00:00:00 ◼ ► Welcome back to State of the Workflow. My guest this time is Simone Yetch. Simone is an inventor who I first came across many years ago making truly wild projects on YouTube, and she has since gone on to create her own product studio, Yetch Studio. I really respect the work that Simone does and also how well she communicates what she makes and what she is interested in. On this episode, I wanted to follow Simone's journey for how one of her ideas becomes a physical thing.
00:00:28 ◼ ► I want to look at the systems and the processes that she has in place to go from an idea to reality. I really hope you enjoy this episode.
00:00:37 ◼ ► Simone, I want to get started by asking, what do you consider to be the most important device that you use to get your work done?
00:00:46 ◼ ► I mean, it's hard to compete with a computer, as boring as that is, but in terms of tools in my workshop, I would probably say my laser cutter for rapid prototyping.
00:01:00 ◼ ► Yeah, no, I figure it's such a boring answer where you're like, okay, but if I actually could only pick one thing, obviously it would be my computer.
00:01:12 ◼ ► Why a laser cutter? Like what makes that better than say like a 3D printer or something for people like me who don't really know exactly what you would do with it?
00:01:20 ◼ ► I mean, a 3D printer is great, but the end product that you're going to get, depending on your 3D printer, is still going to be plastic.
00:01:27 ◼ ► And I don't like plastic things, but what's cool with the CNC and with the laser cutter is you can make things out of wood or even metal.
00:01:40 ◼ ► So I often will make CAD models of things or collaborate, especially for when we're doing product development.
00:01:46 ◼ ► I'll make CAD model of a project and then we'll use the laser cutter or the CNC to make physical prototypes of it.
00:01:54 ◼ ► I mean, a lot of people who build stuff have very different processes and will like start doing things with hand tools.
00:02:01 ◼ ► And for me, it's always like, no, I want to figure it out first before I start prototyping.
00:02:20 ◼ ► So before we jump into the big topic of this episode, which is the deep dive on your workflow,
00:02:40 ◼ ► It's more than a store, which is why we changed it from being called Yet Store to Yet Studio,
00:02:53 ◼ ► I didn't want it to just be slapping logos on existing products or selling merch with my face on it.
00:03:15 ◼ ► One of it was wanting to build a way out of doing a YouTube channel, you know, or like the influencer business.
00:03:48 ◼ ► And that really made me rethink the business structure of running an influencer business,
00:03:57 ◼ ► And I don't want to live with that pressure, both from a health perspective, but also just from an emotional perspective.
00:04:04 ◼ ► Like, I don't want to have 30 employees and knowing that if I need to go on a mental health break, for example, then they might lose their jobs.
00:04:21 ◼ ► But this is, I think, it's becoming evident to anybody who enjoys or pays attention to YouTube culture.
00:04:29 ◼ ► This is becoming more and more prevalent of like, what is the quote unquote real business that the YouTube has set up?
00:04:39 ◼ ► Like people creating some kind of thing, whether it is a branded goods for somebody else or something completely kind of created from the beginning.
00:04:52 ◼ ► Like these are real products made by people that know what they're doing and they're original, right?
00:05:00 ◼ ► And I mean, one of the reasons I really didn't want it to be merch is, I mean, one thing, I'm not really interested in making merch.
00:05:10 ◼ ► Like I wanted our customer base to not solely be fans of me because then I'm still just building this thing that depends on me and the like relationship you have with your audience.
00:05:23 ◼ ► With that said, I have reluctantly realized that the best marketing asset we have is still me.
00:05:39 ◼ ► But then we're like, no, we have a founder that can talk in a somewhat engaging way about the products.
00:06:02 ◼ ► Like when you're talking about the fear of like, what if I can't be around for a while?
00:06:05 ◼ ► Like you're not launching new products on a weekly basis like you might have needed to do with influencer content.
00:06:17 ◼ ► But yeah, it's been a funny realization where I was like, this was exactly what I wanted to get out of.
00:06:21 ◼ ► But if that's the price I pay to get to make products and like run a design studio, then I'm happy to pay it.
00:06:35 ◼ ► And I think a great example of this would be the Coat Hinger because it touches on everything, even from like going to Kickstarter and stuff like that, which I know not all of your products would do.
00:07:07 ◼ ► I mean, the funny thing is that the robots and the products kind of come from the same starting problem of finding little inconveniences in my everyday life and being like, how can I do this in a different way?
00:07:26 ◼ ► And then for Yet Studio and for my YouTube channel now, it's more like, how can I solve this differently or in a way that I haven't seen before?
00:07:35 ◼ ► But I mean, for me, a lot of it, honestly, it's just looking at the objects in my house and being like, what do I wish that this object could do that it's not currently doing?
00:07:46 ◼ ► And kind of trying to add functionality to everyday objects without taking away from their like core function.
00:08:06 ◼ ► And it's like the clothes that are, they're supposed to be there because I could wear this T-shirt another time.
00:08:12 ◼ ► I should not fold these pants and put them back into the drawer because then they'll start getting stinky or whatever.
00:08:24 ◼ ► And I really like the idea of like, instead of designing for the perfect day where you have no clothes on your chair, like design for the normal day.
00:08:36 ◼ ► And instead of trying harder, just be like, oh, can I actually incorporate this into a piece of furniture design and make it not look messy?
00:08:44 ◼ ► So I made this chair that basically has like a lazy Susan rail that you can pull forward, hang those clothes on and then kind of tuck it behind it.
00:08:53 ◼ ► So that's just like looking at an eyesore in my bedroom and being like, oh, is there a way I can do this differently?
00:09:34 ◼ ► So it's like, basically, you push the bread out, you cut it, you have like a little built in knife, and then it just takes it to a toaster.
00:10:39 ◼ ► Like what about that idea where you were like, not only am I going to make this, I'm going to
00:10:46 ◼ ► Like what is the thing in those ideas that makes you feel like, yes, this is a product?
00:10:57 ◼ ► So you can put your clothes on it and then fold it in half so that it hangs half of the
00:11:02 ◼ ► So if you have like a really shallow wardrobe or a narrow hallway where you can't fit a
00:11:12 ◼ ► That one was a little bit different because as soon as I had the idea, I saw the product
00:11:18 ◼ ► potential and we didn't make any content about it until we released it because I was also like,
00:11:39 ◼ ► But usually the way it happens is that I make a YouTube video, but then we also see the reception
00:12:06 ◼ ► But yeah, I just thought it was one of those things where I was like, oh, I love these.
00:12:21 ◼ ► I remember we started working on it and I almost immediately roped in my engineer, Stu.
00:12:26 ◼ ► And we worked on it over Christmas and just kept on making so many different versions and
00:12:35 ◼ ► So we were just really like it's almost like you get a brain bug and you can't let it go.
00:12:51 ◼ ► When you're in that kind of initial phase where you're trying to choose how you think it might
00:12:57 ◼ ► look, I have no doubt that you jump straight to a level of design, which I want to get to.
00:13:09 ◼ ► Do you have any kind of places that you look or do you tend to go from your heart, your mind, like what you want to do?
00:13:27 ◼ ► So, for example, I made a version of a mechanical fruit bowl and we're working on a redesign of it.
00:13:33 ◼ ► And then it's like I need to choose the materials for it and kind of the shape and the form.
00:13:43 ◼ ► And I'll definitely scroll for inspiration, but not so much for product ideas, because also I want the things to be something that you haven't seen before.
00:13:53 ◼ ► So, once I have an idea, then I'll scroll and be like, okay, has anybody else made something like this?
00:14:05 ◼ ► I really love having design books because it makes me feel like a professional, but I almost never open them.
00:14:29 ◼ ► So, it depends on the complexity, but usually the way it will happen is I will make a really bad sketch in my notebook and then I will hold it up to the webcam and talk it through with my engineer, Stu.
00:14:48 ◼ ► And we will start trying to talk about how this is going to work, especially if it's something that we're developing into a product because design from manufacturing, he's the one who makes the final models and all the engineering documents and everything.
00:15:06 ◼ ► I call him my rock tumbler because sometimes I'll throw out something really crude and he mulls it over and he's like, what if we did it like this?
00:15:22 ◼ ► So, I recently made a project that's a coffee table and I kind of had an idea of the mechanism and then I made a prototype in plywood just to kind of verify the measurements and the height of it and the way that it functioned.
00:15:37 ◼ ► And then, based on that, I sent measurements to him and he started making a model in Fusion 360.
00:15:47 ◼ ► Would you try and build these things on your own first just so you can get a feel for them?
00:15:51 ◼ ► Even the manufactured products, like you would have your own version before you would send them to a manufacturer for a sample?
00:15:59 ◼ ► So, usually, the way it happens is that I make a YouTube version that I'll build on my own, often design on my own and do everything.
00:16:22 ◼ ► And then, we present what we think is a golden article with a bunch of caveats of, like, this needs to be manufactured in this way and all the engineering documents.
00:16:36 ◼ ► So, we have suggested manufacturing processes and it's a collaborative effort with your manufacturer or with your factory to be like, okay, what tools do you have?
00:17:01 ◼ ► And then, it's kind of back and forth until we have a product that we think is good enough.
00:17:22 ◼ ► And, I mean, we're really lucky because one of our teammates, Avis, who actually used to be my accountant, she's now my head of manufacturing because she's from Hong Kong but lives in Australia.
00:17:40 ◼ ► And she just started asking around and has now taught herself so much about manufacturing and supply chains.
00:17:48 ◼ ► I mean, we have dozens of factories that we work with because every product requires multiple factories.
00:17:55 ◼ ► And she has relationships with them and will, like, sit through dinners with our 3PL and do all these things.
00:18:02 ◼ ► I think initially something that was tricky was that we kind of ended up using our factories as an R&D department.
00:18:16 ◼ ► And now we try to make sure that we have the way that we want the product to function and look fully fleshed out.
00:18:26 ◼ ► And then the only thing that we're feedbacking is how they've kind of brought that design to life.
00:18:56 ◼ ► But, like, we really need to have a very clear idea of what we want the product to be before we ask a manufacturer to make a sample.
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00:20:58 ◼ ► It's usually not that hard, except for the latest product that I released, which was a baseball cap that's made completely out of hook-and-loop fabric, so Velcro.
00:21:26 ◼ ► There was like one day, like two weeks before we're going to launch it, she's like, hey, you guys, I think Velcro is a trademark.
00:21:41 ◼ ► So anybody who bought one is going to get a box that says Velcro cap, but please don't alert.
00:21:50 ◼ ► So that one was really tricky because it's like usually the names, we want them to be very descriptive or, yeah, like all of our names are really descriptive.
00:22:01 ◼ ► But for that one, like the most descriptive name, you could give a baseball cap that's fully made out of Velcro is Velcro cap.
00:22:15 ◼ ► We do this meetup every month, and I pulled the attendees to see like, oh, what do you want to be called?
00:22:42 ◼ ► Like once you've gotten the story out and people understand what it is, you could call it anything.
00:22:57 ◼ ► I mean, a name is one of the ways you can explain what a product is, but you have a lot of other ways that you can explain what the product is.
00:23:24 ◼ ► I think that's one of the tricky things with Yet Studio is that all of our products, like they're unique and do something that you don't expect them to do.
00:23:41 ◼ ► You know, like the coffee table I was mentioning, what's different about it is that it mechanically you can switch between it being a coffee table and an ottoman.
00:24:00 ◼ ► And like as somebody who goes on your homepage and only sees a little square of it, then how do you explain what that is really clearly?
00:24:10 ◼ ► And I think in some way, it's like the way I started my career has helped with that, because initially when I was making robots, I would just make GIFs.
00:24:24 ◼ ► And it kind of trained me to like, how do you make a product that's novel, but easy enough to explain that you can explain it in like five second looping video without audio?
00:24:39 ◼ ► And I think the thing I always tell myself is like, nobody's going to care that it also has Bluetooth.
00:25:06 ◼ ► When you don't always, so there are some instances where you feel like that is the right move.
00:25:14 ◼ ► So for the first product, the Everyday Calendar, now known as the Everyday Goal Calendar, speaking of names, was, I think it really made sense.
00:25:26 ◼ ► I didn't have an existing infrastructure for making products and I needed initial funding for it.
00:25:37 ◼ ► So for me to kind of expense all the stock, like I just didn't have the money to do it.
00:25:44 ◼ ► There's kind of no way that someone could go from zero to being able to sell that product.
00:25:52 ◼ ► Essentially, you would every day, you touch a day number and it will illuminate to show that you've completed whatever it is your goal is.
00:26:06 ◼ ► And I don't think I understood how ambitious it was, but which is, yeah, the blessing of being a novice.
00:26:12 ◼ ► So yeah, I think for that was probably the only way I could do it was through Kickstarter.
00:26:18 ◼ ► Because also just the thought of like fully developing this product to finish, but also buying up stock to then sell.
00:26:30 ◼ ► And I also thought that from a marketing perspective, it's better to do a Kickstarter campaign.
00:27:03 ◼ ► But I mean, that was definitely my fault for being a beginner and having bitten off more that I could chew without realizing.
00:27:17 ◼ ► The issue of the creator and the backer of like, I don't think it matters whatever Kickstarter will attempt to do.
00:27:27 ◼ ► But then after I'd done that, I kind of swore off ever doing Kickstarter again, because if there's anything that makes your anxiety go absolutely rampant, it's having people have paid $300 for a product that is running late and that you're still not fully sure it's going to work.
00:27:47 ◼ ► You know, what happens if somebody hangs it in the bathroom or does all these other things?
00:27:54 ◼ ► And I'm assuming at the same time, not to bring your anxiety back, but like you're spending the money, right?
00:28:21 ◼ ► And as somebody who really, really cares and is terrified of disappointing people, it's not a nice position to be in.
00:28:29 ◼ ► But then we had the coat hinder and I was once again in the same position where I was like, yeah, we could kind of do this.
00:28:39 ◼ ► But also, I think the reason I decided to do Kickstarter was because I was like, I feel like it's a better marketing vehicle.
00:28:48 ◼ ► Like a lot of news outlets will write about Kickstarter and crowdfunding campaigns, but they're not really going to write about like, oh, somebody released this product on a store.
00:29:00 ◼ ► I'm not really sure what it is about Kickstarter that makes people want to write about it in the way that they wouldn't in other ways.
00:29:13 ◼ ► But I don't understand inherently why here's a thing you could spend money on and maybe get is more newsworthy than you can get this thing now.
00:29:26 ◼ ► I think if I was a bigger corporation, then you could probably do a big marketing blitz and make people write about it.
00:29:36 ◼ ► But then also what you don't take into account, because the coat hinger did amazing with organic marketing.
00:29:45 ◼ ► I think it has like over 100 million views for like an Instagram reel that I made, which is crazy.
00:30:05 ◼ ► But what you don't take into account is that the cost to get people to buy into a Kickstarter is a lot higher than the cost to get people to buy a product that they're going to get in like a week or two.
00:30:19 ◼ ► So it's like, yeah, we could put a bunch of marketing through raising money to our Kickstarter campaign, but it's going to be a lot easier to convince people to spend money once it's a product that we have in stock with reviews.
00:30:29 ◼ ► So we actually got to a point with the Kickstarter campaign where we're like, we're not going to do any paid marketing because it doesn't make sense to be spending money to convince people to do this when it's going to be cheaper to convince people to do this in a couple of months once we have it in stock.
00:30:47 ◼ ► If you're going through the Kickstarter process, I expect it kind of, it refines the way that you talk about the product much more by the time that you end up getting there.
00:31:00 ◼ ► And it also gives you an opportunity to connect more deeply with your customers and for them to feel a part of the process.
00:31:08 ◼ ► But, I mean, with that said, I think we're still struggling to figure out how to market the Coat Hinger.
00:31:32 ◼ ► And it's really high quality and, like, it's a beautifully engineered product, if I may say so myself.
00:31:37 ◼ ► But people are really reluctant to spend that amount of money on coat hangers because they compare it to standard coat hangers, which is like, we can't compete to that or to the price of that because it does stuff that standard coat hangers can't do.
00:31:50 ◼ ► And it's just different, but also because it requires people to reconfigure their closet.
00:32:04 ◼ ► But then also, we immediately, I think it was, like, two weeks maybe before copycats started popping up that are, like, all plastic, terrible quality, and who, like, stole our images initially but then switched it out for their own bad AI-generated ones once they'd figured out what their version of it was going to be.
00:32:34 ◼ ► It's the eternal struggle of being able to try to explain to your potential customers why a higher quality product is better.
00:32:42 ◼ ► Yeah, and I think it's just tough because I often feel as well that there are a lot of brands who are, like, tooting their own quality horn or they're like, yeah, you're getting this for exclusive.
00:33:08 ◼ ► And we're literally running the business in a way that the goal is just for it to be successful enough and us to earn enough money that we can keep on doing this.
00:33:17 ◼ ► Like, that's the entire stated goal of the business is, like, I just want to make sure that we make enough money that we can keep on doing this.
00:33:32 ◼ ► Like, I want them to pay for the product and to support somebody who's doing it independently.
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00:35:23 ◼ ► So you mentioned the understandable stress of a Kickstarter campaign closing and then the time period until it delivers.
00:35:52 ◼ ► And it's usually we try to only buy the amount of stock that we know that we can afford.
00:35:58 ◼ ► Another example is that August 7th, we released the spool table, which is a really expensive product to make.
00:36:15 ◼ ► So it's still an amount of stock that I know that even if that like ended up rotting on the branch, I could take the impact of that cost.
00:36:24 ◼ ► But, you know, right now I'm more just terrified of like, what happens if the packaging doesn't hold up?
00:36:53 ◼ ► Both from like a shipping perspective, but also just like we have three different colors.
00:37:14 ◼ ► But I think what I fall back on, you know, I used to be really, really terrified of any customers being upset.
00:37:29 ◼ ► Like we're deciding to lower the price of one of our products because we actually have enough margin on that one.
00:37:36 ◼ ► And for the customers who bought it at full price, we're going to send them gift cards with the like price difference.
00:37:45 ◼ ► So like we're really going above and beyond to make sure that people are having a good experience.
00:37:54 ◼ ► But then some people will be upset that we had this customer that was upset and wanted a refund because they had ordered a puzzle and they said that the box was messed up, which absolutely if the puzzle box is messed up, you should get a refund.
00:38:18 ◼ ► And we were like, OK, actually, if the shipping box successfully delivered the product intact, we're going to have to count that as a successful shipping.
00:38:47 ◼ ► I mean, some of them for our more complex products, we do a lot of design to the shipping boxes because it has to like securely hold it.
00:39:33 ◼ ► It's honestly I ended up making a post there just the other day because I'm like, I'm so scared to look at it because it's like walking into a room of people talking about you.
00:39:52 ◼ ► And I mean, I'll hear about it on a higher level and I'll be on our customer support Slack channel and check that.
00:40:07 ◼ ► But for kind of my mental health and focus, it's like, yeah, I know that we're dealing with it the best we can, but I don't need to be in all of it.
00:40:34 ◼ ► And I think I have somehow just been algorithmically blessed with really nice comment sections.
00:40:44 ◼ ► Like I have not gotten any like hate campaigns against me or people being really vile in a way that feels like they're really trying to get to me.
00:40:58 ◼ ► But yeah, and honestly, I don't think I could be on the Internet if it was rougher than that because I am so scared of people being angry with me.
00:41:09 ◼ ► I mean, that's like my anxiety loop in my personal relationships as well, where I'm like, oh, my God, is my mom angry with me?
00:41:44 ◼ ► Not wanting to be disliked and really wanting to be liked is two sides of the same personality trait, I think.
00:42:05 ◼ ► I feel like I've just developed a really good way of relating to work and kind of leaving it at the end of the day.
00:42:21 ◼ ► And yeah, of course, sometimes things will get to you and you'll carry it with you in your body.
00:42:38 ◼ ► And I think honestly being sick really helped because I was really sick and I was forced to rest and kind of step away.
00:42:45 ◼ ► And it helped to reprogram what it means to be good because before being good was constantly working and pushing myself really hard.
00:42:53 ◼ ► And when you're recovering from an illness, being good is really listening to your body and making sure that you have enough time to rest and take care of yourself.
00:43:11 ◼ ► And I think also it's like just knowing that me enjoying my work is really important for the success of the business.
00:43:20 ◼ ► And if I stop enjoying what I'm doing, then the quality of the projects that I do is really going to suffer.
00:43:32 ◼ ► Like it is my job to make sure that I take good enough care of myself that I'm actually enjoying it because I need to enjoy it to do it well.
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00:45:40 ◼ ► We've touched on marketing a little bit because I guess it is a thread that runs through a product's entire life.
00:46:06 ◼ ► I did all the concepts and stuff because there's a very specific voice that I wanted to be in and a specific feel where it's like we're fun and playful, but at the same time, like, have a lot of respect and reverence for our products.
00:46:40 ◼ ► I mean, we've started doing more of the, like, retention marketing or where it's like, you have an abandoned cart, which is maybe not the most exciting stuff.
00:46:57 ◼ ► So we made a sexy calendar, like, kind of like a fireman calendar before our everyday goal calendar.
00:47:02 ◼ ► And it's just photoshopped, like, parts of, like, the everyday calendar as a firefighter, as a construction worker, as a pool boy.
00:47:31 ◼ ► So that's a huge relief that there's somebody who can, like, kind of hold the voice of the brand better than I can.
00:47:38 ◼ ► And then for all of our content, I have my head of content, Anna, and then my editor, Billette, are doing a lot of our, like, Instagram reels and doing all the shoots and the product photography and all of that.
00:47:58 ◼ ► And then earlier this year, I hired a chief operating officer who's taken over a lot of the logistics of the company and just, like, is the one putting together our town halls and, like, the company-wide emails that are, like, this is what our numbers were.
00:48:15 ◼ ► And now I'm at a point where I have time and I'll be, like, on a Wednesday looking around being, like, oh, what should I do today?
00:48:28 ◼ ► I guess I should tinker or, like, think of a new project, which is a very new position for me to be in because before it was, like, to get the ball rolling, it was all me having to push it.
00:48:41 ◼ ► And it's, like, I am really stoked and proud of that because it's kind of the future that I imagined for myself and that I hope to build.
00:48:54 ◼ ► You mentioned that the team was four, but it sounds like more from the way that you're describing it.
00:49:04 ◼ ► And then two that are splitting their time between the product business and the media business, so the YouTube channel and the influencer stuff.
00:49:16 ◼ ► Some contractors, but mostly, yeah, the marketing, the guy who writes our emails is a contractor.
00:49:57 ◼ ► So I know Avis gets up really early for, like, our dev meetings with Stu, my engineer, and me.
00:50:05 ◼ ► And I think what's nice about it is that I do want my workshop to be a bit separate because we're also filming content there.
00:50:14 ◼ ► So, like, I can't have too many people in there because it's kind of this space that we need to have set up for shooting videos and for doing stuff.
00:50:21 ◼ ► And also, I don't want too many people looking at me as I'm doing stuff, ironically enough.
00:50:32 ◼ ► And then, like, that's the size of the company I want because then I can still know everybody's name and what they're doing.
00:50:48 ◼ ► This is the benefit of being in the time that we're in to create a business like this because you don't need to employ warehouse stuff.
00:50:56 ◼ ► You know, there are so many parts of a business which you don't need to fully control and you also don't have to anymore.
00:51:11 ◼ ► And then you can bring in a company that can help you place ads on Instagram and, like, they can do that.
00:51:18 ◼ ► And, like, that is what makes it possible for, like, if you had to have 50, 100 employees, maybe this wouldn't be achievable.
00:51:47 ◼ ► Like, it's just, you're just going down the corner and there's a manufacturing warehouse in you.
00:51:51 ◼ ► No, I mean, the thinking that we have, I mean, the situation is still stabilizing and changing.
00:51:56 ◼ ► So, we haven't, like, made any big shifts to adjust yet because it's like, we don't know what's going to happen.
00:52:02 ◼ ► But my line of thinking is it's a lot easier for us to change the market than where we manufacture.
00:52:09 ◼ ► So, if the tariff situation keeps on being unfeasible in the States, then we'll just open a 3PL in Europe
00:52:18 ◼ ► Because that's an easier adjustment to make than moving our manufacturing to the States.
00:52:31 ◼ ► Because, yes, once you've found your manufacturing partner and you're making a product that works,
00:52:44 ◼ ► Because then you have to start paying off R&D again and you just go right back to the beginning.
00:53:30 ◼ ► You know, and obviously it's different from, like, having somebody that you see every day.
00:53:52 ◼ ► Or, like, people fly out to the States and just have, like, a company retreat or something like that.
00:53:59 ◼ ► But, I mean, a lot of the people I've worked with in some capacity for the better part of a decade.
00:54:12 ◼ ► So we're kind of at the point of the workflow, the life cycle of your product now that we're going through.
00:54:16 ◼ ► We're into the point now where you're finding kind of, like, the long-tail success of it.
00:54:31 ◼ ► Like, how do you think about and manage a product that is now just a permanent part of the lineup?
00:54:47 ◼ ► Like, this year has been the first year where it feels like we're a wheel properly rolling.
00:54:59 ◼ ► And we're keeping an eye on, like, okay, we think we're going to run out of everyday goal calendars in November.
00:55:26 ◼ ► I think I'd ordered 1,000 of them, and we ended up selling 12,000 on, like, the first week.
00:55:33 ◼ ► But also, we've just hiring my editor, who's enabled us to increase our content output, has helped a lot.
00:55:46 ◼ ► We also moved to Shopify from another platform, and, like, redesigned the whole website and relaunched it.
00:56:02 ◼ ► But, like, I guess, once you plug into an infrastructure like that, it all just kind of makes sense.
00:56:07 ◼ ► It's given us a lot more granularity in terms of data and looking at what's working and what's not working.
00:56:18 ◼ ► And I'm stoked because it's been, you know, it's tricky to run a business for three years that's, like, losing a significant amount of money every month.
00:56:41 ◼ ► Like, when it's losing money for it to continue, the YouTube channel was paying for the business to exist.
00:56:50 ◼ ► So, it was all just taking money from the YouTube channel and investing it into the product business.
00:56:59 ◼ ► I mean, it's given it new life in a way where I was like, I don't know what to use this for.
00:57:13 ◼ ► It can also just get tired when you've done it for a long time and you're like, I'm not really having interest.
00:57:22 ◼ ► And also, the YouTube channel is giving me an excuse to constantly try new things and to build new projects.
00:57:30 ◼ ► So, I think it's just such a good constant prompt to be like, okay, what can I think of this month?
00:57:48 ◼ ► The way that I remember it is you went to a trade show and basically just stood on your own for the day.
00:58:05 ◼ ► I've been to these kinds of product trade shows just as like going to see the products that are there and just see what people are doing.
00:58:20 ◼ ► Like, it is very strange to walk down a corridor and like everyone wants to like to grab you.
00:58:30 ◼ ► But I don't enjoy talking to people and having an ulterior motive and being like, let me tell you about this product.
00:58:37 ◼ ► But yeah, we're doing some more ones that are for wholesale where we're going to show our wider catalog of product and try to get them into physical stores.
00:58:50 ◼ ► Looking at the kind of the two areas of your life, like the content creation and the product creation, over the next 10 years, kind of where do you imagine you're going to be?
00:59:03 ◼ ► I mean, the funny thing is that I am for the kind of the first time so infuriatingly content.
00:59:36 ◼ ► I would want to expand the team a little bit just to kind of take some stress off of some of our team members.
00:59:43 ◼ ► I think it would be great to have, like, a full-time salesperson, probably, to manage wholesale once we're ready for that.
00:59:52 ◼ ► And have a full-time marketing person in-house, probably, I think would be really great.
00:59:59 ◼ ► But, you know, I started the product business before I really needed it because the YouTube channel was still doing well and, like, the YouTube industry was doing well.
01:00:09 ◼ ► Now, I don't know if you've felt that as well, but, like, the YouTube or, like, influencer market has really matured a lot and the prices have gone down a lot.
01:00:19 ◼ ► So, we're at a point where my product business is finally going to make a small profit this year.
01:00:43 ◼ ► I mean, part of it, I think the world is a little bit scared of spending money right now for good reasons.
01:00:52 ◼ ► Before pricing was very vibes-based, brands were like, yeah, we want to spend this much money on this creator because we like their vibes.
01:00:59 ◼ ► And now it's, like, very much, like, how many views did you have on your last five videos and we pay this much?
01:01:04 ◼ ► So, I feel like it's become a lot more organized in a way that's made my prices suffer a lot.
01:01:09 ◼ ► But it's kind of what I hoped for was, like, the YouTube would kind of business would taper a little bit and then that the product business would become the main focus and the main moneymaker.
01:01:19 ◼ ► And the YouTube business would kind of live more in support of the product business than the other way around.
01:01:33 ◼ ► Because if the YouTube channel kept growing, it would make it harder and harder for you to be able to put the efforts into the thing you actually want to put your efforts into.
01:01:53 ◼ ► And it's making the trajectory that I want it to happen make sense also business-wise and not just emotionally.
01:02:03 ◼ ► I mean, I think kind of the thinking is if I have kids, I would probably stop doing YouTube at least for a year or two.
01:02:14 ◼ ► But keep on doing the product business because I can keep the product business afloat with like an hour of work a day.
01:02:24 ◼ ► And this is also why I built the product business because I wanted to be able to step away.
01:03:00 ◼ ► It links together agent behavior, user experience, the system logs, giving teams a full picture of what's happening under the hood.
01:03:11 ◼ ► It seems like AI tools are just becoming more and more commonplace, especially in development.
01:03:19 ◼ ► AI agent monitoring from Sentry really sounds like a great tool to help me for going for that kind of hybrid approach.
01:03:26 ◼ ► But in general, one of the things that I love about being a user of apps is I want them to work well.
01:03:33 ◼ ► And I love that Sentry is there monitoring developers' code and can help them out when things are going wrong.
01:03:39 ◼ ► And make sure that they're not spending so much time trying to dig out and find the causes of issues.
01:03:55 ◼ ► Seer finds the correct root cause 94% of the time and can even provide merge-ready pull requests based on that analysis.
01:04:10 ◼ ► They have a free dev plan and listeners of this show can use the code Cortex and sign up for three months free of their team plan and 150,000 errors.
01:04:29 ◼ ► I have learned that you can tell a lot about somebody and the things that they prioritize by looking at their home screen of their phone.
01:04:51 ◼ ► Is this one of those scenarios where my assumption would be you have friends all over the world and you can't force them all into one application?
01:06:03 ◼ ► I was heavily marketed on Instagram and bought one because I was interested, but I haven't set it up yet.
01:06:10 ◼ ► So, this is a little device that you touch your phone to, and then it's using a selection of parental controls.
01:06:17 ◼ ► Device Management tools that Apple built in, but they've built a great app to basically then lock your phone down and remove access to a bunch of apps, right, until you retouch it down again.
01:06:33 ◼ ► It's on my fridge, and especially on weekends or evenings where, you know, it's hard because being on social media is a part of my job, so I can't fully delete them, and I can't fully, like, have a dumb phone, which is tempting.
01:06:51 ◼ ► And what's really nice about it is that it takes the willpower out of it, where I feel like a lot of other stuff of, like, don't look at your phone, don't look at your phone, don't do this, don't spend time on Instagram, requires active willpower on my end.
01:07:11 ◼ ► And just the tiny hurdle of having to go to my fridge and tap my phone to it is enough that I don't do it unless I have to.
01:07:20 ◼ ► But, yeah, I should brick probably the New York Times app as well because I spend so much time playing Sudoku.
01:07:35 ◼ ► Like, if you're going to spend some time doing something on your phone, that's probably the thing.
01:07:45 ◼ ► I've made that my work phone and that's where all the social media is and it's in my backpack.
01:07:57 ◼ ► And then, as I'm sure you experience, once you do this for a long enough time, it does actually start to just take away the feeling.
01:08:04 ◼ ► Like, sometimes I realize it's Sunday night and I didn't check social media since Friday because it's like I'm just not doing it anymore.
01:08:31 ◼ ► Because in Europe, you don't have it because there was all this legislation that you had to have where you pop them out of the pill packets.
01:09:21 ◼ ► One is whenever somebody recommends a movie or a book, I write it down on a to-do list.
01:09:40 ◼ ► So when I'm preparing for a list, I'll just go through all my checked items and I'll uncheck
01:09:53 ◼ ► And then the third thing I do that's also, like, to-do list based, but I have it in my notepad,
01:10:21 ◼ ► And that, for some reason, makes me so hyper-focused on, like, I'm only going to do that one task.
01:10:34 ◼ ► And, like, the randomization about it makes it so that I don't cherry-pick the tasks that I want to do
01:10:41 ◼ ► And it just, I don't know, it just makes me into an absolute beast of getting through so much stuff.
01:11:31 ◼ ► What I like about this and why I think I'm going to bring this into my life is part of the problem when I'm doing the house chore stuff is there are just certain things that I just don't want to do.
01:12:11 ◼ ► Or also that I'll, if there's something I don't want to do where I'm like, I need to start packing or I need to clean this thing, I'll be like, okay.
01:12:31 ◼ ► But, like, you have to tell yourself, I'm only going to do it for the duration of the song that I really like.
01:12:41 ◼ ► And I wanted to thank Simone for all of the time that she gave to talking about that and sharing her story.
01:12:55 ◼ ► There are people that go out there and take her ideas and sell them for cheap and even use her imagery.
01:13:02 ◼ ► If you want to hear this, you can sign up for MoreTex at getmortex.com, where you'll get ad-free episodes, including the whole back catalog and tons of additional bonus content.