Product Genius, the Podcast for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Startups
Honest advice for inventors—with obscure cultural references included at no extra charge.
Episode
231
Bad Design with Maggie Weber of Refashioned Hippie
What can inventors learn from accidentally obscene logos, confusing signs, questionable product shapes, and a creator whose inbox has become a museum of design disasters? Quite a lot, actually. Noah and Steven welcome Maggie Weber of Refashioned Hippie for a hilarious—and occasionally PG-13—look at bad product design, branding mistakes, customer perception, and why inventors need people who will tell them what they actually see. From the Shake Weight to inconsistent branding, Maggie, Noah, and Steven explore how outside feedback, authenticity, and a willingness to correct mistakes can help entrepreneurs develop products people remember for the right reasons.
Core Topics for this episode:
- Marketing
- Inventor Strategy
Key Takeaways Include:
Listen here:
Episode Blog
Bad Design Is Funny—Until It’s Your Product
Some bad designs fail quietly.
Others accidentally look obscene, turn an innocent church sign into a double entendre, or cost the London Olympics a pile of money only to become famous for something the designers definitely did not intend.
Those are more fun.
In this episode of Product Genius, Noah McNeely and Steven Julian sit down with Maggie Weber, the creator behind Refashioned Hippie, whose wildly entertaining “Bad Designs” content finds humor in logos, signs, products, fashion, packaging, and other creative decisions that somehow made it through every checkpoint and into the real world.
The episode is hilarious—and deliberately a little PG-13—but underneath the jokes is a surprisingly useful collection of lessons for inventors and entrepreneurs.
Bad design is rarely just about aesthetics.
It is often about perspective, feedback, branding, assumptions, and the dangerous belief that because you understand what you meant, everyone else will too.
Once You See It, You Can’t Unsee It
One of the recurring themes in Maggie’s Bad Designs series is accidental visual communication.
A designer creates a logo.
A business orders a sign.
A church prints a message.
A government agency develops a symbol.
Everyone involved knows what it is supposed to mean.
Then the public sees something completely different.
Sometimes very, very different.
Noah explains that industrial designers develop a kind of internal alarm for this. At some point in design school or professional practice, you realize that innocent shapes can accidentally resemble anatomy, gestures, symbols, or cultural references you absolutely did not intend.
After that, you start checking.
Does this shape look like something else?
Does this font turn one word into another?
Does the arrangement of these graphics create an unintended image?
Could someone unfamiliar with our intention interpret this differently?
It sounds silly until thousands of products have been manufactured, the billboard has been installed, or your logo is all over the internet.
Then it becomes expensive.
Ask a 13-Year-Old Boy
Maggie offers perhaps the funniest—and most practical—design review technique ever discussed on Product Genius:
Ask a 13-year-old boy.
If he starts giggling or refuses to make eye contact, you may want to reconsider the design.
The joke contains a serious product-development principle.
You need people who will look at your work differently than you do.
Design teams become familiar with their own creations. Once you have stared at the same logo, CAD model, package, or marketing message for weeks, your brain stops seeing it objectively.
An outsider does not have that baggage.
They see what is actually there.
That is why product development needs review from people with different perspectives, backgrounds, ages, experiences, and senses of humor.
You are not asking them to design the product for you.
You are asking them to notice what you have stopped noticing.
Create an Environment Where People Can Tell You the Truth
Feedback only works if people feel safe giving it.
Maggie points out that employees, coworkers, friends, or committee members may notice a problem and still keep quiet because they do not feel comfortable saying:
“Um…you know what that looks like, right?”
That is especially likely when the person responsible for the design is also the boss.
Inventors can create the same problem.
When an inventor is emotionally attached to an idea, everyone around them learns very quickly whether criticism is welcome.
If every suggestion is met with an explanation of why the inventor is right, people eventually stop offering suggestions.
That is dangerous.
You want the person who notices the embarrassing interpretation.
You want the engineer who says the mechanism is unnecessarily complicated.
You want the customer who does not understand the packaging.
You want the teenager who starts laughing at the logo.
Constructive criticism is a product-development asset.
Make it easy for people to give it to you.
Don’t Defend a Mistake Just Because You Paid for It
Another great lesson from the episode is painfully familiar to anyone who develops products.
Sometimes you make a decision.
You believe in it.
You spend money on it.
Then evidence starts accumulating that it was a bad decision.
At that point, you have two choices.
Correct it.
Or become increasingly committed to defending it because admitting the mistake feels worse than continuing it.
Inventors do this all the time.
They keep a bad feature because they already paid to prototype it.
They keep an awkward mechanism because it was part of the original concept.
They keep a confusing product name because the domain has already been purchased.
They keep a terrible logo because the artwork is finished.
Money already spent is gone either way.
The useful question is:
Knowing what we know now, is this still the best direction?
If the answer is no, continuing the mistake does not recover the investment.
It simply makes the mistake more expensive.
Sometimes Bad Design Accidentally Works
Then there is the Shake Weight.
Noah brings it up as a fascinating example because the product became famous partly for an unintended—or at least extraordinarily suggestive—visual characteristic.
Its shape and motion made it comedy gold.
And millions were sold.
That creates an interesting distinction.
Memorable is not always the same as good.
But memorable can be commercially powerful.
Some businesses intentionally use provocative names or jokes because they know people will talk about them. Maggie mentions businesses whose names clearly lean into the double entendre.
That is branding.
The danger comes when you create the same effect accidentally.
If provocative humor fits your brand and your audience, it may work brilliantly.
If you are designing a medical device, children’s product, financial service, church sign, or government warning symbol, perhaps less so.
Know what you are communicating—and know whether you mean to communicate it.
Your Brand Should Be Easy to Find
Maggie also shares a branding mistake that has nothing to do with questionable anatomy.
Consistency.
She built Refashioned Hippie across multiple platforms but did not initially use the same branding everywhere. She even launched a virtual thrift store under a different name.
The result was predictable.
People who knew her as Refashioned Hippie searched for Refashioned Hippie.
And they could not find the store.
That is a straightforward lesson for product entrepreneurs.
Before you scatter names across websites, social channels, marketplaces, packaging, and products, think about the system.
Can someone who encounters you in one place easily find you somewhere else?
Are your names spelled consistently?
Are your handles recognizable?
Does your product name connect clearly to your company or brand?
Clever names are not very useful if customers cannot remember where to find you.
You May Be the Best Part of Your Brand
One of Maggie’s biggest breakthroughs happened when she stopped hiding behind memes and began showing her face and using her own voice.
People connected with her.
Her story mattered.
Her personality mattered.
Her humor mattered.
Noah points out how relevant that is for inventors.
Small companies sometimes try very hard to look like giant corporations.
They write in an impersonal voice.
They hide the founder.
They use “we” when the company is really one person at a kitchen table.
But being small can be an advantage.
Customers often enjoy knowing who created the product.
Why did you invent it?
What problem did you experience?
What did you struggle with?
Why do you care?
A founder story can create a connection a giant faceless corporation cannot easily reproduce.
You do not need to pretend your startup is Procter & Gamble.
Sometimes the fact that it is you is exactly why someone wants to buy.
Authenticity Is Hard to Manufacture
Maggie’s success also illustrates something difficult to engineer deliberately.
Her funniest content works because she genuinely finds the material funny.
She laughs.
She occasionally loses it.
Her audience feels like they are laughing with her rather than watching someone execute a carefully optimized “humor strategy.”
That authenticity matters in product marketing too.
Customers have become very good at detecting brands that are trying too hard to manufacture personality.
You can develop a voice.
You can create brand guidelines.
You can plan content.
But personality works best when it grows out of something real.
If you are quirky, be quirky.
If you are technical, let people see the expertise.
If your invention came from a ridiculous problem in your own life, tell that story.
Your brand does not need to sound like everyone else.
In fact, it probably should not.
Community Can Become Bigger Than the Product
Maggie’s audience began around clothing, absurd fashion, and funny design mistakes.
But it grew into something larger.
Her followers send material, join conversations, support small businesses, contribute to charitable causes, and participate in a community.
She describes campaigns where her audience collectively helped fund meaningful charitable needs.
That is a powerful reminder for entrepreneurs.
The strongest brands do not merely collect customers.
They create belonging.
People begin interacting with each other, not only with the company.
For an inventor launching a new product, that may start very small.
A group of early adopters.
A Facebook community.
A Discord server.
A newsletter people actually reply to.
Customers sharing their own uses for the product.
The specific platform matters less than the relationship.
Build something people want to participate in.
Bad Design Is Usually a Feedback Problem
The funniest examples in this episode seem unbelievable.
How did nobody notice?
How did that get approved?
How many people looked at that before someone paid to manufacture it?
But that is precisely the lesson.
Bad design does not necessarily mean stupid people were involved.
Smart people develop blind spots.
Committees develop groupthink.
Founders become emotionally invested.
Employees hesitate to challenge the boss.
Designers become too familiar with their work.
And sometimes everyone simply misses the obvious.
The cure is not perfection.
The cure is review.
Show the product to people.
Ask what they see.
Listen when someone is confused.
Invite uncomfortable feedback.
Test names and graphics before investing heavily in them.
And occasionally hand the design to someone with the maturity level of a middle-school boy.
For quality control purposes, obviously.
The Product Genius Take
Good product design is not just about making something functional, attractive, or manufacturable.
It is about understanding how real human beings will experience it.
And real human beings bring culture, humor, expectations, biases, slang, dirty minds, past experiences, and perspectives you may not share.
That is why outside feedback matters.
So before you approve the logo, order 20,000 packages, cut the injection mold, print the billboard, or launch the website, show it to people who will tell you what they actually see.
Build a culture where criticism is welcome.
Keep your branding consistent.
Do not keep a mistake merely because you already paid for it.
Let your personality become part of the business when it makes sense.
And if your new product has an unfortunately suggestive shape?
Maybe ask a 13-year-old before you hit “manufacture.”
Or, read the full transcript here:
Steven Julian: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Product Genius. Yeah, it’s the most offensive and definitely the funniest episode of Product Genius. Up next.
Maggie Weber: Do you want to be a successful inventor entrepreneur? Struggling to get your product from idea to market? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to Product Genius, the down-to-earth podcast that explores important topics about inventing and launching new products. Noah McNeely is your trusted guide. With more than 20 years of product launch experience, he’s here to help you on your journey to become a product genius. Let’s get started. Here’s your slightly annoying co-host, Steven Julian.
Noah McNeely: Hey, that’s my line.
Steven Julian: Yes, it’s another wonderful, hopefully award-winning edition, very different edition, but still entertaining and still valuable. And we’re glad you’re here of… Product Genius. I’m your Slightly Annoying co-host, Steven Julian. Sitting next to me is the intrepid producer, Jody Smith. And across the table, it is he who lets us use his lair and joins me at the table to talk about all things genius of products. It’s Noah McNeely.
Noah McNeely: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever it is where you are.
Steven Julian: Yes, it is one of those things wherever. anyone is listening.
Noah McNeely: Yes, undeniably. So I’m really excited about today’s show and our guests today. And we do need to caution the audience. This might be a PG-13 kind of episode. Do I get to do the disclaimer up front?
Steven Julian: Please. If you are not a fan of humor, if you don’t like double entendre, if you get easily offended, you may want to just… Be prepared. And then when you get triggered, just don’t email us because we kind of warned you up front. We’re going to have a lot of fun and we’re going to talk about bad designs today. And so we’re going to have fun with it because we have a guest that we are just thrilled. And so for the first time in the history of this show. This is a guest I found, and I found this guest going through, I think I first saw it either on Facebook Reels or on YouTube Shorts, and it’s literally titled Bad Designs. Maggie Weber is a… She has her own YouTube channel called Refashioned Hippie. She also is on TikTok, Instagram, and she is a content creator. She loves to point out the absurdity of. stupid rich people fashion and the prices that they charge. She’s also an online clothing reseller, author, and most importantly, a stay-at-home mom. And she is here on Product Genius to talk about one of her main shows, and we’ll branch off from that, called Bad Designs. Maggie, welcome to the studio.
Maggie Weber: Thank you. I’m really excited to be here.
Steven Julian: Yeah, I’m really excited to have you on the show. Like I said, you’re the first guest that I’ve ever booked because I came across your stuff and I just started thinking, I know Noah would have fun talking about bad designs. And it’s kind of something we’ve talked about messing up in designs and getting designs messed up. But for just kind of introduction, just I gave you the little background bio, but tell everybody about your channel and about your content creation that you do.
Maggie Weber: Absolutely. So I actually got started on Instagram just to advertise my clothing reselling business. I sell on Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and I thought I’d just put up cute little memes about clothing and find myself some customers. But one of my side jobs is I’m the social media coordinator for Sanctuary Village, which is a charity raising money to build a tiny house community for the homeless of Philadelphia. And anyone who’s ever worked in any kind of nonprofit or… Been around humans. You know that getting money is incredibly difficult. So every day we were just fighting tooth and nail to get a $200 grant from the whatever family. And in the course of my reselling business, I saw a leather skirt for sale for $48,000. And I was so sad and angry. So I did a reel about it. I did a reel about stupid rich people fashion. I have to plead my heart out to Wawa to get a $2,000 grant and some girls walking around in a skirt that costs more than my car. And it really resonated with people. So I started building my channel about those sorts of ridiculous things. And people very kindly were responding to that and started flooding my inbox with other ridiculous things. And that led to bad design.
Steven Julian: Yeah, let’s talk about bad designs real quick. So I liked it. What a great backstory of how this all started. But when it comes to, do you remember the first or the? first amazing one that came across that you went, I know. I need to call this bad designs and do a reel on this.
Maggie Weber: I think the first one that really struck me was Masturbators Tackle Shop. Because there’s like so many of them. And, you know, I mean, that’s obviously that’s intentional. That’s your business trying to get the name out there and be remembered. But like, there’s so many. I love the intentional ones. I love the intentional ones. But for me, the fun ones are where like. A church group thought they’d put up something cute and say that the best gift a wife can give is getting on her knees. And it’s like, well, I agree, but you all should have talked about that.
Steven Julian: Yes, there are potentially more than the way you’re thinking of a wonderful church body of people who are talking about prayer.
Noah McNeely: Yeah, having watched some of your stuff, which is absolutely amazing. And I think sometimes we learn the most through humor. So I love your channel. But it seems like there are kind of three. Maybe more different reasons these bad designs happen. One, it’s intentional and those are great. And there’s some out there that are fantastic. The other end is like people are just oblivious. They didn’t even know what they were doing. And then the third is like somewhere in the middle. It’s like they got it out there. Then they realized it was maybe not so good, but it kind of worked for them. So they kept going.
Maggie Weber: I mean, I think you’re absolutely right. I think you’re absolutely right. The thing that really kills me and anyone who’s… Ever been in any kind of business, but certainly a small business and certainly one that you started that you’re invested in. You know what it’s like when you make a decision and you feel that it’s right. So you go with it. And then a year down the line, you’re like, I realized. She censored herself. I have a five-year-old. I try my best. Although she knows it’s okay to curse during video games and when the Eagles are on. Those are the rules in our house. Um, like there’s, there’s many times where you make a decision and you’re just like, Nope, I know that I’m right. You know, I know that Steve is disagreeing. with me. My mom’s disagreeing, but I’m right. And then you’re like, wait, that is a big blow job on my billboard. Like, and then it’s like, you know, so that’s from a business standpoint, something that I do find just absolutely hilarious. Cause sometimes you’ve made the investment and it’s like, now you have to live with your mistake.
Noah McNeely: And there’s some people like people I work with that they will never realize why it’s wrong or either they won’t admit it. It’s like. At least the ones that admit, okay, yeah, that’s a mistake, but we’re already here. That’s one thing. There’s the ones that are like, nope, it’s what I wanted, even though they’re lying through their teeth. I’ve met plenty of people like that.
Steven Julian: One of the ones that I found on Bad Designs, you said, I don’t even know what this sign is for. It turns out it’s the sign to say that barbed wire is ahead. So to me, my thinking of that as when I saw that, I was like, wait a minute, this is like government level. This is like state or this is local. I mean, this is and you always. like to joke that, hey, because one of your one of your lessons we should all learn is as you’re doing your business, there might be times you just want to bring in and I’m going to steal your quote, at least one 13 year old boy. Yes. Right. But so that that sign for barbed wire, it’s like. This is, again, this is a state level type thing. How many committees did this go through?
Noah McNeely: And if I recall, that sign looks like a group of people engaged in some sort of naughty group activity.
Steven Julian: At least two people, potentially more.
Noah McNeely: It looks like three or four to me.
Steven Julian: So there’s so many that are coming to mind. But I wanted to also ask you, Maggie, because one of the things as we were conversing heading into this show, one of the things you said is, so you’ve kind of told your story and it started with stupid rich people and what they, I’m sorry. The stupid things rich people buy. Let me put it that way. I don’t want to call a person stupid. You will. I won’t. No, the stupid things that rich people buy. And you. kind of pivot into this bad design. As you started, and there are other channels, have you ever met a human woman? Or not channels, but just other paths you’ve gone down. You stressed in one of our pre-show talks the idea of a business lesson you learned about branding.
Maggie Weber: I know that I am very fortunate to be where I’m at. I have almost a million followers cumulatively across all of my channels.
Steven Julian: How long have you been doing this? So just to put that in perspective.
Maggie Weber: Great. Okay. So one great point about that. I had my Instagram for two years before I ever showed my face. Once I started showing my face and using my voice, that’s when I really started to get some traction. You know, it’s social media or whatever kind of business you’re on. People want to know you and they will be so much more invested in your business if they know your story. And that’s what I learned from Poshmark as well. I did okay. I made money. But once I started doing live shows, now I make a full-time income because I get to tell people, this is where your money’s. going. This is the story behind this dress that I have. And it gives people that feeling that they’re not just buying something for themselves. They’re supporting me. I’m going to send my daughter to college on other people’s unwanted trash because 98% of what I get is from donations. I take unwanted clothing. I sell it. So I’m cleaning out other people’s houses. I’m making money for myself. And, you know, I’m fighting these fast fashion brands who tell you it’s okay that the shirt is $5 and it’s going to fall apart after one wear because you paid five bucks. It’s fine. You’re going to be in style for 20 minutes and you can throw it away. It’s fine. That’s not what me and my business is about. Everything that I do is recycling. Whether you care about that or not, you’re a part of it if you buy from me. And that’s really important to me.
Steven Julian: And talk a little bit about, so in terms of branding, and especially what I was wondering is the branding of some of these social media, specifically the stupid things rich people buy, and then that pivoted to bad designs, and. then? have you ever met a human woman? and some of the other things. Has there been a branding issue as you found more and more people giving you more and more ideas for content?
Maggie Weber: So I’m sorry, I didn’t answer your question at all.
Noah McNeely: He tends to ramble with his questions anyway. So that’s not your fault.
Steven Julian: Thanks, Noah.
Maggie Weber: I’m going to ramble with my answers. So we’re going to be a good pair. This is going to get fun. So one of the biggest lessons that I learned was branding myself much earlier than I did. I am Refashioned Hippie on TikTok, eBay, Instagram, YouTube, but not on Poshmark because I didn’t think of it. So just keeping your branding consistent across all of your platforms is a great idea. I opened my own virtual thrift store, which had a completely different name. So no one found it because they were typing in refashionedhippie.com and nothing came up. So those were lessons that I learned. You might think that you have a cute… Cute little name for a side bit. No. Keep it consistent. Keep it so that people can find you. That’s a huge thing that I. learned. And truly, I feel that I’m succeeding despite myself. So don’t follow my example. Just do what I’m telling you now. I’ve learned. I’ve learned.
Noah McNeely: One of the things I think you said that’s really kind of piqued my interest and I think could apply to inventors out there too and entrepreneurs is that you kind of are. You are the brand. You saw a big change when you became core to that story. And I think that’s kind of the little guy story in a way. And that applies to inventors. Inventors that go out there and try to look like, oh, I’m a big company. I’m not going to show who I am. A, that’s not really honest. And B, you’re missing that opportunity to make that connection that you’ve made.
Maggie Weber: I’m so sorry. My daughter needs something. I will be right back. I’m sorry.
Noah McNeely: We’ve got kids too. Do what you got to do.
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Steven Julian: Go for it.
Maggie Weber: So I was a teenager in the early 2000s. We’ll not discuss exactly when. And I was part of the generation where everybody wanted pink on your ass and Hollister on your boobs. And that’s just not how people shop anymore, especially Gen Z and down. They’re very aware of globalization. They’re very aware of the type of pollution that big brands have. So yes, of course, all of us go to Amazon and we buy stuff. We do that. But when somebody is looking for products, if they can support a small business, if they can support someone that they know, they want to and they will. We are so much more about individualism now than when I was younger that you don’t have to pretend that you’re this big faceless corporation. I on my channel all the time, I used to say we. And now I say I because it’s me. I’m in my basement right now. You guys are seeing the only three square foot of my house. that’s clean. Because I’m primarily a mother. But people like that. They like being able to support me and my channel. And if they can do that by buying something they need anyway, it’s wonderful. So I think that people really will embrace a small business and will support a small business when they can. And if you can let them know who you are. That’s so incredibly important.
And Steven Julian: I think one of the things about your story and about why I’m so glad you’re on the show and you’re sharing about more than just the funny, silly things, but that funny stuff, that starting down the path of the $47,000 skirt and then that led to, I think of the shoe designer that you’re like, no woman’s foot is ever going to fit in this thing. And so I think, What people identify with is not only what you’re doing in the quality of your clothing, but how free you are to laugh. And again, finding the humor. All around us and not creating a comedy bit as a standup comedian, but more of a let’s all laugh. And some of your best bad designs are when you. laugh at the end and just like you lose it with us. And I’m like, I’m laughing too. That’s hilarious.
Noah McNeely: That’s part of your brand magic is you’re real. I mean, you’re not putting on a facade. And I think that’s a big key to it.
Maggie Weber: Oh, the scientists who designed me are going to be so happy to hear you guys say that.
Steven Julian: So Noah, I do want to ask you a little bit because as I kind of had you guys go watch some of this stuff, one of the things that kind of jumped out at you was her unhinged Amazon reviews.
Noah McNeely: Yeah, those were hilarious. And there were two that in particular I wanted, and they may have been from the same one that I wanted to talk about. One, Bic for her, I thought was hilarious. Pens for women and they look just like other pens to me, except they’re different colors. And that reminded me of something my wife talks about a lot that she calls the pink tax. It’s like, you paint something pink, you charge 20% more for it. It’s the same thing. If that’s how you want to market your product, that’s up to you. It just struck me as very funny and very hilarious. That whole review you read about how her husband won’t touch it because it makes him think of fairies and unicorns and stuff. That was hilarious. And then the UFO detector one was also awesome. I think that review was something along the lines of this thing doesn’t work. I’ve still been abducted by aliens. And I’ve been doing this for 25 years. And I’ve met people with ideas just that strange. Some of them I can’t talk about, but there was once a machine that you would buy to pet your dog for you, which is nothing like UFO detectors, but still pretty strange.
Steven Julian: So a machine that would pet your dog.
Noah McNeely: Yeah, exactly. So you’re away at work and this robot hand pets your dog and it’s like, what kind of weird dog is going to want that? Number one, people come up with so many things. So another thing that might be fun for you someday, if you ever run out of stuff.
Maggie Weber: Let me just tell you, I love that my life has become, anytime somebody sees really bad, ludicrous fashion, they. email me. Or if they’re like, that looks like a dick. I know who that needs to go to. Like, that’s my inbox right now.
Noah McNeely: Okay, this is going to be NSFW, but you get a whole different kind of dick pics in your line of work.
Maggie Weber: I mean, I get the traditional ones too. But yeah, it’s truly like, I have about 5,000 emails right now that I haven’t answered because I try so hard, but I can’t. Life is a box of chocolates. And for me, those chocolates are dick-shaped because the emails that I get are just like, you have to see this or look at this. And I never know what’s coming. I don’t understand why people don’t warn me. Because if I just got like a sign for a catering company, that would be so much nicer. But instead, it’s just look at these balls. You got it, guys?
Steven Julian: So this is reminding me when you did the cakes, the people trying to reproduce. The Simpsons or whatever. And then the pig that really, if you pull back, you go, okay, that’s someone’s scrotum. What are you doing, people? As someone who took cake decorating? in high school and kind of liked it, I was like, damn.
Maggie Weber: I was a cake decorator for two years.
Steven Julian: There you go. See, I like it. Now, Noah, you also, you wanted to come into that. One of the things I know, you almost demanded. Because it’s circled on your notes, it’s green highlighted, and it’s going to be a little dated, but you wanted to talk about shake weights.
Noah McNeely: I do, but let me open with this. in that, you know, I went to design school, learned how to design products. And at some point, I think everyone that goes through design school reaches a moment where they’re like, Half the things I just drew look like penises. And then from that point on, for the rest of your career, you’re double-checking every drawing. Does that look like a penis? Does it look like a vagina? Does it look like anything? I don’t want it to look like?
Steven Julian: But apparently that lesson got lost in the last 10 years.
Noah McNeely: Well, not on me. It still leads me to wonder why a product like ShakeWeights made it into existence. For those who don’t know, it’s a fairly phallic shaped. object. It’s actively phallic in the motions it makes. It’s an exercise device.
Steven Julian: There’s a rhythmic, there’s a vibration to it. There’s just, there’s way too many. But that’s one of those.
Maggie Weber: That would be a great South Park episode if you’re interested.
Noah McNeely: That’s one of those, yeah, absolutely. That’s one of those weird situations where I think bad design. Actually really worked for them. They sold like 4 million of those products and we’re still talking about it today. So it kind of, I don’t think they meant it this way, but this is one of those happy accents where, Hey, it looks like a sexual act, but lots of people are talking about it and buying our product.
Steven Julian: And Maggie, so I’ll, I’ll take that back to you because you do a lot of signs and you do point out in the bad design of sign. You’re like, Hey, a lot of this is intentional. So when you’re. There are some obvious intentional, but I like where you’re like, I’m not sure if it’s intentional. So the intentionality of Masturbate and Tackle, the intentionality of Solid Erection Company, you know, so they’re doing it to, that’s branding, right? I mean, that’s, they’re doing it for branding. Oh, it absolutely is.
Maggie Weber: I just, I think it’s, I was once speaking to a producer of reality TV and she said, because somebody asked her, you know, how do you find a Snooki? And she said, well, you look for the person who’s not trying to be Snooki. Because if you’re looking for somebody who says like, this is me, this is how I’m going to get famous. They’re garbage. They’re a garbage person and you don’t want to deal with them. And I think that with branding, it’s the same thing. Just you, you have to, you make your bed and then you lie in it. So like, if you have a masturbating tackle store, you know exactly what you’ve done, sir. Like you will be accepting those. So I think that you have to. You have to be very mindful of what you’re doing and of what those consequences will be. And as in the case of Shakewake, that was unpredictable. That was absolutely unpredictable. That company did not try to make that happen. Like the Hawk Tua girl, she had no idea what was going to happen to. her in her life. You can’t set out and say, I’m going to be a phenomenon based on this. You have to be completely true to yourself in whatever way. That’s going to take its shape and you will be successful based on that. If you’re trying too hard, it’s very obvious.
Steven Julian: So, Noah, when it comes to people designing their products, what are some of the reasons why bad designs actually happen?
Noah McNeely: Well, you know, I think sometimes it’s intended, you know, and there are products that are marketed toward frat boys or whatever. So sometimes it’s intentionally, you know, whatever. Whatever it’s trying to communicate. Sometimes I think it is careless, like some of the signs and other things, the cakes and et cetera. Fonts. Matter.
Steven Julian: Learning.
Noah McNeely: Exactly. So I think sometimes it’s just careless and unintended, but then sometimes I think it’s that it’s misunderstood. Whoever created the product did not understand the cultural reference or sexual reference or whatever reference that they were putting into the product and they put it in there. It’s after the fact that that becomes apparent.
Steven Julian: Well, and I think you kind of mentioned this at the beginning of the show, but I think sometimes as people are developing a product, either they don’t work with someone like you who got to a point in your career where you’re like, okay, I’ve got to make sure nothing looks like a penis. Yeah.
Noah McNeely: We don’t actually take a class on how not to make things look like a penis, but it becomes part.
Steven Julian: It comes out of it. I can teach that class. Yeah.
Noah McNeely: That would be a fantastic share.
Steven Julian: I think the other thing you kind of mentioned, though, is sometimes people won’t listen to some advice they’re getting from you or others like you.
Noah McNeely: And I can’t mention this particular name. And I’ve told you off. And Maggie, I’ll tell you off air, but I don’t want to offend this person. There’s this client I had in the last five years. Their product name, it is… It is a very weird sexual act. I’m kind of even ashamed. I know what it is, you know, but I tried to communicate to them via email. Hey, you know, this is, you might want to rethink this. Nope. They’re just plowing right ahead with it.
Steven Julian: Do you need me or Maggie to? reach out to them to say, hey, do you know your word is?
Noah McNeely: I think I’m okay. I think I’m okay. No longer.
Steven Julian: Maybe we should send them the barb, the symbol for barbed wire ahead and they’ll, if I may.
Maggie Weber: Yeah. I don’t know how I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I know what he is, but like I’m there. And very often if you’re, if you’re a boss, if you’re a manager, it can also be an important part of your job to make people feel comfortable coming to you with concerns. Because I’ve been on a church board a lot of times and I will not raise my hand and say, that was like a dick. I won’t do it because I’m not going to say that to my pastor. But making sure that you’ve created an environment where people can give you constructive criticism and where you are accepting of it is also really important. That doesn’t mean that you have to do whatever somebody suggests for your business.
Noah McNeely: Well, that’s maybe even a box where you can drop anonymous. Hey, you know, our logo looks like a penis.
Steven Julian: Right.
Maggie Weber: And I do. want to say, don’t feel bad if you’re making mistakes. Every business owner does. Every employee does. The London 2012 Olympics. I spent 150,000 pounds coming up with a design that looks like a guy getting head. Like that’s what it looks like. And it costs a lot of money.
Steven Julian: Everyone listening is now going, pause the show. I’m going to go look London 2012. I got to see this. That’s an in-show example.
Noah McNeely: So I told Steven, we were taking a risk bringing you on here. in case, you know, maybe there’s something in our logo we’re not aware of, or maybe our name means… Penis in Swahili or something. We don’t know it. So hopefully that’s not the case.
Steven Julian: It looks like a light bulb. There’s nothing. If you see the tile of our show, it’s clearly a light bulb. There’s no double entendre. I sure hope so.
Maggie Weber: I thought it was a pair of anguish. That’s why I came on this show.
Steven Julian: So Maggie, I was going to ask you also in terms of humorous, but very important. Words of advice. I’ve kind of mentioned a couple of them, but if people start watching your stuff over. and over, they’re going to hear a few different pieces of advice you try to give businesses. Can you just reproduce that for our audience who have yet to start watching you, but soon will afterward? What are your pieces of advice you give to people when it comes to potentially bad designs, especially around signs, logos, things like that?
Maggie Weber: Sure. So the number one piece of advice I can give you is don’t watch my channel at work. You will get in trouble. HR is going to talk to you. Be careful around your kids. But no, I think that the biggest thing is ask one 13-year-old boy, truly. Someone you know has a 13-year-old boy. If they giggle or refuse to make eye contact with you, you go home, you rethink. Talk to as many people as you trust as possible when you have a new idea. And do create that environment where they can give you constructive criticisms and feel that they are being heard and they are being accepted and they won’t get in trouble.
Steven Julian: Yeah, I think everybody should have at least one person in their life that you can kind of go, hey, look, does this, I’m trying to write the word flow, F-L-O, but does this font. Look like hoe to you. I mean, which is another example. I mean, so fun. It’s a real thing. Yeah, it’s a real thing. And then you talked about.
Noah McNeely: And it’s too late once that’s already published in a magazine or, you know, wherever.
Steven Julian: Your branding can matter. And if you don’t mean it to be intentional, it might be unintentional.
Noah McNeely: Get that advice early.
Steven Julian: Yeah. I think, and also. Placing placement of the words, you know, shoot the family, hang the, I mean, there was one about, about taking pictures and it was like, shoot the family, hang them and, and something. And there was another.
Maggie Weber: I mean, don’t, don’t just persist in your mistake because you’ve already spent time and money on it. I mean, that’s something else that’s important.
Steven Julian: So you mentioned, you know, at the beginning, as far as the branding, how have you overcome the, you know, you went to a different name. Have you been able to correct that? Or are you just kind of like, yeah, I’m still kind of living with the consequences because.
Maggie Weber: So I’m living with. the consequences because I do have this audience built up and changing your name. You know, midway through is bad. Another thing that I did, I do audiobooks now. And I didn’t realize that I published my own books under the name Margaret Weber, but I’ve been including myself as an audiobook narrator as Maggie Weber. So that’s dumb. And at some point, I’m going to have to fix that. But like, there’s little mistakes like that that are absolutely affecting my sales of both my personal work and my audiobooks. And I’m so sorry. My kid is shaking the doggy gate again. So I’ll be right back. Okay. I’m running out of cookies to bribe her with. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. Try today at getopu.com. That’s getopu.com. I saw it in a reel on Instagram, but it’s totally true. Somebody took that Dolly Parton 9 to 5 song and changed it for working moms. It’s like 9 to 915 to 917 and 924.
Steven Julian: People have asked me, I’m an independent financial advisor, and they’re like, oh, do you have an office at home? I’m like, no, I would have never. I mean, I can’t. It’s. so hard. So you running out of your basement, yeah, it’s every seven minutes.
Noah McNeely: Yeah, and my youngest is now 11, and it doesn’t, the needs change, but the frequency does not.
Steven Julian: Right, exactly.
Maggie Weber: I’m going to need you to lie to me if you could just.
Noah McNeely: Oh, yeah. When she reaches six, everything’s going to be perfect. She’s going to bring you breakfast in bed. It’s going to be fantastic.
Steven Julian: Yeah. It’s going to be wonderful. Yeah. All right. So I think we got to the end of that last question. So let’s do this. So Maggie, I want to ask you what you’ve kind of talked about. And again, I want to thank you one more time for getting us into the backstory and how everything started. Is there anything around the corner? Is there anything on the horizon? Are you? Is it ever expanding? or do you feel like I like the lanes I’m in, I like what I’m doing, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing?
Maggie Weber: Oh, sugar, you think I’m working on a plan?
Steven Julian: Well, you do have three square feet of clean basement behind you.
Maggie Weber: I mean, honestly, right now, I’m trying to. pivot my business to the things that maximize profit without maximizing time. I am primarily a mom. Everything else has to work around that. And I’m sure you guys will cut it, but you’ve seen we’ve had to stop this interview twice because Among Us wasn’t working and then she needed cookies. That’s the reality of my situation. So I love my clothing selling. that I do. I absolutely love it. But I will make more from a 50-second reel posted to YouTube than I will selling three shirts. So I’m trying to figure out where in my business I can put the least amount of time for the most amount of profit.
Steven Julian: I think one of the things I’ve seen you do here recently is you are partnering. With other people on Poshmark, there was one reel I saw where you started bringing up someone, I think, Eclectic Mouse was one I saw. So is that one of the things you’ve been able to, hey, if my reel is going to help and one of the things I can do is help other people. So there’s kind of that give back and kind of expanding the community. So talk. a little bit about finding partners. Maggie
Steven Julian: Greetings and salutations. Steven Julian: I am your slightly annoying host, Steven Julian. Steven Julian: Welcome to a new edition of Product Genius. Steven Julian: This time… Without Tiffany Crumans, but what we do have is the fantastic Noah McNeely. Steven Julian: Noah, welcome back to the show. Noah McNeely: Yeah, it’s good to be back. Noah McNeely: I feel like it’s been an entire pandemic ago. Steven Julian: Almost. Steven Julian: It’s been at least, it’s been a year, but it does kind of feel like a whole pandemic ago. Steven Julian: So, Product Genius, this might sound a little bit different. Steven Julian: There are some differences. Steven Julian: Why don’t? Steven Julian: we cover all that stuff up front?
Steven Julian: Broadcasting this show almost live from the Plush Palatial Studios that is the worldwide headquarters of Product Quick Start. Steven Julian: Tell everybody about your new digs. Noah McNeely: Yes, so Product Quick Start, we were fortunate enough to move into a new facility, well, new to us facility that we’re renovating in what they call the Depot District of Lawrenceville, Georgia, which is this… Exciting little area where we have some breweries and we have a distillery going in. Noah McNeely: that I think is going to make tequila and I try to remain sober during the day when I’m working here. Steven Julian: Especially when you’re doing the show. Steven Julian: Well, maybe not as much when you do that. Noah McNeely: Probably more important that I remain sober when using the power equipment in the back. Steven Julian: Amen. Steven Julian: The other thing we want to talk about for those people who are coming upon this episode and have listened to past episodes. Steven Julian: In some respects, we’re the same, but in some respects, there are some differences. Steven Julian: This show was always known as Product Genius with Tiffany Krumans. Steven Julian: Tiffany is still with us, but she’s not with us in the studio. Steven Julian: So, Noah, I ask. Steven Julian: you, where in the world is Tiffany Krumans? Noah McNeely: Well, anyone that has listened to more recent shows probably knows Tiffany has a lot of ideas for businesses, and she also has… New children in her life, and she stays very, very busy. Noah McNeely: Her latest company is called Opu Probiotics, and it’s a fabulous product. Noah McNeely: I recommend you try it. Noah McNeely: I particularly like the mocha mint flavor. Noah McNeely: But anyway, we believe that Tiffany is scouring the world looking for the finest ingredients she can for that particular product. Noah McNeely: So you might find her in the Himalayas or the Amazon. Noah McNeely: Probably wearing a baby and a baby Bjorn and with three other kids following her around. Steven Julian: And everybody can go to opuprobiotics.com, opuprobiotics.com, and see all the latest things that Tiffany is doing with that product. Steven Julian: And therefore, she was the creator of Product Genius originally, and you were a fantastic partner and sponsor of the show and would come on and talk about… Developing products through your business, productquickstart.com. Steven Julian: And when Tiffany really launched Opu, she told all of us, Jody Smith, the producer of the show, and myself as the slightly annoying host, hey, I’m going to take a little. Steven Julian: bit of time off. Steven Julian: I got to launch this new business. Steven Julian: And then in the meantime, let me just fast forward a little bit. Steven Julian: And I don’t know how much behind the scenes and unplugged you want to get. Steven Julian: Why are you sitting across the table from me and why are you now kind of leading this ship that Tiffany built up to this point? Noah McNeely: Well, first, we’re going to hope that the Shipley is led in a good direction and not running aground. Steven Julian: Not yet, at least. Steven Julian: We’re five minutes in. Steven Julian: It’s so far so good. Noah McNeely: So, yeah, we’re doing great at the moment. Noah McNeely: Well, I always enjoyed doing the show. Noah McNeely: I mean, I had a lot of fun with you guys and it really hits one of my passions, which… I like talking about this stuff. Noah McNeely: I do what I love. Noah McNeely: I enjoy explaining it to people. Noah McNeely: I think the show is a good way to do that. Noah McNeely: I’ve actually met a number of people through the show. Noah McNeely: Those are all great conversations. Noah McNeely: My hope is as we move forward, Product Genius will be a show that’s useful for inventors, of course. Noah McNeely: Really, I think we’re going to. Noah McNeely: talk about things that relate to all entrepreneurs or most entrepreneurs. Noah McNeely: Even to people that work for bigger companies that want to think more like entrepreneurs. Steven Julian: So here we are after more than a year off. Steven Julian: We’re doing a new show. Steven Julian: Noah McNeely is sitting across the table from me. Steven Julian: Jody Smith from JodySmith.com is still our producer. Steven Julian: I’m still the slightly annoying host. Steven Julian: And here we are still talking about product development. Steven Julian: We’re going to talk about inventing. Steven Julian: And today we’re talking about help. Steven Julian: I’ve got too many ideas. Steven Julian: Which is definitely true of this show after not doing it for a year. Steven Julian: And people who are doing product development and kind of trying to bring their product to market, as they’re bringing one product to market, they have all these other ideas. Steven Julian: That’s the entrepreneurial, that’s the inventor. Steven Julian: There’s a lot of people listening who, number one, are going, okay, yeah, they’re talking about something I need to talk about. Steven Julian: And when you’re listening to this, you might also be thinking, Ooh, I know someone else that needs to hear this. Steven Julian: So listen to this one, invite them to hear the show because we’re going to be talking. Steven Julian: about, I got too many ideas. Steven Julian: So the title of the show, obviously I gave a little bit of a inkling of it.
Steven Julian: You are guilty of this just like anybody else, right? Noah McNeely: Oh, absolutely. Noah McNeely: In fact, the fact that I’m doing this podcast while writing a business and… Engaging in various other hobbies may be an example of where I’m guilty of this, but I’m trying to balance it well. Noah McNeely: And we thought this would be a really good topic for the first show because Tiffany is actually a great example of doing this well. Noah McNeely: She realized at some point that she had too many different things going on. Noah McNeely: So to be successful, she had to push some of them to the back, and that’s why. Noah McNeely: That’s why we’re here. Steven Julian: That’s why she’s out finding those great products or finding those great ingredients to go into the mint mocha. Noah McNeely: That’s why she’s in the Amazon today. Noah McNeely: Exactly. Noah McNeely: So, you know, this is a problem that doesn’t just affect inventors and entrepreneurs. Noah McNeely: It actually affects big companies as well. Noah McNeely: And back when I did a lot of big company work, this was a topic that would come up. Noah McNeely: The big. Noah McNeely: scary corporate name for this is portfolio management. Noah McNeely: As an inventor entrepreneur, you never need to use that phrase again, probably. Noah McNeely: But the idea is even big companies, they have so many things that they want to do or would love to do, but they can’t do them all. Noah McNeely: In a big company, like a Fortune 500 company, I almost said some names there, but I don’t want to be sued or anything by any of my clients from years ago. Noah McNeely: In a big company, you have entire teams of people in many cases. Noah McNeely: Their whole job is to manage and really to do the portfolio management role. Noah McNeely: They’ll have roadmaps of products that the company is going to develop for five, ten years out in some cases, and they have to prioritize those. Steven Julian: So let’s talk about the person who’s listening to this podcast who’s trying to bring one or a couple of products to market or are trying to build their business. Steven Julian: Go from idea to prototype to development.
Steven Julian: When you say, help, I’ve got too many ideas, can that be true of one product? Noah McNeely: It can be. Noah McNeely: It can be true of one product or it can. Noah McNeely: also just be the nature of the individual. Noah McNeely: So I’ve met people that clients have come in and they get really excited about their product. Noah McNeely: We go through that. Noah McNeely: And then a lot of times on the way out the door, they’re like, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Noah McNeely: I’ve got seven more I’m working on. Noah McNeely: We’re going to talk about them next time. Noah McNeely: And I think they tell me that to get me more excited about working with them, but that’s really often a red flag. Noah McNeely: So on the next meeting, you’re at the next meeting, I usually have to tamp that down a little bit and say, you know, look, that’s great. Noah McNeely: I love all these ideas, but let’s get one on the market first. Noah McNeely: And I think that can be a tough thing for entrepreneurs, even myself, because I have… I have so many things I want to accomplish and want to do, but it’s easy to want to spend all the time in the visionary stage. Noah McNeely: Hey, this is going to be fun. Noah McNeely: I’m going to spend all day thinking about this idea and jotting out what’s it going to be like when. Noah McNeely: I’m done. Noah McNeely: But the problem is there’s a lot of things that have to happen between now and achieving that vision. Steven Julian: And the ideas is the sexy part. Steven Julian: The ideas is the everybody’s. Steven Julian: Had at least one or two ideas. Steven Julian: I actually, I still don’t know why at times I’m the slightly annoying host of the show because I’ve had very few ideas of products. Steven Julian: I’ve never tried to develop anything, but I would relate it. Steven Julian: I, I love the world of comedy and I love listening to comedians, especially them talking about doing jokes. Steven Julian: And it’s one thing to have, Hey, Seinfeld had a book called, is this anything you start with an idea? Steven Julian: Hey, is this anything? Steven Julian: Is this potentially funny? Steven Julian: But from that point to getting it to where it’s a tight bit to be done on stage, there’s this huge, there’s a lot of work that goes in. Steven Julian: So you just mentioned it’s easy to do the ideas. Steven Julian: I got seven more, but they got all this work they got to do to just to get that one. Steven Julian: But I want to drill down and I want to kind of push back and ask even that. Steven Julian: person who’s on that one, I’ve got too many ideas. Steven Julian: Do they get sidetracked with too many things even in that one single idea? Steven Julian: That they’re bringing to market? Noah McNeely: Yeah, that can happen too.
Noah McNeely: I think we may have talked about this a long time ago, but there’s a concept I call minimum viable product or early viable product. Steven Julian: I remember that. Noah McNeely: Yes, it’s a classic. Noah McNeely: You should check it out. Noah McNeely: But the issue there is sometimes maybe it is just one product, but they have all these ideas for that one product. Noah McNeely: Oh, I want it to do this. Noah McNeely: I want it to do that. Noah McNeely: I want it to be Wi-Fi and I want it to levitate and I want it to glow in the dark. Noah McNeely: Sir, it’s a doorknob. Noah McNeely: It doesn’t need to necessarily do all that. Noah McNeely: Those are all great. Noah McNeely: Let’s get one on the market. Noah McNeely: because all that stuff you just talked about, that’s a two-year development program. Noah McNeely: If we just do your basic product, which is already cool and already different than anything out there, you can be on the market in six months. Noah McNeely: You can generate revenue. Noah McNeely: You’ve got a successful business at that. Noah McNeely: point. Noah McNeely: And more importantly, you’ve got money that you can now spend on Gen 2 and Gen 3 and Gen 4. Noah McNeely: But if we start down the path of developing, The super mega colossal product now, you’re never going to get there. Steven Julian: And we titled this show again, Help, but I think probably more often than not your job as the product development guru, as the genius who helps people bring their product to market, you have to tell them you really should be saying, Help, I have too many ideas in this super amazing, stupendous product. Steven Julian: Very rarely do they verbalize that. Steven Julian: You’re helping them verbalize. Noah McNeely: Right. Noah McNeely: Well, sometimes I have to help people realize it is a problem because, like I said, a lot of visionary people and a lot of entrepreneurs, like myself, we do tend to love that visionary phase. Noah McNeely: And we think that’s the most important thing. Noah McNeely: It’s not. Noah McNeely: It’s actually one of the least important and easiest parts of having a successful business.
Noah McNeely: So think about it this way. Noah McNeely: Think about all the little boys who dream about winning a Super Bowl as the quarterback. Noah McNeely: Now, you can’t just keep dreaming about winning a. Super Bowl. Noah McNeely: That’s great. Noah McNeely: That’s a wonderful vision. Noah McNeely: But if you don’t start exercising and training and learning the game, you’ll never play on a team, much less get to the Super Bowl. Steven Julian: So it’s a difference between being a Super Bowl quarterback and being Uncle Rico sitting on the front step saying, if Coach had put me in that game, we would have won the state that year. Noah McNeely: That’s exactly right. Noah McNeely: And there are no time machines that will get you back there. Steven Julian: Exactly. Steven Julian: So portfolio management, to use the term of the Fortune 500 companies, is really them kind of categorizing or siloing or insert other corporate term here. Steven Julian: But really, it’s checking boxes. Steven Julian: It’s laying it out in steps.
Steven Julian: Is that something that you, as the person with Product Quick Start, is trying to help people say, okay, here are the 17 steps that we’re going to have to take? Steven Julian: Or is it just getting them focused on creating the 17 steps? Steven Julian: Kind of talk through that process. Steven Julian: Someone’s got an idea, and then someone starts to spiral into too many ideas. Steven Julian: The portfolio management that you do, not for the Fortune 500, but for the individual. Steven Julian: entrepreneur and inventor, what do you try to bring to the table? Noah McNeely: Yeah, so it’s really launch your product in 375 easy steps. Noah McNeely: No, it’s not. Noah McNeely: There’s really only two questions. Steven Julian: I thought it was 367 steps. Noah McNeely: We revised it last year. Noah McNeely: Oh, okay. Noah McNeely: So there’s really only two. Noah McNeely: Two questions that I ask people to consider when they’re trying to prioritize the features of their product or which product to develop or which product to develop when. Noah McNeely: And with the assumption that inventor entrepreneurs, you probably don’t have five people or 20 people on a team that you’re paying to do all the analysis. Noah McNeely: And yeah, you go to a really big company and they’re going to ask a lot more than these two questions. Noah McNeely: At least they’re going to ask a lot more versions of these two questions. Noah McNeely: But the two questions I tell people to consider is, number one, what can I get to the market with my resources? Noah McNeely: And of course, I can help them try to figure that out. Noah McNeely: This is how much it’s going to take to develop this product, to make the tooling for it, to produce it. Noah McNeely: So we have to be. Noah McNeely: realistic about what resources you have to actually get that to the market. Noah McNeely: And that may mean you can’t launch five at a time. Noah McNeely: Now, I’ve had some clients that are just independently wealthy, and yeah, they can do it. Noah McNeely: They have the resources for that. Noah McNeely: It can still be a bad idea in those cases because a resource that people often overlook is their own time, their own focus, their own ability to strategize and think about their business. Noah McNeely: So the second question is, what can I sell? Noah McNeely: You know, what will I be able to sell? Noah McNeely: So, yeah, this is a great idea. Noah McNeely: I have the funds to develop it. Noah McNeely: I have the resources to develop it. Noah McNeely: But is there a market for it? Noah McNeely: And is it a market that I understand well enough to actually sell? Noah McNeely: And the answer to either of those questions is no. Noah McNeely: Then that’s probably not the product you should develop first. Noah McNeely: You need to focus on the product or the collection of features in your product. Noah McNeely: that both of those answers are yes. Steven Julian: And I know we’ve talked about variations of those questions over past episodes. Steven Julian: Encourage everybody to go back and. Steven Julian: listen to Noah’s past episodes on Product Genius. Noah McNeely: Product Genius is brought to you by Opu Probiotics. Noah McNeely: Pre and probiotics you can pour directly on your tongue in delicious mint and mocha flavors. Steven Julian: But the taste is just the beginning. Noah McNeely: With Opu, you can see improved digestive function, boosted immune system, easier weight management, improved mental health, and much more. Noah McNeely: Try today at GetOpu.com. Steven Julian: That’s GetOpu.com. Steven Julian: Let me focus in on the second question. Steven Julian: first, because I think… The typical inventor entrepreneur who sits down with you, especially with their first idea, and you ask them that question, you know, what can I sell? Steven Julian: Can this sell? Steven Julian: Their answer, bar none, is going to be, well, of course this is going to sell. Steven Julian: It’s a fantastic idea. Steven Julian: I came up with this. Steven Julian: It came in a bolt of lightning. Steven Julian: Everybody who brings you any idea is going to tell you, well, of course it’s going to sell. Steven Julian: It’s fantastic. Noah McNeely: Yeah, I’ve heard variations of, well, why wouldn’t you buy this if you could buy it? Noah McNeely: I’ve probably heard a hundred variations of that throughout the course of my career.
Steven Julian: You’re a communist pig if you don’t buy this, of course. Steven Julian: This is great. Steven Julian: Sorry, that was my insertion, not Noah’s. Steven Julian: My apologies. Noah McNeely: Yeah, so we’re going to remain politically apolitical here as best we can. Noah McNeely: Uh, yeah. Noah McNeely: So a lot of, um, a lot of inventor entrepreneurs, they’re so enamored by their idea. Noah McNeely: They just can’t imagine it not being successful. Noah McNeely: And then they’re like, well, as soon as people see this, they’re going to want it. Noah McNeely: That may be true. Noah McNeely: And that, that in some ways that for most people, that probably is true. Noah McNeely: The question becomes, how do you reach those people? Noah McNeely: And that’s also part of how do you sell it? Noah McNeely: Can you sell it? Noah McNeely: Uh, so if you’ve got a, it’s a product that, oh, everyone would use it. Noah McNeely: Well, that’s almost the worst kind of product for an inventor because. Noah McNeely: You don’t have the marketing budget to reach everybody. Noah McNeely: If it’s more focused, like, well, people that have teenage girls that want to learn how to play golf, you can reach that market a lot easier and in a more forceful way. Noah McNeely: So that’s also part of, you know, what’s it going to take to sell this? Noah McNeely: Not necessarily even, do I have the sales? Noah McNeely: skills? Noah McNeely: You can always hire someone to do that for you, but it’s got to be. Noah McNeely: Do I have the resources not only to design, develop, produce this product, but do I have the resources to sell it? Noah McNeely: What are those resources going to be? Steven Julian: And in your help in answering that question, because I was kind of pushing back against the question, the second question you asked there, what can I sell? Steven Julian: You have to drill down and you have to ask that question more specifically or they have to answer that question more specifically because really what you’re asking is, is there a market for this? Steven Julian: Can the person define the market? Steven Julian: Can you sell it? Steven Julian: Meaning the person who’s got the idea, how would you sell it? Steven Julian: So let me then ask this in helping them answer that question. Steven Julian: How much is it you trying to get them to have their eyes open to all the all that that’s going to entail of selling the product? Steven Julian: or and or how much is it you saying, if you’ll listen to me, I’ve had a lot of experience and I’ve done this for a long time and I’ve done. Steven Julian: this. Steven Julian: On corporate level and individual level, here’s what I believe and I know surrounding what you’ve just told me about this idea. Noah McNeely: It’s a little bit of both. Noah McNeely: It depends on who I’m talking to and how receptive they are. Steven Julian: Ah, there we go. Noah McNeely: Different people with different personalities. Noah McNeely: You know, it’s kind of like the old Aesop’s fables, the way he would teach very powerful people lessons without insulting them, as he would tell a story about someone else who was fictional. Noah McNeely: They would maybe learn a lesson about. Noah McNeely: So sometimes I have to do that. Noah McNeely: And it comes along as, you know, I have to say, you know, look, I’m not into sales. Noah McNeely: I’m not into marketing. Noah McNeely: I design, build, and create stuff. Noah McNeely: I can help you fill a warehouse full of product. Noah McNeely: That’s no problem. Noah McNeely: We got that. Noah McNeely: What I can’t help you do is I can’t help you sell. Noah McNeely: I can’t help you market. Noah McNeely: I can tell you what I’ve seen other people do and what that’s cost them. Noah McNeely: And oftentimes that loan and going through that process is enough to help them realize, oh, I hadn’t thought about that. Noah McNeely: I hadn’t thought about that. Noah McNeely: I am going to need a budget for that. Noah McNeely: And so sometimes I approach it that way. Noah McNeely: Sometimes people come in and they do have a lot of really good business savvy, business knowledge, business experience. Noah McNeely: They understand that right up front. Noah McNeely: I have to do a lot less in those cases. Noah McNeely: Sometimes in those cases, it’s more about explaining why it costs so much to make this product or that product or whatever it is. Steven Julian: So let me just ask Noah McNeely, the Product Quick Start CEO and the guy who’s done this for more than a few years, although you only look like you’ve been doing it for a few years. Noah McNeely: Well, hair dye goes a long way. Steven Julian: Exactly. Steven Julian: And flattery will get me everywhere. Steven Julian: Do you enjoy to an extent when someone who’s just starting out in this, it’s their first idea, they’ve never run a business, but they’re receptive to your kind of expertise and guidance. Steven Julian: There’s that that’s satisfying. Steven Julian: As well as the satisfying of kind of someone with some business savvy who knows the business stuff and you don’t have to spend as much time on that and you can really just focus on. Steven Julian: the product development. Steven Julian: Is there a preference one where this is just a personal question I’m asking at this point? Noah McNeely: That is a very difficult question. Noah McNeely: Exactly. Steven Julian: I’m slightly annoyed. Noah McNeely: It’s very individual based. Steven Julian: This is a relational thing for you, right? Steven Julian: This is a relational business, even for you and this. Noah McNeely: I’ll put you this way. Noah McNeely: I’m at a point in my career, I’ve done this long enough, I don’t usually have to work with people I dislike. Noah McNeely: Now, I will do my best to help anyone. Noah McNeely: Even if I dislike you, I will try to point you in a good direction, sometimes to someone I don’t like, but also. Noah McNeely: They don’t know that. Noah McNeely: Yeah, they don’t know that. Noah McNeely: No, but either can be good. Noah McNeely: I think it’s better for me to answer this from the standpoint of what’s the worst type of relationship. Steven Julian: Oh, there we go. Noah McNeely: That’s where someone comes in and they’ve never developed a product before. Noah McNeely: They don’t know anything about it, but they saw something on TV. Noah McNeely: So now they’re an expert or they stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Noah McNeely: So now they’re an expert and they come in and they’re like, this is how you’re going to do it. Noah McNeely: This is how you’re going to do it. Noah McNeely: And I’m like, well, why are you here? Noah McNeely: How am I supposed to help you? Noah McNeely: You know everything already. Noah McNeely: Even though everything you just told me is completely wrong. Noah McNeely: I know you’ve read a book about it that some idiot wrote who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but that’s not how you do it. Noah McNeely: That’s not how the real world works. Noah McNeely: So those are not good relationships. Noah McNeely: Those usually end quickly. Noah McNeely: The other side of that is people that they just cannot accept what I’m telling them. Noah McNeely: So here’s the problem you have. Noah McNeely: And if you cannot solve this problem, You don’t have a business. Noah McNeely: Now, that’s just my opinion, but my opinion is based on a lot of experience, and some people just, they get really irritated about that, and I never hear from them again, and that’s probably for the best for me. Noah McNeely: But unfortunately, they then go out and they find an engineer who’s just happy to take their money, and they’ll spend a year. Noah McNeely: Dumping thousands of dollars into making something that they can never afford to produce or. Noah McNeely: that it’s never going to sell or it’s just the wrong market. Steven Julian: I like the way you answered that question. Steven Julian: Well done. Steven Julian: I asked a difficult question. Steven Julian: Noah gave a great answer to it. Steven Julian: So let me transition from the second question you asked of what can I sell. Steven Julian: And let’s kind of circle back real quick to that first question. Steven Julian: What can I get to the market with my resources? Steven Julian: This is a… Another way of kind of talking about minimum viable products. Steven Julian: So what do you need to know from the person that you’re talking to? Steven Julian: when it comes, because that word resources, let me unpack that just a little bit more. Steven Julian: You know, what can I get to the market with my resources? Steven Julian: You kind of need to know some things. Steven Julian: How much money do you have? Steven Julian: How much time do you have? Steven Julian: Kind of break that down. Noah McNeely: Yeah, I need them to be honest with themselves and with me.
Noah McNeely: Stuff costs what it costs. Noah McNeely: You know, I can’t work for free. Noah McNeely: Most people cannot. Noah McNeely: It doesn’t do you or me any good for you to come in and wear a fancy suit, pretend like you have. Noah McNeely: all this money, and then you don’t. Noah McNeely: Because then you and I are going to talk and go, hey, this is generally what this is going to cost. Noah McNeely: And you’re going to get one or two steps into that and say, oh, I can’t afford to go any further. Noah McNeely: Well, it’s like, well, why did you waste the money on the first two steps? Noah McNeely: I told you what it was going to cost to get this far. Noah McNeely: It’s like, I don’t know. Noah McNeely: Well. Noah McNeely: I can’t refund your money. Noah McNeely: All the work is done. Noah McNeely: The prototypes are built. Noah McNeely: Whatever it is, that’s done. Noah McNeely: I’m sorry you can’t take it any further, but I don’t know what you want me to do. Noah McNeely: Go out and raise some money and come back in a few years, I guess. Noah McNeely: So that’s kind of the worst scenario there. Noah McNeely: I think I do need to do my best to explain to them, and I try my very best to this where I can. Noah McNeely: This is generally what it’s going to take. Noah McNeely: Hear what they’re trying to do. Noah McNeely: I’ll lay out a scope. Noah McNeely: Okay, the first phase is to get us to a prototype. Noah McNeely: I can give. Noah McNeely: that a pretty tight number. Noah McNeely: If there’s stuff in there, I don’t know. Noah McNeely: Yeah, I don’t know. Noah McNeely: Are we going to end up in this material or that material? Noah McNeely: Beyond that, I have to give an estimated range. Noah McNeely: And then I can give my best guess at what the manufacturing is going to cost. Noah McNeely: But I can’t, you know, obviously on day one, nothing’s been designed. Noah McNeely: So I don’t know exactly what that is going to cost at the back end. Noah McNeely: So I do my best to open their eyes to what the costs are going to be. Noah McNeely: And also a little bit, you know, you’re going to have to have money for marketing. Noah McNeely: If you’re going to do a patent, I’ll send them to Brock, who you may know from other shows. Noah McNeely: All that’s going to take money. Noah McNeely: You may have to prioritize what you want to spend your money on and how you want to spend it. Noah McNeely: And I think actually in our next episode, we have some ideas about that. Steven Julian: Ooh, fellow with a tease. Noah McNeely: A slight tease, yes. Noah McNeely: I like that. Steven Julian: Well done. Noah McNeely: I am not a radio professional. Steven Julian: You just played one on this podcast. Steven Julian: So let me just, again, push back slightly on the word resources. Steven Julian: So we are talking about money. Steven Julian: There’s no question. Steven Julian: that is the main. Noah McNeely: Not just money. Steven Julian: Well, that was my question. Steven Julian: Don’t take my question away from me. Steven Julian: You definitely are not a professional when you did that. Noah McNeely: Clearly not. Steven Julian: So apart from money, what other resources can people bring to the table that you need to know about that will help you in helping them develop their products? Steven Julian: See how I did that? Steven Julian: Was that good? Steven Julian: All right. Noah McNeely: Thank you. Noah McNeely: So you may have other resources in terms of people in your network. Noah McNeely: You know, if you come in and say, I have this great idea and it’s for, you know, baseball players and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Noah McNeely: And okay, that’s great. Noah McNeely: But you don’t tell me, oh, and by the way, my cousin plays Major League Baseball. Noah McNeely: Well, you know, that’s a resource that we could know about. Noah McNeely: that can actually change my mind about how you would market this. Noah McNeely: Oh, well, maybe you don’t need all this money for marketing because your cousin can endorse it. Noah McNeely: Well, that may change what I advise you. Noah McNeely: on. Noah McNeely:
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