STORY: Military-Themed Teddy Bears Help Kids Hibernate

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey friends, what's up? Hope you are doing well. Hope you have been well. We have come to the end of a year. It is the end of the ninth year of Side Hustle School.

It's also the end of the year in general. Now, of course, you could be listening at any time. You might be listening far into the future, but for those who are here in real time, I wanna say thank you for being around this year. What a year it's been. We've had so much change, so many different stories, so many case studies, questions and answers, and just a remarkable community.

So I'm so grateful to be able to have made the show for you all this time. And without further ado, I wanna get into a story that I'm really excited to bring to you. And what's it all about? Well, it is in fact about military grade teddy bears. What am I talking about?

Well, okay, let's, how do we set it up? Where do we start? Military themed teddy bears help kids hibernate. One of my favorite, favorite, favorite stories of all time. It is pretty incredible.

It's heartwarming. It's also just a different idea that we haven't ever looked at before in this way, at least. It features an ad executive and former copywriter for the US Marine Corps, who becomes a DIY teddy bear supplier, offering what he calls a military grade sleep system for children. If that sounds intimidating, we're really just talking about teddy bears here. Teddy bears that help kids sleep.

Teddy bears for kids of military parents. This guy grows the business to six figures. He even gets into target stores. Years later, he's still operating. So I'll mention that a little bit at the end.

But first let's talk about how he got going, how he got this idea, how he made it happen. Maybe this is gonna spark something for you. That's always my hope with the podcast for all of these episodes. So without further ado, military themed teddy bears help kids hibernate. [Music]

Justin Baum is the creative director for the in-house advertising agency at Lenovo.

Lenovo is the second largest PC company on the planet, designing ThinkPad computers, Moto phones, much more. But before his job at Lenovo, he was the head writer of recruitment, recruitment advertising for the United States Marine Corps. And it was while working there that Justin was stirred by the men and women serving in uniform that made him want to give back. Inspired by his own daughter's difficulty sleeping through the night, Justin had an idea. He decided to bring his daughter home a teddy bear in a marine sweatshirt.

He then told her a story introducing him as a marine bear who has protected the nation for more than 200 years. Now he told her he's ready to protect you while you sleep. Well, what if he falls asleep, his daughter asked, which was a pretty good question, right? But Justin reassured her he's a marine. He would never fail at his mission.

That night, as Justin put it, his daughter slept like a bear in hibernation. And Justin thought, well, if this worked for his daughter, perhaps it could work for other kids. He developed the idea of Sargent Sleep Tight, a full-fledged military grade sleep system that protects kids from bad dreams, fear of the dark, and the nighttime anxieties that come from having a deployed parent. Remember, there are lots of men and women out serving overseas for a long period of time. And so this teddy bear, it's not your run of the mill bear, Sargent Sleep Tight comes equipped with a door hanger, warning nighttime monsters that he's on guard, comes with a sleep tight oath to be read with your child before bed, that officially puts the bear on duty, and a silver slumber star to be awarded to your child for sleeping through the night.

The project was called Z Bears. It's actually three Zs, so ZZ Z Bears, Z Bears. When first starting out, Justin had no idea how to get a teddy bear made. So he did what most of us do, and we want to figure something out. He went online, he searched, and a search led him to Alibaba, the gateway to manufacturing.

He typed in teddy bears and got back hundreds of manufacturers. He narrowed his search to ones with experience making military uniforms, and finally found one willing to do a small run of 200 orders. Prototyping was easier than expected. When it came to finding styles of bears he liked, Justin would send his manufacturer pictures, and he would be like, "I want something from this one and something from that one." And Justin was satisfied, or so he thought, with the result. Now the great problem came when he actually sourced his first order, because he wired a guy several thousand dollars via Western Union, which is still a thing.

That's actually how it works still to pay people in Alibaba. So he did that from his grocery store. He figured he had a 50/50 shot of the whole thing working out. And about a month later, the bears arrived safely on his front door. So that was good.

The supplier was honest. Unfortunately, the quality was not great. Quality was good, but not great. And these bears deserved greatness. In order to scale his business, he needed a better manufacturer.

So he used the power of Facebook. He connected with another plush product designer who had just gotten his product into Walmart. Justin formed a relationship with this guy, and that guy referred him to his manufacturer. Two years later, Justin was still using the same supplier. This new manufacturer has been instrumental in helping Justin grow the business.

Communication's been great. The prices are fair. He even makes prototypes in small batches. Next, Justin found one of his friends, who's a graphic designer. Got him to design the logo and accessories, the door hanger, the sleep tight oath, and stickers.

He then built a website through Squarespace. Just like that, Justin had himself a fully functional e-commerce business. He's now up and running. He just has to sell those bears. This is where things took a turn.

On a whim, Justin sent a private message through Facebook to the Marine Corps Exchange. The exchanges are like the stores on military bases that sell everything from diapers to alcohol to TVs. The toy buyer was impressed, and a week later, they had a deal. There was just one problem. She wanted the bears to be in a Marine uniform in a retail box.

In other words, she liked the concept, but not that first batch she had produced that didn't have all that going on. No Marine uniform, no retail box, et cetera. So despite the setback, Justin got to work. A year later, he got into the Navy exchanges and the Coast Guard. Each one wanted bears in their respective branches' uniforms.

Sergeant Sleep Tight didn't work because neither the Navy nor the Coast Guard has sergeants, fun fact. So in addition to the new bears, Justin had to trademark new names as well, introducing Sailor Sleep Tight and Coasty Sleep Tight. Coasty for the Coast Guard, sailor for the Navy. He soon expanded further to include the Army and the Air Force in addition to the first three military branches. His accessory products have also grown, including the Operation Bedtime Storybook, customized embroidered patches, and drawstring bags with the ZZZ Bear logo, ZZZ Bear.

It's just, you gotta say it that way. Justin still does everything himself along with his wife, no third parties. That includes shipping and fulfillment. The bears come in shipping containers from China, and Justin and his wife handle everything from online orders of one to the orders of 1,000 or more from the military exchanges. He's also been in Target stores.

That was a little bit difficult, just a lot of growth at once. Turned out he might be better at selling them directly himself, but he's grown to seven SKUs, which makes inventory management and cashflow a tough balancing act. I think he's actually got more than seven SKUs now. That was the original recording, seven SKUs. Justin still insists on asking his audience for help.

He believes in social media as a great way to receive immediate feedback. Whenever he posts a question about a product he's developing, they typically get hundreds of replies. And he says, you know, this kind of research used to cost thousands of dollars, but now it is practically free. And also the interaction builds relationships. His audience feels more invested in the success of the bears.

Like any good side hustler, Justin has had to figure it out as he went along, but as he bears up for more change and growth, the lack of knowledge is no barrier to entry. [Music]

As I said, it's one of my favorite stories of all time from Side Hustle School, and Zee Bears, Zee Zee Zee Bears is still out there. Check out Zee Zee Bears dot com, or Zee Zee Zee Bears dot com if you prefer. I think it's actually the same internet address, just pronounced differently. Websites now sells bears for nurses and first responders, as well as all five military branches, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.

So great to see this project is still going just like so many projects that have started over the years since we first began the podcast. I'm not gonna get emotional because I'm gonna be back next week. I'll just say inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Thank you for being out there, my friends. Happy New Year.

This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]

from the Onward Project.