This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to a brand new week of Setasil School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. I have an incredible story for you today. It's heartwarming.
And it's also just a different kind of idea that we haven't really looked at before. This story features an ad executive and former copywriter for the U.S. Marine Corps who becomes a DIY teddy bear supplier, offering what he calls a military grade sleep system for children. From not knowing anything about the world of teddy bears, because there is quite a world of teddy bears, he ends up receiving a shipping container of thousands of them arriving in his driveway. He then grows the business to $100,000 in sales last year and even gets into Target stores.
But it turns out that getting into Target stores was a bust because he does better selling them on his own and through boutiques. Now, as a bonus, in today's episode, you'll also learn what a group of bears is called. Do you know already? I did not. Stay tuned for the answer.
And also bear with me, this enthralling Earth Sign episode is coming right up. [Music]
Justin Baum is the full-time creative director for the in-house advertising agency at Lenovo, the second largest PC company on the planet. His company developed ThinkPad computers, Moto phones, and much more. But before his job at Lenovo from 2005 to 2012, Justin was the lead writer of recruitment advertising for the United States Marine Corps. It was while he was working there that he was inspired by the men and women serving in uniform.
They made him want to give back. And when his own daughter, at the same time, had 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's ready to protect you while you sleep.
Well, what if he falls asleep, his daughter asks. Great question, but Justin was prepared. He reassured her saying he's a marine. He would never fail at his mission. That night, his daughter slept like a bear in hibernation.
A light bulb went off in Justin's head. If this worked for his daughter, perhaps it could work for other children. He then developed the concept of Sargent Sleep Tight, a full-fledged military grade sleep system that protects children from bad dreams, fear of the dark, and the nighttime anxieties that come from having a deployed parent. Now this is not your run-of-the-mill teddy bear. Sargent Sleep Tight comes equipped with a door hanger warning nighttime monsters that he's on guard, a Sleep Tight oath to be read with your child before bed, which officially puts your bear on duty, and a silver slumber star to be awarded to your child for sleeping through the night.
Like I said, a full-on system, and the project was called Z Bears, like Z Bears with three Zs. So we could say Z Bears, or Zz Bears. But I think I'm just gonna say Z Bears. Now when first starting out, Justin had no idea how to get a teddy bear made, so he did what most of us would do in that situation. He went back to college.
He took a four-year course in teddy bear manufacturing. He then earned a master's degree, and in a way, actually, sorry, I'm reading this wrong here. He actually just Googled it, one sentence, how to make teddy bears. Okay, that was easier. That Google search led him to Alibaba, the gateway to manufacturing.
He then typed in teddy bears and got back hundreds of manufacturers. He narrowed his search to ones with experience making military uniforms, and then found one willing to do a small run of 200 orders. 200 bears coming right up. Prototyping turned out to be easier than expected. When it came to finding styles of bears he liked, Justin would send his manufacturer pictures.
He would cobble these together, a snout from this one, a patch of fur from that one, until he was satisfied with what they had. It was essentially the Frankenstein's monster of bears, except not nearly as creepy. Supposed to protect kids, not give them nightmares. The greater problem came when he sourced his first order. To do this, he wired a guy several thousand dollars via Western Union, which is still a thing, from his local grocery store.
Justin figured he had a 50/50 shot of the whole thing panning out, but about a month later, the bears arrived safely on his front door. Fortunately, that supplier was honest. Unfortunately, that supplier's quality was good, but not great, and these bears deserve greatness. To find a new manufacturer, Justin used the power of Facebook, connecting with another plush product designer named Juan, who had just gotten his product into Walmart. Juan referred him to his manufacturer, and that was two years ago, and Justin still uses the same one today.
The new manufacturer has been instrumental in helping him grow the business, good communication, fair prices, and he even makes prototypes in small batches for free. In the modern fable of Goldilocks and Z bears, that manufacturer was just right. Now let's talk about startup costs. Costs per Z bears were moderate in the beginning. Justin found one of his friends who's a graphic designer to make the logo and accessories.
He then built a simple, inexpensive website through Squarespace, and just like that, he had himself a fully functional e-commerce business. That was it. He was up and running, he just had to buy those bears. His very first sale was from his sister. Good work, sis, thanks for helping out.
But he didn't stop just at selling to his family. On a whim, Justin sent a private message through Facebook to the Marine Corps Exchange. The exchanges are the stores on the bases that sell everything from diapers to alcohol to TVs. The toy buyer there was impressed, and a week later they had a deal. But there was just one problem.
There always is, you know. There was just one problem. She wanted those bears to be in a retail box. In other words, she liked the concept, but not that first batch he had produced. Those bears had to go into hibernation.
Despite the setback, Justin pulled it off with a new batch of bears. And a year later, he got into the exchanges for the Navy and the Coast Guard. Naturally, each one wanted bears in their respective branches' uniforms. The name Sergeant Sleeptight didn't work because neither the Navy nor the Coast Guard has sergeants. Another fun fact.
So in addition to the new bears, Justin had to trademark new names as well, Sailor Sleeptight and Coasty Sleeptight. These new bears were spreading. By the way, side note, what is a group of bears called? I honestly did not know. And so, just like Justin, I also went back to college and, you know, just typed something into Google.
And a group of bears, here's what comes up in that extensive research. A group of bears can be called a sloth, pack, mall, or sleuth. How about that, a sleuth of bears? However, many bears are solitary animals, so they don't often travel together in groups. That's why you don't often hear of a sloth or a pack or a mall or a sleuth of bears.
Now back to our story, everything was going great. Justin was doing everything with the business along with his wife, no third parties. They were doing all their own shipping and fulfillment. The bears arriving in shipping containers from China. And as much of a challenge as it was when those containers showed up in his driveway, the burden was bearable.
Justin was ready for the next step. And when he had the chance to meet with buyers from Target, he thought he'd found it. After one 20-minute meeting with those buyers in a Miami hotel room, Justin had won them over. They loved the bears, or at least he thought they did. They agreed to stock them in 500 stores, or at least he thought they did.
It turned out that getting his bears into Target wasn't all it was cracked up to be. On the day his bears were supposed to arrive on the shelves, Justin called his local store just to make sure they were available, and it turns out they weren't. What's worse is the guy on the phone, the store manager, had no idea what Justin was talking about. He then called another store and had the same experience. Then, in an act of tenacity, Justin hired three students from his local college to call all 500 locations to see if the bears were displayed.
Turns out, a fair amount hadn't even heard of them. Many of them had them in stock, but didn't put them on display. One store even discounted them on their first day. As the weeks went on, Justin kept checking sales numbers. Much to his disappointment, they were not very good.
In a sea full of products, his brand of six bears wasn't standing out, and he didn't have the marketing dollars to make a meaningful push. He decided to make a change and focus elsewhere. However, being on the shelves of Target, at least the ones that actually stocked him, did earn Justin some street cred, and it allowed him to approach outlets like ABC's The View. So it wasn't a total loss. Z Bears gives back with every purchase, donating bears to children who have lost a parent in the line of duty through their partnership with the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation and with TAPS.
So what's next for this CEO of Z Bears? And by the way, he really does call himself the CEO. Well, in 2017, he did just over $100,000 in sales with $10,000 in profit. And he says 2019 will be a pivotal year. He still insists on asking his audience for help and believes in Facebook as a great way to receive immediate feedback.
When he posts a question regarding a product they're developing, he gets hundreds of replies. He says this kind of research used to cost a lot of money, but now it's practically free. Plus the interaction builds relationships and his audience feels more invested in the success of Z Bears. Justin started this project with little knowledge of manufacturing, little knowledge of retailing, and no idea how to get his sleeping sentries out to kids. But as you now know, the lack of knowledge is no barrier to entry.
All right, here is a fun fact and a quote. Fun fact about this story, and by the way, congrats to Justin, fantastic story. Justin once received a 20-foot container from China full of bears at his front door and had to unload 4,000 of those bears, Teddy Bears that is, down his driveway into his house. He says the laundry room became the assembly room and his garage became the warehouse. How about that?
As always with "Side Hustle School," truth is stranger than fiction. Now here's a good quote as well, which is kind of like a bonus lesson to this whole episode, which I think is just inspiring and interesting for all kinds of people. But the quote is, "Growing up, my mom used to tell me how good I was at everything, from drawing to baseball to brushing my teeth. I now realize it was a well-meaning lie. Nobody is good at everything.
So be brutally honest in assessing your strengths and weaknesses, then get help. Find people you need, put them to work and stay focused on what you do best. P.S. I love you, mom." I love that because it's actually a very dangerous thing to be sort of good at a lot of different things. The challenge when you're sort of good at a lot of things is that you never become truly great at something and you just end up becoming above average, which is nice, but wouldn't it be greater to be great?
So good for him for figuring out the universal truth that none of us are good at everything is much better to understand what you're good at and what you're not. And last but not least, as I conclude this episode, do wanna say a shout out to all of our active duty military and veterans, as well as support staff who are listening to Cytosville School. You guys are amazing. Thank you for your service. Not only those who are in the USA, but elsewhere as well.
And listeners, whether you're part of the military or not, thank you for being part of this community. You're amazing too. I'm excited to hear what you're working on, what you're up to, and what your crazy success story is going to be. It's gonna be hard to top getting a 20-foot container from China arriving at your door with 4,000 teddy bears. But hey, anything is possible.
The best is yet to come. I really do believe that. So don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, if you wanna check out Zz Bears, just go to sidehustleschool.com/604. That is episode 604.
How about that? Also, we're working on revising the Five Steps to Hustle course, which is completely free on that website. So if you haven't picked that up, you can go and do that and look for a new and improved version very soon. I'm now gonna sign off for the day. Thank you for bearing with me.
I know it can be unbearable at times, but it is my job to bear that responsibility, bringing you these stories every single day. So stay tuned, much more on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School.
