This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Have you ever heard the phrase necessity breeds invention? Let's talk about physical therapy or PT. PT is a life changer for many people, myself included. Long ago when I was first learning to run long distances, I got injured, most likely because I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't stretch well, I didn't cross train enough, I added too much distance too quickly. And the one thing that fixed me after lots of different attempts, I went to different doctors, specialists, the one thing that really fixed me was going to PT.
And it wasn't just the treatment that they did, but also the education they gave me. So I remain grateful to my physical therapist who helped bring me back to life many years ago. And today's story features one of those physical therapists, not mine, but another guy who develops a physical product called the neck hammock. Now this product comes about because he's trying to remedy his own workout injuries, and he invents this portable device to relieve pain. He then patents the device and sells 57,000 of them.
Yes, 57,000 neck hammocks. If you sell a product, don't miss the website critique I do at the end. I took a look at his site like I often do in researching these stories. And I thought, wow, there are several things here that we can learn from. So stay tuned, here's a quick thank you to our sponsor.
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Steve Sudell works as a physical therapist at a clinic in Venice, California. He provides personalized and sports focused exercises to athletes before competition to help reduce and possibly prevent injuries associated with intense physical activity. His side hustle is the neck hammock, a portable device that attaches to any door or railing and promises to provide medical grade cervical traction. It came about first from his own needs. As someone who grew up playing sports, Steve had dealt with neck pain over the years, and there wasn't much he could do on his own besides going to see a chiropractor or physical therapist.
Once he became a PT himself, he learned more about this concept of cervical traction. It was a treatment that worked for him every time. He also saw it work over and over with his own patients. But still, to get this treatment, you had to go to the clinic and use a $2,000 machine. Then one day he was working out and tweaked his neck again.
He decided he wanted to recreate the concept of cervical traction at home, so he took a long resistance band and wrapped it around a pole. He laid down on it for 10 minutes and his neck pain was gone. Steve knew he was onto something, but making it wasn't simple. He spent the next two and a half years going from concept to product, and he had some specific requirements. It had to fit snugly and securely around the back of your head, yet it also had to be comfortable.
It had to be portable. He wanted something that you could put in your sock drawer at home or take with you on the road. And last but not least, it had to be affordable. Most people aren't gonna make an impulse purchase of a $2,000 machine. So he made it, learning along the way.
In fact, he says that's been the greatest and most unexpected benefit of the process. He learned about digital marketing, design, accounting, social media, how retail sales work, and so on. But the education isn't the only benefit. Since launching the neck hammock, Steve has sold over 57,000 units at an average price of $50. He also offers some options and bundles on his website, which I'll come back to at the end.
Much like the story we featured of a guy who creates a tool to keep hair out of the drain, Steve's biggest challenge has been imitators and counterfeiters. He describes it as a systematic problem and says there's always somebody looking to profit off of somebody else's idea. As part of his education process, he'd learned about intellectual property and patents, but that only goes so far. So mostly he tries to stay positive and keep selling his original product. He's got some advice for anyone out there who would like to create a physical product.
First thing is if you have a great idea, don't sit on it. Because everybody's got a good idea, but it's the people who take action. Those are the ones who are gonna be successful. You're always gonna find people who doubt you, people who laugh at your idea, people who tell you it's a bad idea, but you have to listen to your gut, to your intuition. There are so many people out there with good ideas who never do anything about them.
And as a result, they remain stuck in the same position. I think that is so powerful. There are so many people out there with good ideas who never do anything about it. Don't remain stuck, make progress, do something. The next thing he suggests is to take accounting classes, which I know is probably not as exciting as that first thing.
But he says the creative side of a business is super fun, but it's the accounting that keeps you afloat. And last, Steve says the power of people and connections is one of the most undervalued assets that you can have. The more people you can put yourself in contact with and develop positive relationships with, the greater the chance that somewhere down the road it can pay huge dividends. As for what's next, Steve's whole objective was to provide neck pain relief at an affordable price to thousands of people out there who need it. He's currently developing a newer version of the product.
In the future, he hopes to have a whole line of affordable, portable products that can help people in different ways through their whole body. It all started with a pain in the neck, but it became a pain relief profit center. All right, as I mentioned briefly at the top of the show, I had some comments about his website, which I often do, I go and look at the person's website and I ask myself, like, is there some observation or some lesson that we can take away from it? Well, listen, Steve's website is a masterclass in how to sell a physical product. So if you're out there trying to develop and sell a physical product of your own, or even if you just wanna learn more about how people get better at this, you need to come look at his website, which we're gonna link up in the show notes.
And I have no affiliation with them. I just think it's really well done. So a couple of things that really stand out. First thing is like right at the top of the site, there is a super clear promise. And that promise in bold and large text is a simple and portable device for daily neck pain relief in 10 minutes or less, right?
You just get it right away, you know, simple, it's easy. It's gonna make my life better in 10 minutes or less, you know, beautiful. Then as I'm browsing the site, there's an email pop-up that comes up and says, hey, do you want 10% off? You get 10% off if you join the email list, which of course is smart. And I love the option to say no, it says, no thanks, I'm fine with full price.
So if you're interested in this product, why wouldn't you want to join the email list and get the 10% off? Then throughout the whole page, he's got testimonials and endorsements. This provides authority and social proof. And I think it's interesting that he's got testimonials and reviews from medical experts, from athletes, and from regular people, which I think is key because you wanna see that athletes are using this, but you also want to know that people like you are using this because you might not relate to a celebrity or a professional athlete. So in addition to those athletes, he's also got testimonials from people like Caitlin, who's 34 years old and says, I love the neck hammock.
I've been suffering from neck pain for almost a year due to a pinched nerve. Once I started using the neck hammock, I felt immediate relief. You can click a link and read more of those. Then as I'm going down the page, there's a little support team chat that pops up and there's a guy there that says, hey, if you have any questions, I'm here to help. So that demonstrates commitment, reliability, availability.
I know that if I have a question, there's gonna be somebody there. And there are probably several other observations I could make, but the one I want to emphasize is when I click the buy button, it goes to a page where I can choose between three options. The three options are the neck hammock, which is what I thought I was there to buy, or the neck hammock bundle, or the couples bundle. Now the neck hammock costs 50 bucks, $49.99. He's actually got a higher price crossed out.
So you can see that you're already getting a discount. It should be $80, but I'm gonna get it here for 50 bucks. But I could upgrade and get the neck hammock bundle, which includes one neck hammock, one eye mask, the daily stretch ebook, and one cooling pain relief rub. That is $70 and includes free US shipping. The couples bundle is the high end purchase.
It is for $109. It basically includes two of everything. Now I would imagine looking at this page that what he's trying to do is push people from just buying the neck hammock to buying the neck hammock bundle. I'm sure there are some people who buy the couples bundle, but I bet he sells the most of the neck hammock bundle, the one in the middle. So he's taking people from an average selling price of $50 and getting them to spend an average price of $70, which is a pretty big improvement, especially when you start adding this up over hundreds and thousands and now tens of thousands of orders.
So there is a lot you can learn from that just from looking at that page and understanding how he's done what he's done. So don't steal his idea and make a neck hammock. He's got that covered, but do look and see what he's learned and the best practices that he's applied. These kinds of tweaks and improvements can go a long way. Once you have a quality product, your next task is to figure out how to sell it and how to get it in the hands of people who need it.
So obviously he's done very well with that. Thanks so much, Steve. I appreciate you letting us share your story. And listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. Pay attention to Steve's advice.
If you've got a great idea, don't sit on it. And if you'd like to see the show notes for today's episode, which will of course include links to his site, just come to sidehustleschool.com/661. We are starting the week off well. I've got so much more coming up. Do come back tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
