From Army to Innovation: Inventing a Topical Delivery System

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, welcome back.
Another episode of FirstResponder Financial Freedom.
And today got Tyler myself andthrough the power of the
internet, somebody that I knewgrowing up as a child.
Him and his family were closewith mine and through the power
of face space we got connectedsomehow.
So today on the show we gotAndrew Burnett, hailing from the

(00:21):
great state of Florida, andAndrew comes to us a little bit
different path than what wenormally talk about with real
estate and firefighters andwhatnot, but he did nine years
in the Army, retired as a CBRNEofficer.
He's got a chemistry degreefrom a school up in Erie and, as
you can tell, clearly not thatintelligent.

(00:43):
No, I'm just kidding.
I mean, I don't even know whathalf that stuff is, but you're
making our pedigree look likepitiful but no man.
Andrew, welcome to the show,and if you would just tell
everybody, like the coupleminute version of who you are
and where you come from?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
how we ended up here.
Yeah, so Andrew Burnett, I amthe founder and inventor of Be
Well Therapeutics.
So yeah, I originally hail fromWashington, pennsylvania, and
found my way in Ormond Beach,florida.
It's been a dream ever since nosnow down here.
It's been fun.
But you know, I invented atopical delivery system is what
I've done.

(01:23):
So it came from spawning for mywife.
She's a dermatologist that hashand eczema and after two weeks
of not sleeping I was like, hey,friend, what are we doing here?
Why are you still waking me up?
And she's like I can't get itto clear.
I'm like, okay, I get it.
So I made the importantquestion and said, hey, if I
make something, are you going touse it?
And she said, yeah.
I was like okay, cool.
So One night, you know, she hada smelly candle burning in the
house and I was playing with thewax because I had nothing

(01:44):
better to do.
I realized my hands were reallysoft.
I was like, hmm, that's cool.
I mean I knew it would happen.
But then I started thinking,you know, the juices started
flowing.
I was like, I wonder, if Istart treating fabric with this,
if it would do anything.
So I had some beeswax in mygarage.
So I used to assemble jetengines for GE for a little
while.
We would take wax and we'd putit on the tip of our tools to

(02:06):
keep bolts from falling downdeeper in the engine, because
you get fog in the engine andstuff like that goes south.
It's a big deal and it's a badday, so anyway.
So I had some wax in my garage,some beeswax, and I was like
I'm going to try this, see whathappens.
Residuation completelydestroyed my bed sheets Like oil
everywhere.
She said one thing.
She said my skin's softer.

(02:27):
I said okay, cool.
I said I can figure this out.
A couple more R&D iterationslater I had a product.
I gave it to her.
She tried it.
She came back to me a coupleweeks later.
She said my skin's clear.
I said cool, it's great, I cansleep again.
She's like but I did it in lessthan three days.
I said it was taking me over 10before.
It's like holy shit, it workedand uh.

(02:49):
So that was that's kind ofwhere it started.
So after that I uh talked tosome five other derm friends of
mine that are all practicingdermatologists.
Hey guys, this is what I did,this is how it worked, this is.
I was like what do you think Idon't always time, money and
effort on something that'salready out there?
You guys are the pros.
Let me know, I had five doctorsasked me one question.
It was when you come in themarket.
I was like, oh my god, it'ssomething like.

(03:10):
This is this is wild?
So like I guess I got abusiness now.
So, um, so I finished up r d,you know, launched for the
patent and all that fun stuff,and then just been holding on
for dear life.
Um, it's been pretty wild andit's been really awesome just
helping as much people as I can.
This is the sense of purposefrom not being in the Army
anymore.
I was able to connect withpeople again and make a

(03:30):
difference in individual lives.
I haven't worked since Istarted.
It's been so much fun.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Let's talk real quick Briefly explain what eczema is,
I guess, and then what like thenormal course of treatment
would be.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, so.
So my, my materials treat waybeyond eczema.
It's any sort of skin conditioneczema, psoriasis, dry skin, uh
, what anything?
Crepey skin for women thatdon't want to have this fine
wrinkles.
So it doesn't really matter,it's limitless, um, but you know
, eczema is just a.
It's a chronic skin conditionthat there's really no cure for.
It's just a way of managing it.
I mean, there's lots of reallyexpensive drugs out there that

(04:08):
you can take, but for the commonperson it's normally treated
with like a corticosteroid andyou know they apply it and you
know, hopefully it gets better.
The standard care to present isjust a standard white cotton
glove which really just tries tohold topical in place but
really absorbs it.
But you know that's and that'skind of one of the main things
that most people find really fun.

(04:29):
But again it's, it's reallylimitless as far as you know
what you're going after as faras skin is concerned.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Okay, and then so you had the idea.
You said you had the firstiteration in R&D.
How did you know, like how didyou get started with that
process?
Like what did the R&D look like?
Like what did you have tocontact anybody Like, I guess,
like at some point like a patentattorney, things like that.
Like what was the first two orthree steps after you did the

(04:57):
idea?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh, so I worked in the garage where all great
things happened, man, that waswhere it started.
You know things happen, man.
That was where it started.
You know, I just startedmelting wax and you know, I got
a.
I forget how I heated the waxup in my garage but I, you know,
I, I, oh, I had a, um, I have adistillation kit, because I'm a
nerd like that and I got mylittle burner out and I started
melting wax and I was like freakmaterials and then I had like
my little stands I'd like stuffhearing all over him.
It was.
It was pretty cool, you know, I, I.

(05:19):
But uh, you know it got to thepoint where, you know, one of my
machines I was using in my homewas my dryer, and I started
ruining my dryer and I was likeI don't want to keep doing this
and my wife was getting pissed,so I was like I got to get my
own place.
But, yeah, everything juststarted in the garage, you know,
until I kind of launched thepatent and then, you know, once
I had that protection, I couldgo to market and that's how it

(05:49):
all started.
I knew, pretty quick, I think,from beginning to end.
I think I had probably fourmonths of just r&d, but I was
doing it every day, all day, youknow what I mean.
Or on the late night, oiltrying to get it honed down, and
then, um, it was pretty cool.
And then you know some of thestuff that I hit along the way,
like I didn't know that therewas a market for, uh, altered
beeswax you know adulteredbeeswax.
So I had to like kind of figureout a process to like who who
has the best stuff and why is itbetter.
And you know, just kind ofthinking through some of the
problems you know that you wouldhave to from a supplier quality

(06:11):
side and just working throughthe process, but it was, it was
pretty cool so I mean, I wouldimagine how long a time frame
are we talking from when you gotout of the army to when you
started this?
Uh, it was about two and a halfyears.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah.
So it was, uh, yeah, cause I,once I got out of the army, I
went back to school.
I was learning, you know,computer science stuff for a
little bit, and that didn'tquite work out so well.
Uh, and then, um, I got intoreal estate, got my real estate
license.
When I was doing that and I'venever worked so hard and not not
didn't get paid, and I was likethis is bullshit.
It's like, you know, somebodyclear clothes and like they
can't get funding.
I'm like, well, now, what youknow, I was like this is, this

(06:55):
is for the birds, you know.
I was like you know, this isn'tfun.
And then, uh, you know, Istumbled, you know I started day
trading in the stock market andI was like, well, this is
losing money, so I got to stopthis now.
And then this, this happened,and so I've been running with it
ever since.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
OK, yeah, I was just curious about like from when you
went from this purpose to thispurpose.
But that connects some of thedots.
So you kind of have been.
Not necessarily tinker is notthe right word, but like, uh,
you're always out there lookingfor something, right?

Speaker 2 (07:27):
I really miss critical thinking.
You know I didn't realize howmuch I would miss it until it
wasn't there.
You know I was building partsfor jet engines.
I mean that's, I'm a chemist bydegree.
I don't.
I've never done anything likethat before.
I mean it was, you know,problem solving on its finest
every day, and when you stopdoing it's like wow, this,
there's no thought really inreal estate from what I could
offer and I was like this ishere you know, it's like you

(07:49):
know, I can give you a price persquare foot.
Sure, all day long.
Let's, let's go.
You know, that wasn't reallyscratching the itch, right.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
I'm glad my itch is easier to scratch versus
building a jet engine.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
I, yes, yes, I'm a simple being, yes, it was.
So you sat in your garage, uh,you know, four months, mad
scientist style, just you know,cooking up whatever the fresh
batch was and seeing what worked.
So was your wife the uh testsubject for all of this, or were
you using other folks forfeedback, or yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
So I was just given.
You know, after I, you know, Igot her skin right and I knew
that everything was safe.
After a lot of research and,you know, digging through, you
know everything out there, Ijust started giving product away
and that's when I reallystarted learning.
Like my first two months inbusiness, I thought, you know,
this is great for eczema andpsoriasis.
But whenever I started givingthe product away to you know,
get samples, get the name outthere I was getting phone calls

(08:44):
and messages and emails.
Oh my God, this helped myscleroderma.
Oh my God, this helped mycreepy skin.
Oh my God, I was like, what thehell did I do?
It's like, and why is itworking so fast?
What did I really accomplishhere?
And I was beating my headagainst the computer and I was
like, okay, I got a deep dive.
Now what did I really do?
So sending the fabric out fortesting and, you know, looking
at the permeability, looking atwhat's in it, like what did I

(09:06):
really?
You know, I realized after acouple of months of like selling
the stuff that I was like, wow,this is way bigger than what I
thought it was.
I was like this is that's.
You know, it's pretty cool, youknow, and then, but yeah, it's
been.
That's kind of how it all kindof started overall.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
So are you still?
I mean, there's a lot ofdifferent things we could go
down, but like the.
So first off, the patentprocess.
Did you find that difficult?
Um was average.
What.
What did that cost?

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Cost wise.
So the first.
So I have two patents pendingright now.
Uh, the first process was, uh,the first part was for the
manufacturing process and that'sbefore I really realized what I
had.
I think I probably poured in Ithink $30,000 or $40,000 into
that one.
It's still pending right now.
I should have be on the docketfor approval here this year, I

(09:58):
think October about.
And then the second one after Irealized like hey, this is way
bigger.
Then I realized like, hey, thisis way bigger than uh, I was
like this is a topical deliverysystem because it works with any
topical or any sort of skincondition.
Uh, that was, you know, another30 to 40,000,.
You know, going back in andsaying, hey, this is what's
different from the firstapplication and all that stuff.
Um, you know, whenever you knowthere's, there's, there's

(10:20):
nothing, nobody's, you know thisis very novel, so there's no,
really there was not really alot of competition out there.
So you know, as far as the PAPprocess goes, it's not like I
was competing with anybody orthat I found to just yet, but,
as everything, as the ball keepsrolling, we'll see what
headwind I get, but thus farit's been smooth sailing.

(10:52):
Have you had to worry about anysort of FDA approval or anything
along those lines.
As far as I mean, is thisconsidered almost like a
supplement where it's notsubject to that versus?
So it is FDA approved?
I did go through and get theregistration for that.
It is a class one medicaldevice.
You know that that was a littlecumbersome, you know more
expensive than anything, but itwasn't too terrible.
They have a very predicatedprocess of something like.

(11:14):
I think they assimilated minewith something with dead sores.
I didn't quite get the logic,but FDA bought it, so it's a
class one medical device.
All that good stuff, yeah, andactually this kind of segues
into my.
I just launched anotherbusiness, uh, for topicals, so
I'm actually starting standingthat up right now too.
At the same time, what do youmean to top topicals is this so

(11:35):
my materials work with withtopicals like they can work
standalone, but ideally so.
The science behind occlusion isnothing new.
Um, it's been around 100 years.
So the science behind occlusionis nothing new.
It's been around 100 years.
But to date the big thing thatpeople have used before is a
plastic wrap to try to trap thattopical and deliver it deeper
into the skin.
But there's a lot of researchout there that shows after 20

(11:55):
minutes of wearing plastic onyour skin, your body starts
actually rejecting it at thecellular level and starts
undoing everything and makingthe conditions worse.
So that's kind of so.
It's just too protective.
Right, the body can't breathe,but with my materials they're a
moisture barrier, not a vaporbarrier, so the body can breathe
.
So that kind of you know thatwas one of the big variables

(12:16):
that really drives my product.
You know success rate acrossthe board.
But from a topical perspective,you know you need topicals to go
to.
You know for my product to workoptimally and my logic is why
am I sending people to Amazon tobuy stuff whenever you know?
Because there's like thousandsof pages of product out there.
It's like you don't know whichone to pick.

(12:36):
You know for what skincondition.
So so I was like I can do this,I'm a chemist, I can figure
this out, I can read labels anddive into the science, and if I
can't, I'll just send it to mywife and she can tell me where
I'm wrong.
You know, I mean, that's what.
So yeah, so I just stood thatup and I'm, you know, excited to
see what the future holds.
There.
I got some cool skin conditionsthat I very interested in

(13:07):
joining my team, and then I'mgoing to be expanding to
podiatrist, you know, getting apodiatrist on staff as well and
another dermatologist just tocover all bases, so we can kind
of collaborate together indifferent conditions and come up
with optimal solutions andreally help people a lot more.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
So the price tag for both of the patents I think you
said it was like 30 to 40 foreach right.
That's just a decent chunk ofmoney.
Um, did you raise money?
Was it private funds, um like akickstarter campaign, or was it
just bootstrapped?
How did you get that going?

Speaker 2 (13:43):
boot, bootstrapped it all the way.
Credit cards have been thenature of the beast.
Just put it on there as it goes.
I have an awesome patent lawyerthat's been very giving,
accepting like, hey, I'll pay assoon as I can, when I can, I'm
good for the money.
Just hang tight, don't let mehang.
He's been super cool about it.

(14:03):
It's all worked out really wellfor everybody.
Yeah, so just bootstrapping itand holding on tight.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
Okay and go ahead, mike.
Well, I was going to say so.
You, you mentioned like youwere bringing people on staff.
So it seems like obviously, andyou said, people ask when
you're going to market.
So for me it's like I, unlessMike wants to answer, ask
something else.
So for me it's like I, unlessMike wants to answer, ask
something else.
I'll say like let's talk aboutmarketing and sales.
Like what are you doing to getthe word out there and sell the
product?

Speaker 2 (14:31):
So right now, a lot of social media advertising has
been my main, main vector, aswell as attending doctors
conferences.
I just had a podiatryconference that I was at this
past weekend Just getting mysocks you know, podiatrists are
loving my socks for you know, amultitude of different skin
conditions that they treat on adaily basis and they see a lot
of feet.
So I mean that's been prettycool.
You know, been to a couple ofdermatology conferences just

(14:53):
getting things out there andthose and those vectors, those
have been very helpful, butmostly right now, just social
media, and I just stood up or Ijust, you know, brought on a
marketing team to help withlittle intricacies that I don't
know how to do because it's awhole other world trying to take
on marketing.
We have some blogs going outthere now.

(15:15):
I think they're featured on USAToday or like places.
Working the network as best asI can.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, I was going to ask about the manufacturing of
it.
Now At this point, are youstill handling production like
in your garage, or have youfound like a white label place,
or how does that work?

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, no, so I actually I rent a small facility
that I rent about five minutesfrom my house, so I have a
thousand square foot so I can,you know, store everything.
I do a lot of batch, you knowbatch processing, so I'll do
like 300 pairs of gloves at atime and you know it takes about
a day.
You know from beginning to end.
So, yeah, just, you know, comehere and you know close, lock

(15:57):
the door and hold on tight andjust start, you know street and
fabric.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
And then at that point are you handling also the
distribution, like the?

Speaker 2 (16:10):
chipping suits and nuts.
I do it all okay, yeah, for now.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
But I mean it sounds like if you're growing at this
rate, it's only a matter of time, like until, whether you handle
the production or what.
What was the episode we justtalked about?
Oh, it was frontline opticswhere they talked about I had
never heard the term before, butit was a 3PL, the third party
logistics to where you basicallybatch all these products and

(16:35):
then you can basically take themto this other warehouse and
then they store it and then, asB well would get an order, they
handle the fulfillment of it.
I was like, oh, that's prettycool, because he kind of started
in his garage type thing andsegued into a bigger operation.
But you know, it's not like aworld I live in daily, so I
wasn't familiar with how thatworked.

(16:56):
But I could quickly see how youcan't do soup.
It's a good, it's a goodfounder story, right For the
soup.
But you're not going to getfrom, you know, 10 million to 20
million doing that type thing.
Like, might get it started thatway.
But so you were saying, tyler,the marketing right now it's

(17:17):
pretty much just I don't want tosay word of mouth, but like
granular, organic marketing andit's largely spearheaded by you.
Yep, pretty much.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, that's right.
So yeah, absolutely, that'svery accurate?

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Do you think that the long-term and this may be a too
far out there question at thispoint, because how long has this
business been?
We'll call it an operation.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
So VWO will be two come September.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Okay.
So is your goal at this pointto grow this to a multifaceted
company, or do you feel thatyou're probably eventually going
to get bought out by a JohnsonJohnson or Merck or something
like that?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
We'll see.
I'm open to anything.
I'm holding on for dear life,it's going to be mine forever
and we'll see what happens.
I mean, if somebody wants toflip me a fat check, I'm sure
I'm not going like for dear life, like it's going to be mine
forever and we'll see whathappens.
I mean, I you know somebodywants to flip me a fat check,
I'll be.
I'm sure I'm not going to sayno.
but I mean as of right now I'mjust you know it's mine and I'm
just going to, you know, makethem out, keep my baby and and
hold on for dear life.
You know it's been really coolwatching people recover super

(18:18):
fast.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
I'm like way faster than anything else out there.
Does it make you wonder why,like, the general pharmaceutical
companies haven't already Imean, they have billions of
dollars at their disposal Like,why didn't they just come up
with a candle or a you know somegloves or what?
Like, is it one of those likeit was hiding in plain sight?
Or is it just not fit the thecycle of just selling you this
drug and that drug and thatcream?

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I would say you know it's.
It was definitely you knowagain, I mean at the first
couple of months, that I, evenyou know, started, you know,
with what I had.
I had no idea that, you know, Iknew that it worked but I
didn't know why it worked or howfast it really worked.
No idea that, you know.
I knew that it worked, but Ididn't know why it worked or how
fast it really worked.
But to answer your question, Imean it wasn't super obvious
I'll tell you that you know whatI mean.

(19:11):
It definitely at least just youknow from a brain of one,
because you know, wheneveryou're dealing with your own IP,
you really can't call yourbuddy up and say, hey man,
what's going on here?
You know what am I?
This is what I'm doing.
Why isn't it working?
Why is this working so well?
Or why isn't it working, youknow?
So I mean it took me some timeto think through it.
I mean I wouldn't say that itwas in plain sight.
And you know I've been thinking.

(19:31):
You know, could you get thiswhere I'm at with a different
vector, like using not just apolymer, a force polymer?
I don't think it's there.
I think that you have to.
You know, this is really theonly method to really get what,
get what I, you know what I'vecreated.
So I and um, so yeah, I don'tthink it's super obvious, but I
mean it's definitely doable.
Um, you know, but I meanthere's also there's a lot more

(19:53):
science into it too.
You know, like, look, pickingout your materials, your
composition materials, how theyweigh, you know the weight and
all that good stuff.
So there's a lot to it to beable to get to where you're at,
where I'm at, um.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
So that's just a little bit of a a little bit of
what's going on in the hive andso question two I mean a lot of
it, like Mike mentioned, likethe pharmaceutical companies and
now you know, like organic,healthy, natural, everything is
en vogue.
When I think of beeswax, Ithink of Burt's Bees, right like
it's the, the marketing is alllike very natural, holistic.

(20:30):
Do you think that kind of addsto the desirability of your
product as far as like thatbeing a more natural, I guess,
like what?
Is it holistic approach or yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
I think that you know , using nature's, you know
nature's beauty and what iscreated naturally, I think has
been a huge key point.
I mean, I don't have to use upa little depth to get where I'm
at, kind of deal, but you knowit's definitely I, it's
definitely, you know, I think, abig factor and you know people
trust nature more than they dobig pharma and you know it's so
I definitely think that playsinto a lot of it for sure.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
Okay, and then for, like, when you're, when you're
going to these conferences, yousaid, like you know the
podiatrist, like your socks,like I love marketing sales,
anything like are you setting upa booth?
Are you doing anything to kindof grab their attention?
Are you walking around with theproduct on your hands to kind
of generate conversations,walking around with no shoes on
and just the socks?
What's your process so far?

(21:25):
Are you kind of just tryingdifferent stuff out to see what
works?

Speaker 2 (21:29):
So to tithe people over, I have the best candy.
I use Lindor's Candies fromCostco.
I use Lindor's Candies.
I get them from Costco.
Nobody's using Lindor's Candies.
If I leave my table I getvultured.
People just start takinghandfuls.
So I know I get people there.
And then actually for podiatryI love working with podiatrists,
they're so much fun.
Normally you get two chairs.

(21:49):
Whenever you set up a booth,it's just me going.
So I take my other booth or myother chair and I put a sign on
it and I say, you know, uh,demonstration chair, you know.
You know, can I touch your feet?
And, uh, you know, I have themsit down and I have my, my
plastic gloves there and alleverything and said, all right,
take your shoes off.
This how it's gonna work.
So they sit down and I walkthrough the process like this is

(22:10):
how it works, this is why itworks and explain to them some
of the different skin conditionsthat I've worked on and how you
know how effective it is attrapping everything.
And you know, that's kind ofreally how I work to connect
with people.
Um, at these differentconferences.
You know, just let me touchyour feet.
I promise you I'm not going totake pictures.
I'm not going to look at them,I'm looking at you.
But yeah, that's, that's beenbecause nobody else is doing

(22:30):
that.
You know, there's big number ofcompanies taking off doctor's
shoes and putting socks on themor whatever.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Dude, I don't even like being at the bottom of the
cot trying to lift somebody inthe ambulance, and if I have
chapstick on, I don't want to gonear it because the dead skin
will get on my lips like acoconut.
I'm just like nope, count meout on feet.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, podiatrists are going to have beautiful feet.
I mean, I was just thinkingthat I'm like you hope that they
took care of their feet ifthey're podiatrists too, right
yeah absolutely, I mean 90 ofthe time that you know there's.
There's nothing there, and evenwith there, it's like, well,
it's just, there's nothing, likeit's just a little bit of dry
skin.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
It's like, okay, it's not like no no, no you have the
bariatric patient and you liftthem up and skin flakes just go
everywhere.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Nope, I'm out.
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
I don't think I would be doingthat.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
I would have like a M95 on or something, oh man.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
You'd have that CBRNE suit on.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, right, yeah, no , I like healthy feet, yeah,
yeah no, I like healthy feet,yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
So how many of these are you doing like on a daily or
, I guess, monthly, weekly basis, like how?

Speaker 2 (23:43):
many conferences I try to get to.
About four or five a year is mygoal right now, just because
you know there's so much in-shopstuff going on and I have a
small team of reps.
But you know, right now it'sjust, you know, I try to get out
where I can and, not being thebreadwinner, my wife has to take
off work and it's a big, big,big muscle movement.
So, um, you know I, you know atFlorida's uh, uh, you know at

(24:03):
the destination, you knowdestination location, people
love coming to Florida.
So there's a lot of conferences.
But I mean, you know, I have acouple coming up here, one's in
Pennsylvania, one's in Texas andI think I might have a couple
more local ones, you know,throughout the rest of the year.
So just, you know, as thingswork out and play to, you know,

(24:25):
come together, make it work.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Not to get too personal too.
You mentioned a couple of timesthat your wife, her career took
off.
She's like the breadwinner,right.
So with that, are you takingall this revenue and just trying
to dump it back into thecompany to?
Okay, cool.
So this is why I love bootstrapstuff.
It's the same thing in realestate investing, like when
you're first making money, likemy my initial reaction was like,

(24:48):
oh, this is a fat check.
Oh, my god, I better startputting it back into marketing
sales, things like that, to growthe company and then it's nice
after a while.
Okay, so everything that goesback in.
Are you trying to hit likerevenue goals now?
Are you even worried about that?
Or it sounds to me like you'reso passionate about creating,
inventing all these things thatyou know if the product's there,

(25:10):
the revenue is not going to bean issue.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Correct, that was the latter one.
I know that there's nothingelse like this in.
You know people get, uh, youknow something, somebody that
was not able to get you know,get resolution to their skin
condition.
They're able to get it in acouple of nights.
You know what I mean.
Something that was takingmonths, now taking weeks or less
days to hours.
You know it's, it's, it'ssignificantly cutting down time,
and I mean I'm watching, youknow my views and everything

(25:34):
just uptick, uptick, uptick,uptick.
You know it's just, it takestime.
You know what I mean and I knowthat, um, it's, it works and
there's nothing else like it.
So I'm not worried at all.
It's, it's uh, it's all goingto come together.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
So you mentioned reps , like is your goal to kind of
build that out Like atraditional pharmaceutical
hierarchy to where reps aregoing to these offices or
podiatry practices all acrossthe country?
Or is your goal to just kind ofdistribute via Amazon website,
word of mouth, social media?

Speaker 2 (26:08):
So I'm going to follow what works and I think
big farmers kind of have a bigyou know feel for what's what
works in this, you know, bysending reps out there and
making the connection I think isa big one.
And by no means, once my patentis approved here, I'm going to
be going global.
I'm not staying just in theUnited States just because you
know why.
There's no need.
You know what I mean.
Materials work just like shotsand pills deliver medications

(26:28):
just through the skin.
So it's just you know there'sno need for.
You know this is a globalmarket, not just a United States
market.
So I plan on once everything'sfinalized with the patent, I'll
just take that, leverage it toother countries and go global.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
You said that it's an FDA registered medical device,
so does that mean that insurancecovers your products as well?

Speaker 2 (26:53):
No, it's cash pay.
You know I was looking at theinsurance road but everything
I'm going to keep everything youknow very affordable.
I mean you're looking at $39for a pair of gloves and you get
90 uses out of my materialsbefore they need to be replaced.
So you're looking at, you know,40 some cents per use or better
, if you take care of it willlast longer.
So I mean, at that price pointI don't feel that you know,
insurance really needs to getinvolved.

(27:13):
You know, from that perspectiveI mean things could change in
the future.
I was actually asked by a lotof doctors to just stay away
from insurance just because ofthe prior loss and that whole.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, I don't care to have anybody, you know, delay
anybody's healing, you know,especially for $40.
You're going to end up gettingwhat you're looking for.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
And they $40, you're gonna end up getting what you're
looking for and and they'll pay20 after they stall you out,
like a $7 check.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, so I'm not.
Yeah, I plan to stay away from,you know, those companies as of
right now.
You know I do want to get intothe VA.
I don't think I'll have to gothrough insurance for that.
But uh, you know, probably getthere a couple distributors.
But uh, you know, that's mynext real big muscle movement is
, you know, getting into youknow a bigger place like that,
you know, so I can start helping, helping my fellow vets and
what have you.
Um, but, yeah, that's familyfrom insurance.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay so I was gonna say, like there's when I think
about something like this, it'slike do you go and try and get
it into whole foods or some ofthese other?
I don't know if clientele isthe right word, because they're
they would need to have aspecific condition, but the

(28:26):
folks that are probably going tolead lean more towards.
Would this fall under likehomeopathic health?
It could carry it.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
It comes into a you know a lot of different forms.
I'm working with pharmaciesright now independent pharmacies
to carry the product, I think,because they're more in touch
with their patient populace thananything, rather than putting
it in a Whole Foods becausethey're just going to walk by it
and not realize what it is,kind of deal.
So just trying to stay withinthe medical community, whether
it's from pharmacies to.

(28:55):
I'm in six doctor's officesright now that they bought my
product in bulk and they, youknow, mark it up and sell it for
profit out of their offices.
So I mean, there's I'm lookingat doing affiliations as well.
So if somebody doesn't want tocarry the product, they want to.
You know, rep the brand, youknow they brand, they'll get
income from that.
So just different methodologiesof how to keep people in the

(29:17):
loop.
Everybody can get a profit aswell as help people recover from
their skin conditions.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I would imagine , now that I think about it and
talk through it, putting it atWhole Foods would probably be
dumb, because this is a productthat requires a little bit of
education to some extent.
If you just walk by you're like,oh cool monopoly gloves, you
know like pretty much yeah likeoh, I meant to go get the
lemonade, um, so yeah, it'salmost like you'd be better off

(29:44):
to get an ad in a or p magazineor something you know like or
whatever.
Is there a particular segmentof the population that is more
prone to eczema, or um, notreally.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
I mean it's a pretty prevalent condition across the
united states.
I want to say there's about 26million people with it.
Um, so I mean it's prettyprevalent.
But I mean, you know, eczema isjust, you know, the tip of the
spear.
Um, you know, like I said,psoriasis is right there with it
and uh, I just learned thatit's great for creaky skin.
You, the fine wrinkles thatwent, like most women don't like
whenever they get in theirelderly age, like sixties, when

(30:20):
their body stops producingestrogen.
You know they have these finewrinkles and you know they don't
like it.
So I mean my materials work toremove those really fast, which
I think is something new thatnobody else has done.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
You know they try topicals but the topicals really
work a little bit, but mymaterials it's like gone in a
couple hours.
Um.
So it's pretty cool dumbquestion.
But uh, I was thinking whileyou guys were talking in, in the
age of social media, are thereany like famous influencers that
are like well known to havelike eczema or anything like

(30:51):
this, that you've tried to sendthe product to?

Speaker 2 (30:54):
uh, so yeah, actually , um.
So there's a the guy in thewhite house right now.
I've sent him some socks andgloves, you know, as he travels
the world, because I figure he'sgoing to get dry trapped, dry,
trap, trap dry chapped hands.
You know from, you know travelin the world.
So I sent him some stuff.
I didn't hear anything back.
Um, you know, uh, kim kardKardashian.

(31:14):
I think she's pretty well known.
She's got psoriasis that she'sknown for talking about.
I haven't sent her anything yet, but she's on the list of hey,
check my materials.
That kind of deal I thinkyou'll find resolution.
You won't have to get in yourtanning bed so much.
There's a WNBA player that haseczema on her hands.

(31:35):
I sent her some materials and Ithink she's out of Arizona.
I can't remember her name.
It's an NFL Hall of Famer,Rodney Shucks.
I forget his name.
No, he's from Florida.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Rodney.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Harrison, I'll get back to you.
I don't remember Rodney.
It'll come to me.
He's got a brother as wellthat's in the NFL or either
retired out of the NFL.
He has hand eczema.
I sent him some stuff but Ididn't have the $36,000 capital
to be able to funnel him to say,hey, let's go talk about eczema
stuff.
There's a pretty penny withthose influencers.

(32:12):
But but yeah, there'sabsolutely all those conditions
that I can treat thateverybody's got something, just
you know, getting getting on theright hands.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Okay, yeah, so at this point it's kind of just
whatever you can to get the wordout.
I mean is really what it boilsdown to?
And probably your best bang forbuck, you said, is those
conferences, because it's aneducational component and I
don't know, maybe you alreadyhave, but trying to reach out,
I'm sure there's like a podiatrydaily or you know some sort of

(32:44):
trade magazine magazine or trademagazine.
It's almost like you need aninterview in that um or a
website, because I'm sure, likethey have an association of
american podiatrists orsomething and they get emails
and continuing eds and that kindof stuff.
If you can get into that likecontinuing ed, uh, publication

(33:06):
email, blast through that targetmarket, that will help funnel
it out to the patient.
I mean, that's like to methat'd be the best bang for your
buck that I could think of.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Absolutely Well, you know, right now.
So we're going to send me aclinical trials and once I get
that data, that's going to bethe selling data.
You know, whenever I say like,hey, you know, people weren't
getting clear with white cottongloves, standard of care, and my
materials are doing it'sgetting clear in three days or

(33:35):
less, like that's, that's goingto be huge and I, you know, I'm
working to get that stood upright now and that would be my
big vector to saying hey, guys,you know, hey, you know us
population.
You don't have to worry anymore, this stuff's going to be gone.
Here's how.
Um, kind of deal.
Um, because right now,everything I have just anecdotal
data.
You know, people calling me hey, my babies, their skin's so
much better.
Hey, you know, um, I'm afirefighter up north.
My hands are cracked from thewinter.
You know, this is, this isgreat um I carry super glue.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Super glue, yeah, because basically from fall to
spring at work you're washingyour hands so much your fingers
just crack open.
So I super glue them shut, likethe tips of them, it's soft.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
I'll send you some gloves.
You won't have to use superglue anymore, I promise.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
If you don't mind wearing my gloves, it'll work
out, I promise I was gonna saymichael, that's a guy in the
tower, like in the drill toweryou're loading hose.
Oh yeah, so much like everysingle day, dude, my hands have
never been more jacked up in mylife.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I've funneled a bunch of stuff to the local
firefighters down here, but theydon't have the same problems
that you guys have.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
So it's like oh, sunburn down there, yeah, pretty
much.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Sunburn.
They don't get the macerationthat you get working with the
water because of the change intemperatures or anything like
that.
It's just hot and sweaty andthey're like get the shit off of
me kind of deal.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
So, now that you've gone from like start to this
point and, like you know,keeping like the audience in
mind, trying to help people out,like what are a couple like I
don't know, maybe two or threeof your like the things that
you've done that you would dodifferently or like, in the
process, would you have changedanything about the process
you've done?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
No, actually, I really, you know, I mean it's
been a lot of learning.
You know what I mean, and Imissed the critical thinking and
I got all the critical thinkingnow that I could use, you know,
and then some.
So I mean, it's been a lot offun.
I really I do enjoy what I donow and, like I said, just the
results that I'm seeing I'mreally excited for, you know.

(35:33):
You know, some of the nextendeavors that I'm working on
now are looking at radiationdermatitis for people that are
undergoing radiation treatmentfor cancers, you know, because
their skin breaks out in like aterrible sunburn.
You know, I could definitelyhelp, you know, keep that at bay
at best, if not, you know, fromever happening.
So I mean that's, you know,just, there's so much to do and
so much to look at.
I'm, I'm in my, I'm in my glory, you know.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
I'm just like solving problems left, right and center
is wild which is huge, and Ithink, like mike, we talked
about this yesterday when wewere interviewing um.
The bc from san antonio is wellyou know you went, you went as
far as you could see, and thenyou could see a little bit more.
And then now, with theadditional products, you're
always oh, it's really not thatscary, I've done this before.

(36:12):
It sounds like you weren'tworried about it at all.
Anyways, to be honest.
But for people that are therethat are thinking, hey, I have a
product idea, I want to trysomething, they do it.
And then, after they do it thefirst time, even if it doesn't
go well, okay, I understand theprocess, it's really not that
scary.
A lot of it's up here and then,yeah, so I love it because it

(36:35):
correlates to real estate.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
That first deal you buy, you're like, oh, I'm going
to go bankrupt, they're going totake my house, my wife and kids
are going to leave, right, andit's like a lot of it's
irrational and you're like, ohwait, the worst case scenario
maybe is you have to sell it ata loss or but nothing's
catastrophic absolutely, youknow, and, um, you know, I just
I have full faith in everythingthat I've done, so I'm not too

(36:57):
scared of like, hey, you know,my biggest thing is, I guess my
biggest concern is, you know, uh, a china threat, right, because
they can, you know, possiblyreverse engineer what I've done
and, you know, come in themarket a lot lower than what I
mean, they don't do that yeahright now there's no ip
infringement or anything likethat there yeah, seriously you
know.
So, yeah, I mean, that's,that's my honestly, god, my

(37:17):
biggest, you know, threat rightnow is just somebody else, you
know, not within the unitedstates coming in and you know,
taking my materials and runningwith it and undercutting me, and
then it's like, well, thissucks now, what you know I'll
worry about if it, but I meanit's just always in the back of
my mind.
You know, like you said earlier, big farmers got billions of
dollars.
You know, thank God, you know,I think my, I have a lot of

(37:39):
faith in my patent, but I meanI'm not saying it's bulletproof,
but I mean you know they couldvery easily try to reverse
engineer if they, once theystart seeing you know the
everything that I'veaccomplished, I mean it's not,
it wouldn't take too much workto undo what I've done and all
that stuff.
But you know, so I mean thethreat is real.
It's just, you know, I try notto let it get to me because at
the end of the day, I can't doanything about it.
Just, you know, protect it andhold on tight.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Control what you can control.
You know, absolutely, yeah, theextrinsic threats.
Like you can't, you can worryabout it, but you can't really
control it.
So do you?
Because of your time in thearmy, do you qualify or have you
looked at qualifying for anysort of veteran owned company

(38:25):
type, designations and orfunding?

Speaker 2 (38:28):
and or funding.
So from a funding perspectiveit is a hodgepodge to try to
figure out because thegovernment gets involved and
it's just, it's not linear atall.
It's like you know you'retaking a step back, you're going
forward, you're going sideways.
And it's like you know youclick on a website and you're 15
links in like where the hell amI?
You know I am a veteran inbusiness.

(38:52):
I do have that you know, known.
But I mean it's, you know, Ijust you know, I would say I
don't leverage that as much as Ishould or could, just because
you know it's a different world.
But I mean at the same time,you know, once I get into the VA
I'll be a lot more proud to say, hey, you know, this is from me
to you, from a vet to another,one kind of deal.

(39:13):
You know, we are one of thebiggest, most well-known
entities in the world, sothere's a lot of us.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
I have I wouldn't say buddy, but I have an
acquaintance who is a vet who isdoing something similar with
beef tallow but um not, but he'sdoing it more of like an
aesthetic dermatology type thing, um, but he's kind of in that
same phase maybe, probably notas far along as you are, but it

(39:45):
might be worth like justconnecting you two, um, and,
like I said, I don't really knowI and my wife knows his wife
type thing and I'm just likestuck in the middle, if you will
like I get it.
So it's not like that.
Um, it's one of those like itmight be something to where you
guys can help in yourdistribution of your products to

(40:05):
each other, now that I thinkabout it.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
So absolutely I'd do an affiliation or whatever he's
looking to do, and I know youscience behind BeepTowel, why it
works and why people aregetting relief from it.
I mean that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
If nothing else, it'd be somebody that's kind of been
through the military life doingthe same type of work.
If nothing else, like you said,you can't necessarily bounce
your IP off somebody else.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
At least here you might be able to just vent to
somebody that's going throughsomething similar that you might
be going through, or Absolutelyyeah, I'd love to have the mind
melt and uh, yeah, I'm surehe's probably has.
You know, maybe he's had someresources that I don't have.
Haven't heard of that I couldyou know.
Or vice versa, I'd love tonetwork with people like that
we're all in together and justyou know it's all a common goal.
It's how you get there.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah.
So, Tyler, is there anythingelse you wanted to kind of hit
on?
Or I know we're kind of comingup on No- that's?

Speaker 3 (41:00):
yeah, it was.
That was it.
I was just saying about thepatent protection, but you
already went over that.
I was always curious because myuncle does flooring and people
try to rip his stuff off all thetime, and so it was kind of
interesting.
What he ended up doing was, ifyou cut that, you know like the
foam interlocking tiles thatkids have like in there, yeah,
so he manufactures those.
So what he did is he made likea pattern inside the tile, so if

(41:25):
you cut and open it, you cantell if it's an original product
and stuff like that.
I said, well, why don't you goafter him?
He's like cause, as soon as Igo after that person, the next
person's going to pop up.
I just got to keep focusing.
You know, like when I'm doinghe does go after them, but it's
just, it's part of the process,right?
Like no matter your patent,everything it's not a hundred

(41:45):
percent.
So I was interested to hearyour philosophy on that, but you
already went over that.
This has been super cool andinteresting for me because I
love tinkering, I love startingnew stuff, I love messing with
sales and marketing.
I think Mike too.
It's like I was talking thismorning on another one.
Flipping and wholesaling gotold so it's like, oh, let's do
private money lending and I canhear the excitement in your
voice and it's just fun whenyou're mission oriented like

(42:08):
that.
It's such a fun part of thebusiness, I feel like.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Oh yeah, absolutely, Absolutely.
Hey, I'd love to offer you guys.
I'll send you some of youraddresses, I'll send you some
here in the mail so you guys canhave it.
I appreciate bringing me on andall that stuff too.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
Hopefully I don't need anysuper glue for a couple more
months.
But is there anything that bookwise, podcast wise?
We usually ask folks like isthere anything outside of like
specific to the product or thescience of this that you like

(42:45):
listen to, you think would bebeneficial for maybe somebody in
this juncture?
If not, that's fine too I don'thave.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
No.
I will say, though, one thingthat you know I do a lot
different besides touchingpeople's feet is whenever
somebody buys off my website, Icall them.
You know, one or two weeksafter you buy my product, I'm
calling you.
I want to hear how it workedfor you.
And if it didn't work, you know, I know it'll work, you know,
but it's just.
You know people like callpeople.
You know they get reallyfreaked out and excited, like,
yeah, absolutely, I want to hearfrom anybody that buys my stuff

(43:18):
.
You know I uh, I don't havecontrol over you know people buy
the doctor's offices, but Imean, if I, if you're in my you
come into my bubble, I'm calling.
I want to know how it went,even if you don't call me back,
that's fine, yeah, that's that'spretty cool and I mean that's a
, that's an immediate feedbackloop right there.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Oh yeah, you know.
So I don't know if you've ever.
If you're a podcast guy, I meanI'm pretty big into those and
there is one that is probably ifI had to pick.
Besides our podcast, uh, myfavorite one, which is called,
and it is usually basically eachepisode, is about a different

(43:53):
founder of a company and youkind of the excitement and the
mad scientist, if you will.
Part of it is kind of where itmakes me think of like the James
Dyson one, like where he talksabout the guy that started Dyson
Vacuums and just everything hewent through and kind of what
he's built.
So if you haven't heard of thator if anybody isn't interested,

(44:15):
it's called founders and there'sa ton of great ones, tons of
Warren Buffett, charlie Mungerstuff, just really really
interesting journeys, because alot of times you know in 10
years when you see be well,therapeutics, you know, and it

(44:36):
tells about all the story thatled up to kind of the brands
that we know now and some ofit's pretty helpful or
interesting when you're the onegoing through the day to day
motions of building a businessor running a business and just
sometimes it's.
Even though it's fun andexciting, there's days where
it's not as fun and exciting.
You could say.
And it's just part of thejourney, it's not just you know.
It's kind of just reassuring toknow others have gone through

(44:57):
it, so I always like torecommend that show.
So if people want to learn more, they're like yo, I need some
of these gloves or socks, or mynewborn has eczema and we need
one of these little suits to putthem in.
Like, where should they go tolearn more?
Where would you recommendpeople go?

Speaker 2 (45:21):
I would say, you know , go to my website
bewelltherapeuticscom.
You'll see everything there andyou know.
If you have any questions, byall means, you know, hit the
little contact us or you knowI'm on social media.
If you have any questions,message me.
You're only going to talk to me.
There's not going to be anybodyelse?

Speaker 1 (45:32):
No call center in India.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
No call center in India.
I know I can speak Englishfairly well.
It's my only language.
You?

Speaker 1 (45:42):
might have to dumb it down for some of our truck guys
.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
That's all good.
Just put the wet stuff on thered stuff.
Make sure you know.
Make sure you put this, youknow, the cream on and it allows
you.
You're good to go.
I try to take all the guessworkout of it.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Cool, yeah, We'll definitely make sure this.
This show should be out in acouple of weeks, but in the
meantime, you know, I rememberwhen you first posted on the
Facebook group it might've beenTyler or Aaron was like what is
this?
Do you know this guy?
I'm like, oh yeah, I told himto put that there.
Sorry, Like was it you?
Yeah, Well, we try and keeplike the spam down.
You know, like the guy fromAfrica trying to sell you

(46:18):
Bitcoin or something, but hespelled it wrong and you know
it's like you always got to bewatching that kind of stuff,
Right, but no, that was validand we'll put it in the group.
I'm not saying it'll directlycorrelate to sales, but again,
it's just getting that educationout there and kind of like your
online social media billboard,if you will.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Absolutely no.
Actually, I did have somebodyfrom that uh, your, your, uh
website, you know, buy a pair ofmy gloves for his whole family,
his daughters, and uh, yeah,they all had some sort of
something they were going afterand it was pretty cool.
Yeah, he messaged me and Ithink the first time he or the
second time he bought, he sentus the wrong address.
He's like I was like, dude,don't worry about it.
So he knows, I'm in the mail,I'm not worried about it, it is

(47:01):
what it is here you go, let meknow if you need anything else,
it's all good, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Well, I appreciate you coming on.
This has definitely been atopic that's different than our
standard buy rentals and dealwith tenants type situation, but
it's interesting to hear justdifferent challenges and the
journey it takes with differentbusinesses and product types,
because I wouldn't even knowwhere to start.
Clearly I'm not a chemist,clearly I've never gone through

(47:30):
any of the background that youhave, but obviously it sounds
like with your pedigree this wasright up your alley.
So yeah, man, I got lucky.
Man, I got lucky and I'm veryblessed.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
That's all I can say.
I wouldn't say that it wasanything more than that.
When the problems hit, I cantap into what I've learned.
But I mean otherwise, it's just, I've been very fortunate
coming up with this.
I can't say anything less.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Yeah Well, awesome man, Congratulations.
I look forward to seeing howyou make this thing grow.
And Tyler Still on mute.
Remember the part I said wemight have?

Speaker 3 (48:11):
to dumb down some of it I.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
I turned it on my washing machine.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
Hey, it's fireman, I miss it.
I'm good with it.
I'm good at dishing it out too.
I'm gonna send him more of that, just for men, so he can keep
dying his beard too, yeah dude,you laugh.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Whenever I was assigned to training, training
my battalion chief, at the timehe goes hey, I got a question.
Real talk, you dye your hair.
I thought he was kidding.
I was like no, are you serious?
He's like man.
I thought you dyed your hair,I'm like it just looks too
perfect.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
That's what I'm saying there's a GQ beard and
everything.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
There's gray hair in there, trust me.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
It's all lined up.
That's just your skin comingthrough.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
I don't see any gray.
Trust me, it's there.
Sorry, tyler Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
You're good.
Well, on that note, I just wantto say thank you and everybody.
Please share the show.
Send us anybody that you wantus to interview, as it helps all
of us.
And Andrew, thanks again.
We'll catch everybody next timeAppreciate it.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Have a great day.