:

So that's something that we started.

Adam:

Last April.

Adam:

And it just did so well that we decided in April is testicular

Adam:

cancer awareness month.

Adam:

We just decided that.

Adam:

It's something that we wanted to keep on all the time.

Adam:

So Yeah.

Adam:

that is a currently a program that we continue to run.

Adam:

And then, last year when, COVID was unfortunately, breaking in, we were able

Adam:

to make a hand sanitizer called flake Slayer, and we donated 25% of the profits

Adam:

to direct relief, which was for the people on the front lines, dealing with COVID.

Adam:

Um, so we raised.

Adam:

I can't remember off hand, but quite a bit of money through that as well.

Adam:

We'd like to give back when we can, we're obviously not in, not, you

Adam:

know, non-profit, but it feels good to give back and it's something that

Adam:

we believe in and will continue to do.

Julie:

No, I hadn't even thought about that.

Julie:

Women are always told, we're always told to check for breast cancer in the shower.

Julie:

You're in the shower check, but I never even thought like, oh,

Julie:

check the balls for bone cancer.

Julie:

Like for prostate cancer in the, in the shower.

Julie:

Um,

Adam:

Yeah, testicular cancer is the number one cancer for males.

Adam:

Um,

Adam:

so it's something that, you know, we overlook, even though it's hanging right.

Adam:

in front of us.

Julie:

Have you seen, competition in the space now that you've

Julie:

been out for your, what?

Julie:

Three years now, are you three years?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

We're going into gear here and yes.

Adam:

Um, honestly, it makes me proud because when we first started, it was

Adam:

a lot of like how this is funny guys.

Adam:

And now, you know, even when we've talked to retailers, Right.

Adam:

Like, wow, like here's the sales, we've done that.

Adam:

And they're blown away.

Adam:

They're like, Okay.

Adam:

this is just kind of this novelty thing.

Adam:

And now we're talking to major retailers who are talking about

Adam:

adding a balls portion to their, retail spread , as a new category.

Adam:

And I like to think of it as what beard care was like 10, 15 years ago.

Adam:

There weren't a lot of beard products.

Adam:

It wasn't a thing.

Adam:

And now like beard care is, a multi-billion dollar industry.

Adam:

I feel like balls.

Adam:

It's funny as it is to say, it's having a moment, it's been, viewed seriously.

Adam:

And with that, there's more competition coming into the end of the market.

Adam:

Just recently old spice released a line called below deck, and I've got

Adam:

to imagine, we were kind of on the radar as like, What's going on in

Adam:

this ball space, we need to test it.

Adam:

And then our biggest competitor is manscape they have more of a trimmer.

Adam:

They're focused more on the Grameen, we're on more of the personal care.

Adam:

but those guys have done a great job.

Adam:

But yeah, I mean, I think it just shows and strengthens the category as

Adam:

is bulkier is like a legitimate thing.

Adam:

That's going to be here and it's going to continue to grow, over the next few.

Julie:

You know, anybody who has ever seen me give a speech.

Julie:

I always talk about this article that was written that said all of the most

Julie:

successful people have one thing in common and that is a spouse or a partner

Julie:

who isn't is invested in their success.

Julie:

And I know I've heard a lot of interviews with you and you talk about

Julie:

how important it was, um, how much your wife helped you through starting

Julie:

the company and with different ideas and marketing and things like that.

Julie:

And I think that's a great story.

Julie:

So can you talk about that a little.

Adam:

No.

Adam:

I mean, I'm really glad you brought this up.

Adam:

Yeah, My wife, Leah has been one the biggest supporter ever, uh,

Adam:

to an incredible sounding board and perspective, obviously from

Adam:

the female side of the business.

Adam:

She's come up with some marketing ideas for us.

Adam:

One was our, we were trying to figure out how to market this for Valentine's day,

Adam:

because we didn't want it to be like, Hey, happy Valentine's day, your balls stink.

Adam:

You know, that's not a great job to get the big gift, but the idea of putting, a

Adam:

slogan on it that says I'm nuts about you.

Adam:

And then having, bulkier products in there is an endearing and fun thing.

Adam:

And she, said, Hey, like you should use a slogan and we did it.

Adam:

And it's been just an absolutely huge game changer for us.

Adam:

We're marketing towards Valentine's day.

Adam:

And then Yeah.

Adam:

outside of that, you know, it's always good to kind of check yourself and get

Adam:

a, female's perspective on like the way that we're marketing and our copy.

Adam:

And, she's been a great sounding board for that.

Adam:

She's also jumped in and customer support when, in the

Adam:

holidays, things are going crazy.

Adam:

And then the other just huge moment.

Adam:

Uh, that really changed everything for me was I mentioned I was at FameBit and

Adam:

we were going through an acquisition.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Google was purchasing us and this was right around the time that it was

Adam:

about to quit take balls and full time.

Adam:

And we've got a seven year old daughter, actually.

Adam:

He was five at the time.

Adam:

And, I came to her and I said, Hey, I want to take ballsy full time.

Adam:

I'm working at Google now, isn't this, the dream like it's so, you

Adam:

know, it's secure, it's a great job, great pay, great benefits.

Adam:

And I'm just going to quit that now and like work on this ball care business.

Adam:

And I was having a really hard time with this, even though the company was doing

Adam:

really well, but , I'm just not, I guess that risk, you know, I'm at that risk.

Adam:

, and she basically.

Adam:

Said, you're being an idiot.

Adam:

I don't care what happens if the company fails or not, but you need to do this

Adam:

and I'll be here for you no matter what.

Adam:

And that was all I needed to hear.

Adam:

And, I took both in full time and I couldn't be more

Adam:

grateful for, for her support.

Adam:

And it's a huge reason why we're why we are where we are today.

Julie:

Right.

Julie:

So I listened to a number of interviews, podcasts that you've been on since you've

Julie:

started and correct me if I'm wrong.

Julie:

But I do think I'm the first female podcast host that you've been on.

Adam:

I think you're a hundred percent correct?

Adam:

Broken the ground now, so hopefully, , there'll be more female podcasts.

Julie:

So what's next you have three products.

Adam:

We've got about 15 now.

Julie:

Oh, wow.

Julie:

okay.

Adam:

yeah, it was three at the end of 2018.

Adam:

, 2019, we added Bulgari, which is now our best selling product,

Adam:

which is a ball deodorant.

Adam:

it's basically a lotion that drives as a powder.

Adam:

Many guys in the past have used baby powder, for sweat

Adam:

and, chamber tea production.

Adam:

Which works good, but it's just hard to apply.

Adam:

It's super messy and cumbersome.

Adam:

So we've made basically a motion that drives the powder a lot easier to apply.

Adam:

so that product was launched in 2019.

Adam:

And as I said, it's our number one selling product.

Adam:

And then we said, People trust us with their balls.

Adam:

Will they trust us with other areas of their body?

Adam:

So we launched a shampoo or conditioner.

Adam:

And then this year we've moved into deodorant.

Adam:

So, uh, natural deodorant, face wash and face lotion.

Adam:

And then we've just got like a normal, moisturizing body wash as well, and

Adam:

then a few other ancillary products, but we're trying to say, you know, to

Adam:

get people in, like I said, with the balls, you trust us with your balls.

Adam:

Like we also make really good high quality men's care products

Adam:

for all areas of your body.

Adam:

, so w it's a one-stop shop now.

Adam:

And again, balls are always kind of our focus and what we'll always be known

Adam:

for, but, um, Balls are always our focus.

Adam:

We're, we're a balls first cipher company here.

Adam:

Um, but Yeah.

Adam:

so we started to launch other products and, they've done pretty well.

Julie:

So if people want to learn more about your product, purchase

Julie:

your product, it's ballsy.com.

Julie:

Correct

Adam:

It's ballsy brands.com, palsy brand or ball wash.com.

Adam:

We have both of

Julie:

a link to, I mean, just Google ballsy ball.

Adam:

ballsy comes up.

Adam:

Yeah, it Google it.

Julie:

get there.

Julie:

Thanks so much.

Julie:

This was great.

Julie:

This is a great conversation.

Adam:

Yeah, I appreciate It too.

Adam:

It's really great to be on.

Adam:

And, I appreciate the time and I hope it was valuable.

Julie:

It was, it was for me, I I'm sure.

Julie:

, women who are listening, who are like, what am I going to get?

Julie:

My husband, boyfriend, whatever for Christmas are like check done.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, we, we do, uh, a lot around gifting.

Adam:

We've got basically, it's called gel that the jolly Juul sack pack

Adam:

says, keep your Juul jolly on it.

Adam:

And then it comes with a matching set of books.

Adam:

So

Julie:

Well, I grew up being called the family jewels for so long.

Julie:

There you go.

Julie:

Keep your jewels chocolate.

Julie:

Yeah,

Adam:

jolly,

Julie:

my name being Julie and people calling me Juul as I was called the

Julie:

family jewels growing up all the time.

Julie:

So maybe I need my own box.

Adam:

Well, I'll make up a discount code too.

Adam:

I'll just call it Julie 20 and that's 20% off for

Julie:

Okay.

Julie:

I'll put that in the, yeah, I'll link to that in the show notes as well.

Adam:

All right.

Adam:

Great.

Julie:

Perfect.

Julie:

This was great.

Julie:

Thanks so much.

Adam:

Thanks so much.

Adam:

I appreciate it.

Julie:

Well didn't we just have some good clean, fun on this

Julie:

episode, Adam really hit the ball out of the park with his product.

Julie:

Didn't he?

Julie:

Listen.

Julie:

You don't know how funny balls are.

Julie:

It's probably because you have never responded to a vaguely

Julie:

phrased question with the answer.

Julie:

Deez nuts.

Julie:

It bunny.

Julie:

Adam put all the pieces together on this, a great idea that he actually

Julie:

acted upon to create a terrific product that he coupled with clever marketing

Julie:

to fill a void in the marketplace.

Julie:

Now.

Julie:

Back at that dinner with my friends that I mentioned in the episode, we had

Julie:

a great time coming up with suitable drink ideas for this week's episode.

Julie:

And Todd, who I mentioned found one that I actually wanted to try.

Julie:

and now we will all be drinking on friends giving next week.

Julie:

It's called.

Julie:

Tainted love shot.

Julie:

Get it.

Julie:

Okay.

Julie:

Because of the team.

Julie:

Don't make me explain what the chain is.

Julie:

Okay.

Julie:

Here's what you're going to need.

Julie:

One part Irish cream, one part tequila rose, one part

Julie:

grenadine and whipped cream.

Julie:

For garnish.

Julie:

So what you're going to do is you're going to layer the Grenadines tequila

Julie:

rose and the Irish cream and in a shot glass in a tall shot glass.

Julie:

You do this by pouring each one evenly on top of each other.

Julie:

So starting with the Grenadier, then pouring the tequila rose

Julie:

over the back of a spoon.

Julie:

So it creates a layer on top of the grenadine and then doing that same thing

Julie:

with the Baileys on top of the tequila rose you top that with whipped cream and

Julie:

the recipe calls for pink sugar sprinkles.

Julie:

If you've got that, use them.

Julie:

If not, don't worry about it.

Julie:

And that's the tainted love shot.

Julie:

All right, friends.

Julie:

Don't forget to subscribe.

Julie:

And if you have a moment, please do leave a review on iTunes that I know

Julie:

what you like about the podcast.

Julie:

also don't forget your 20% off code.

Julie:

If you're interested in going to ballsy.

Julie:

And ordering anything it's julie 20.

Julie:

so you've got that going for yourself right now

Julie:

until next week.

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