January 25, 2024 • 37 mins
Ever wondered how a sip of bourbon could feel like a bolt of lightning? That's exactly what we experienced as we paired St Augustine Bourbon with the electrifying buzz buttons, and we're sharing this zesty adventure with you. Meanwhile, the tale of Hubert Booth and his "Puffing Billy" will sweep you through the dusty corridors of vacuum cleaner history, revealing how psychological safety can lead to grand innovations. Join us, John and Katie Mode, as we raise a glass to the past and the sparks of creativity that continue to drive human progress.
Think the extraordinary always starts with the extraordinary? Think again. "Innovate the Ordinary" spotlights the charm of small tweaks that have shaped our world, from Stonehenge to the iPhone. We chat about how laziness might just be the mother of invention and why your next big idea might be hiding in plain sight among the mundane. It's all about appreciating the little changes that lead to big impacts—and we're here to toast to that incremental genius with a well-placed six-pack of Gatorade.
We're also taking a dive—not into cliché waters, but into the deep blue—to share our love for sharks and our support for ocean conservation with Salt and Finn Co. As Shark Week circles around, we're all about celebrating these incredible predators and what they teach us about our marine ecosystems. So whether you're an innovation enthusiast or a shark aficionado, grab your fins and a glass as we explore the wonders of land, sea, and everything in between.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, I am your host , John Mode.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And I'm your other host, Katie Mode.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And this is the Innovate Everything podcast,
where we unpack and exploreinnovation as innovators.
But first a drink.
I am an avid bourbon lover.
I am the founder of the DannyBeach Bourbon Club.
I joined a podcast calledImplicit Bias, which is also a
lot about drinking bourbon, andI originally had a podcast for
(00:24):
Innovate Everything and as weunpack what we've done and how
it's built and how it's been run, we find opportunities to
improve.
And we were sitting down, mywife and I, and having a
discussion about the InnovateEverything podcast and she said
it's not that great and she alsosaid we can do better.
(00:44):
And she said I think you need aco-host.
And I said what a great idea.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And I think you said we need someone who is readily
available and accessible.
And I said, yes, that's exactlywhat you need.
And then you just kept staringat me and then I realized that
person had to be me.
So here I am and we're on thisjourney together.
We will drink bourbon, talkinnovation and hopefully it's a
(01:08):
valuable journey for everyone inour revamping.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, but I digress.
So what we're going to do iswe're going to start every show
with a quick bourbon tasting.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
My favorite bourbon on the shelf, which is the St
Augustine Bourbon.
Like you said, it's very lightand easy.
It's a beginner's bourbon.
We're going to drink it neatbut I think something really fun
came in the mail the other daythat you want us to try.
I'm a little apprehensive aboutit.
So, in lieu of a cocktail,we're going to try an experience
(01:40):
, a bourbon experience.
Why don't you tell us moreabout that?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And we already had our Excite my Common Focus
Wellness gummies to get us kindof dialed in for the show.
So Implicit Bias did a segmenta couple of weeks ago on their
show where they tasted bourbonand they used something called a
buzz button.
And Caleb Morris, the rusticrenegade, went ahead and mailed
me some of these buzz buttonsand I have experienced one
(02:07):
already and I decided what agreat opportunity to have my
wife experience this with all ofyou.
With all of you.
So the trick to a buzz button,it is a Should we tell them
first what a buzz button is.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, we should do that Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So a buzz button is an unbloomed, it's a flower bud
of a I don't know what specificflower it is, I'm not sure it
really matters when it comesdown to this but basically
there's a biochemical compoundin this flower bud that changes
the way that your tongue tastesand experiences flavors, and so
there's a cocktail called theCosmo, where the objective is to
drink the Cosmo, eat the buzzbutton and then drink the Cosmo
(02:47):
again and see kind of how itchanged things.
So it works for bourbon as well.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I was wildly lazy and did not make a Cosmo.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's a little more involved, so I don't blame you.
So these were mailed to us, andso we're going to give these a
spin right now.
So, kate, grab your glass, I'mgoing to open it.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
These are really beautiful.
They're like what are they likefreeze, dried or something?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
They're no, they're fresh, but they're.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
They're fresh, then they're fresh buds, and do I eat
the stem with it, or do I just?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
No, just the yellow part.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Okay, just the flower bit Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I don't know what's going to happen.
So when a soldier tells you notto eat something, definitely
don't eat it.
So he said don't eat the greenpart.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Don't eat the green part.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I don't know what that means, if that means bad
things will happen or not.
But just don't eat the greenpart.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's the first time in my life of being told not to
eat the green part.
Okay, all right, so let me takethe All right, so I eat it
first and then I sip the bourbon.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, no, let's sip the bourbon first.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Let's sip the bourbon first.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I'm drinking new lute toasted barrel, okay, okay, and
so on my, I got Okie notes.
We've got some caramel, alittle bit of nuttiness, a
really nice kind of palletedbourbon.
I picked it on purpose, niceand light and fresh, to start
the show.
And now eat the buzz button.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Okay, okay, oh my gosh, I'm salivating so much,
like it's like when you have tothrow up, like you're, I'm sorry
.
Is that okay to say on thisshow, okay, I feel like I'm
gonna throw up, but like I'm notsick, it's just I'm salivating
some.
It's not fun, it's not, it'snot Mm-mm.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
All right.
So sip the bourbon.
I get a lot of lemony.
I'm getting a lot of, I getnothing but numb.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
My whole face is numb Like I can't feel my tongue All
right Now, sip the bourbon.
Okay, okay.
I don't know what the point ofthis experiment is.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Did you taste anything different?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
No, I mean, I think the only thing it does is numb
your face and so you just don'ttaste that first burn of the
bourbon.
But I think I was just so.
I'm just so preoccupied by thefact that I can't taste anything
in my mouth to enjoy any oflike the hidden notes of bourbon
.
If maybe you could pull themout.
But I'm just, I'm never doingthat again.
(05:03):
You can give those flowers tosomebody else.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I might do three or four of them and try some
different, some different things, but I give it a zero out of 10
recommend.
I, I, I will certainly say itis a strange experience and
sorry, baby you're going to be,that's going to be a good 30
minutes of that, or probablythree, four minutes.
My gum's so funny.
I think it's one of those,those things in life.
That's just a weird experience.
I think it's.
The salivation is verydifferent, for sure, but I think
(05:29):
it's a.
It's a unique and differentexperience.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I feel like if I ate this in the wild, I would think
I was dying, like I would.
I would be like I I just atesomething that is it's over for
me and would go into a fullfledge panic attack.
That's just not an experience Iwant to have again.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And the the irony of of this buzz button.
Right, this is something thatthese companies make and they
will ship to you for you toexperience this buzz button.
And I find it fascinatingbecause when you're in a
wilderness survival typesituations and you're eating
plants, one of the the basicrules is do not eat a plant.
If you have an extreme reactionLike this, I would.
(06:07):
I would call a buzz button anextreme reaction.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I would classify that as extreme.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Now it does.
It does change how you tasteeverything.
The other day when I first gothim and I gave it to a buddy of
mine, he had a sip of beer andhe nearly like speeded it all
over my countertop and was likedon't drink beer after this.
So I don't know if I wouldexperience beer with it, but
whiskey's got enough of a enoughof its own profile that I would
.
I would say whiskey was fun forme.
The buzz button is very odd.
(06:32):
You've got to want thatexperience to do it.
But if you, if you're the kindof person that just takes a
little bit of pride and pain,give it a try.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Give it a try.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Cocktail hour's over, let's get to the drink.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Get rid of these flowers and just enjoy our
bourbon as we continue on.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, let's get to, so let's get to business right
Get to business.
So that was our, our cocktailhour.
Let's go to work when we talkabout.
So the quote that I read in thevery beginning of everything
that can be invented has alreadybeen invented.
It's a quote that's been longattributed to Charles Duell,
who's the who's the commissionerof the U?
S patent office in 1899.
And when you think back to 1899, you talk about the guy who ran
(07:07):
the patent office.
He's in charge of the patentoffice.
He's been watching all thesepatents flood in for the through
the industrial revolution.
Everyone's inventing new thingsand he's got so much work on
his plate and he's starting tosee some some repetition in the
market, and so he says tohimself that's it, everything
that can be invented has beeninvented.
It was on headlines.
(07:28):
It was kind of his way, in myopinion, of saying like, can we
just slow down with the patents?
I've got to read all thesethings, my team's got to read
all these things.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I don't want to work.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, well, and also I'm starting to see a lot of
repetition, right?
So someone who thinks they knowwhat they're doing, somebody
who goes, who's sitting in their, in their basement, maybe,
maybe you're sitting in your,you're living in them right now
and you're saying to yourself,what if there was an app that
could do inter, inter, whateverthere, right, what if there was
(07:58):
an app that could do that?
And when you think through that, what, what if there was this?
Now, today, you go to theinternet and you type in apps
that do this.
Back in the 1899, you mailed aletter to the US patent office
with your doohickey that didthis.
Right, your widget, this iswhat, what I think it can do.
(08:18):
And you, you submit it to thepatent office.
Now they have to filter throughall this stuff and say, yep,
this already exists.
Here's the reference tosomebody else, and so I think
some of that was frustration.
But that line, that quote, isso famously associated with
narrow mindedness and when youthink of all the things, the
electronics, all the things thathave happened since that time,
(08:39):
it almost seems like a sillyquote.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
No, it isn't silly quote.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So if you're an innovator and you're, and you're
at home right now, you think toyourself so I'm an innovator,
right?
So what?
What do I do with that?
And I think what we're going totalk about a little bit we're
going to get into some historyhere in a second we're going to
talk about people who havedoubled down on things that
already existed, right?
So there's always that guy thatthinks of the first thing.
(09:05):
There's always that, that guyor girl, there's always that
person that thinks of the firstthing, and they come up with the
initial idea.
They come up with this, withthis idea of I'm going to make
this, and it actually issomething new and exciting.
Right, let's think of theiPhone.
Something new, exciting.
No one's ever seen it before.
That doesn't make all theiterations after that null and
(09:27):
void.
It doesn't make improving uponsomething not worth it.
And so, when you see a lot ofinnovations that are going
around today, all these, some ofthese companies are doing is
they're taking big industrialthings that have been in the
market since 1905.
And they're saying, well, thisis a big industrial process
that's been happening.
I'm going to shrink this downand bring it to your home, right
(09:49):
?
The first thing I think of issomething like force of nature.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh yeah, I was thinking about that one too.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So force of nature is an electrified water.
You can go to their website andlearn all about it, but it's
basically salt water and vinegarand they turn it into an acid
that is a cleaning chemical.
That acid has existed foralmost 100 years.
It's been used wildly in Japanand everywhere else, but up
until force of nature did whatthey did, it was a huge
industrial machine that makesits head to be exactly right.
(10:15):
You have to make it exactly theright way or it doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Right, and this place was normally isolated to places
like hospitals, where they hadan entire room or rooms or
floors where they could run thismachine, and it wasn't
something that could ever beleveraged in a home scenario
until force of nature came alongand they basically shrank it
down to a home-based cooker thatyou can put on your counter,
(10:42):
and now you can have it in thehome.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And it costs you like eight cents a bottle to make a
cleaning chemical thatdisinfects and does all these
things.
We use it in our home, we loveit On everything, and what got
us specifically is you can spraydirectly on your children's
hands, and that, to me, is like.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, we don't have to bathe them anymore.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And so if you're looking at whoever invented the
force of nature, maybe we'llfind them and interview them at
some point.
But you look at that particularcompany and that particular
product and you think, okay,well, somebody looked at that
and said, okay, here's anopportunity.
And when you have anopportunity, you have two
(11:23):
choices.
You can say, okay, I'm going tobottle this and try and rapidly
ship it, or I'm going to shrinkthis down.
And shrinking it down is noeasy feat.
It's something that takes a lotof innovation and thought
process and there's a lot thatgoes into it.
So you're an innovator, you'retrying to figure out what the
next step is and I think thefirst and foremost thing and
(11:45):
Katie's going to go a little bitinto the nitty gritty here, but
let's look at the vacuum.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The vacuum.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Let's break down the vacuum.
Everyone thinks themselveswhat's the greatest innovation
in vacuum cleaners?
That must be Dyson.
Dyson's really good aboutselling their process and how
they've recreated the vacuumchamber and all those different
pieces.
But, Katie, let's take a lookback.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, no, we have to go way back, and the vacuum
cleaners are a great example,because it's a huge need.
Cleaning your floors, yourupholstery, your carpets has
been, it will always be aproblem and even with the
innovations we have today it's achore.
But let's go way back and Ilike that you set the stage for
us, john, with the early 20thcentury, in the late 19th
(12:37):
century, in the opening of thissegment, because that's exactly
where we're going.
We're going to go back to thelate 1800s.
There wasn't a lot as far asquick ways to clean your
upholstery or your floor, yourcarpets.
People were using rooms to pushdust around.
They're banging their carpetsout outside trying to get the
(13:00):
dirt dislodged, and that was theonly way to clean their floors.
And the story of the vacuumcleaner, I think, in my humble
opinion, has two heroes orinnovators, and the first one,
hubert, or Hubert Booth, andmost people don't think of him
because he predates our secondhero, who is the person most
people think about, but he wasan engineer, a brilliant
(13:23):
engineer actually, but heprimarily worked on suspension
bridges and like fairgroundferris wheels was like kind of
his niche and he turned hisattention to the vacuuming
device or this problem that wehad still have of how do we
clean our floors.
When he was at a fair and atthe very turn of the century, so
(13:47):
early 1900s, he took aninterest because he saw a demo
of what was the first mechanicalvacuum cleaner and it was very
sexually named the pneumaticcarpet renovator machine.
I know it sounds like he justreally want to buy that, right
the carpet renovator, right therenovator.
But you couldn't buy it becauseit was massive.
(14:08):
This was a imagine, a horsedrawn buggy.
The device was the size of thebuggy and it was pulled by a
team of horses.
It was huge and it didn'tactually suck up anything.
It blew air out at a highvelocity, was gasoline powered,
so it was really inefficient.
They would blow the air at thecarpets or the or the, the
(14:33):
upholstery, whatever you'retrying to clean, and then it
would attempt to capture thedust out of the air into a
receptacle.
So not super great, but betterthan using a really firm push
broom or banging your yourcarpet with a broom.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
So just to paint a picture here, what you're
talking about is somebody with aleaf blower running around your
house and saying hey, honey,chase me around with the vacuum
cleaner sucking up the dustthat's in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Essentially, yeah, it was really innovative and
disruptive because it was amachine that did this and it was
using air in some way todislodge dust and dirt.
But yeah, he thought that wasreally fascinating and but he
asked a really innovative,disruptive question and I know
(15:19):
you know we're going to betalking a lot on the show about
asking questions and solving forproblems and his question he
went right up to the inventorand he said hey, why doesn't it
suck?
Why does it blow?
It should suck.
This is getting over it.
But he said why, why doesn't itsuck?
And this said this inventor off.
He got pissed, he wasfloundering and saying that
(15:42):
could never, you could never dothat.
That would never work.
And it's stressing out and inbooth said Hold my beer, hold my
bourbon.
I don't know if he said that,there's no record of him saying
that but he basically set off atthat point and decided that he
was going to reinvent thisdevice.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
And so okay.
So what you're looking at rightthere, in my opinion, is
something that's talked about alot in the market right now.
It's called psychologicalsafety.
Correct, right?
So somebody brings up an ideaand you immediately go on the
defensive and you say, no, myidea is, it's the right idea,
I've worked so hard, and there'sall kinds of good reasons for
not having psychological safety,but that's an interesting
(16:21):
example of where somebody,because of the lack of
psychological safety and becausethey had a lot of confidence in
their own abilities, he wentout and did it himself, right?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, right, and the original inventor was highly
offended, instead of seeing hisown blind spot and saying, yeah,
you're right, let's partner onthis, which I think is fair.
As human beings, we don't liketo be called out for our blind
spots, but he was very upsetthat he must have gone to.
Harvard Called them out.
So Booth went off and he setoff to answer this question.
(16:50):
And what I find fascinating isit nearly killed him.
What he did in the verybeginning was simply stick a
kerchief over his mouth and suckup dirt with his mouth, like,
will this work if I just suck itup with a filter?
And he got dirt and stuff inhis lungs and got really sick
(17:11):
and then almost killed him.
But he continued to work on it.
He ended up reverse engineeringthe original device and he came
up with the same bulky, massivemachine that he had started on.
The original, very well namedpneumatic carpet renovator
(17:34):
looked the same, function thesame, but instead of blowing out
air, it sucked and he named itthe puffing billy.
And again this thing wasmassive, it was pulled by a
horse or two horses and it wasboxy and it was red and it was
just like a state.
He wanted people to know he wascoming and what he would do is
he would go through town towealthy upper crust customers
(17:55):
and he would enter their homesthrough the window, like he
would have.
The device was a big tube andit would go through the window
or the front door and he wouldsuck up the dirt and it would go
into this big box in the streeton this carriage called the
puffing billy, and it was.
He was also a marketing geniusbecause he had the tubes and the
(18:18):
vessel on the puffing billycollecting the dust.
He had them designed so theywould be see through, so people
walking by could stop and lookat all the dust he was
collecting from his customershomes and then that created
demand and excitement.
So he was really really smartin that way to show people who
he wasn't actually servicingthat it was working and who else
does that that we know of todaywho uses see through canisters
(18:44):
to show you how effective theirmachine is.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Every bagglesque, bagglesque.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Well, everyone now.
But who?
Who started that?
I'm pretty sure it was.
It was Dyson, right, and peoplewere like, look how much dirt
this is pulling up.
I mean it's, it's effective,people don't change.
He was wildly successful.
He ended up cleaningWestminster Abbey for the
coronation of King Edward theseventh in Queen Alexandra, and
they were so impressed that theybought two of the puffing
(19:09):
billies, one to clean theBuckingham Palace and one to
clean Windsor Castle.
So he, he really was successfulat this.
Did you have a question?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I think that that's the biggest takeaway that I've
gotten so far from this, andcorrect me if I'm wrong.
Here is his biggest innovationis basically reversing the the
the pole.
So instead of blowing, you'resucking.
And then everything else fromthere was was marketing and
showing a competitive advantage.
Because I think if two thingsis a salesperson right, so I am
(19:44):
a fabricator and innovator.
I build awesome things, but Istill have to go out and sell,
right.
And so when you look at thesales piece of that, it's
something as simple as walkinginto the home afterwards and
saying, hey, look everything.
There's not dust floatingeverywhere, there's no reclean,
because all this, all the dustsettled later and, more
(20:04):
importantly, open this drawer,look at all this dust and you
can watch it come out.
He really engaged the peoplearound him, and I'm sure we can
find many other instances wherepeople have done that, but I
think that, to me, is thebiggest piece of innovation.
Was just the famous Steve Jobs.
Think differently.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, absolutely You're right.
And he quickly became the guyto remove dust and crime from
your carpets, from your floor,from your upholstery.
Again, for the upper crust,this was expensive.
He wasn't going around toeveryone, it was just the
wealthy in London.
He was in London I don't knowif I had prefaced that but in
(20:42):
London he was going to thewealthy homes and using this
puffing billy to get the grimeout of their houses.
It became kind of a householdstaple name.
Again, it wasn't a householdstaple, but it was very well
known on the streets.
Then enters our second hero.
His name was James Spangler,and this is a name that most
(21:04):
people will probably recognizebecause he is credited with the
invention of the vacuum cleaneras we know it today, people
don't think about the puffingbilly as much because it doesn't
really match up with what wesee as the vacuum cleaner, as an
in-home device.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
People naturally think Dyson, not Stanley Steamer
.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Exactly, exactly.
So.
He was a janitor and he was incharge of cleaning this massive
department store, which wasarduous at the time, and he had
asthma, so he was always gettingreally sick.
He was trying to figure out away to clean carpets without
stirring up all the dust andexasperating his asthma.
So he was a tinkerer and heputs together his own
(21:46):
contraption, which included abroom, a pillowcase and an
electric motor, and the bonuswas it stood upright and it was
portable.
So this was a big deal.
There was another criticalchange he added a rotating brush
that he salvaged from a carpetsweeper and it was incredibly
efficient the most efficientvacuum to date and people loved
(22:06):
it.
So he quit his job as a janitorand he started his own company
called the Electric SuctionSweeper Company, and he got
investors, including hisprevious employer.
So the department store that hehad worked up for when he
invented this totally backed himand invested in his company and
he started to distribute hisinvention.
(22:28):
Here's the kicker he bankrupt.
He didn't have a mind forbusiness.
I think this is something weneed to talk about in this maybe
not today, but in our in theseries is he didn't know how to
run a company.
He had a great idea, he madethe device and it was a great
device, but he just he ran outof money.
So this is where we see theswitch to the name that we all
(22:48):
know, hoover.
He couldn't afford to keep hiscompany open, so his cousin,
whose last name is Hoover, herhusband, invested in the company
.
They bought the patents fromStangler and, with proper
marketing and business sense anda sales strategy, they took the
(23:09):
company.
You know to where it is today.
They exploded and, as of 2022,hoover had a net sales of over
20 million and their name thatis still very well known and
applicable today.
So I think that's just reallyinteresting.
And you know, from then, fromthat original design, the vacuum
cleaner hasn't changed much.
(23:31):
I mean, we've got greatinnovations to the portability
of vacuums, the charging ofvacuums.
We've got, you know, the robotvacuums that are disruptive and
great, but they still use thesame mechanics.
Not much has changed from thatoriginal prototype that Spangler
invented while working as ajanitor at a department store.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
And I think that a lot of people can be discouraged
when you, when you look at themarket now we have so many
precision machines, you've gotso much.
They're CNC machines andthere's all these really tight
tolerances and when you'resitting in your home and you're
like I would love to invent orbuild this product that I think
is really really neat and reallyreally cool, and you think to
(24:15):
yourself well, I mean, everyonethinks of Apple when they think
of innovation, and so everyonefeels the need to make this
beautiful finished product, andbeautiful finished products cost
so much money.
And I think that the greatequalizer in today's market,
today's day and age, is the 3Dprinter, and I think you've seen
(24:37):
a really a big explosion ofreally neat things that people
have made using 3D printers,because it takes a basic
understanding and a relativelyquick learning curve to learn
how to draw something for a 3Dprinter, and you can also use an
endless library of shapes andthings that people have already
designed to 3D print.
(24:58):
So I think we're in kind of anera again because of 3D printing
and because of some of thescalability of these items,
where you can make a reallygreat prototype simply by
knowing the right avenues to use, and we'll talk a bit about
that as the podcast goes along.
But I think the main takeawayhere is I think what we found
(25:21):
ourselves in is a little bit ofan industrial evolution type era
where everyone's looking andsaying well, these big companies
, they own everything.
Every time a great idea comesalong, they buy it, and there's
a consolidation of the marketdown into these large companies
and these large footprints.
And so At this stage, I thinkwhat you'd find is, I think that
(25:45):
if you found someone likeSpangler, who changed the vacuum
cleaner market forever, or atleast forever for now, he
brought it to the layman.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You couldn't get your carpet cleaned by the puffing
billy unless you had money.
He changed that to beaccessible to everyone.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
If I'm Spangler, I'm walking around the streets going
.
I have improved the smell ofevery home in America.
I'm very proud of that.
But because he was in that era,he may not have known that he
was in this period ofconsolidation.
But had he have known?
If he had the internet he couldGoogle and figure out what was
(26:25):
happening in the world.
At the time he may have beenmore privy to starting out
selling to Hoover in aperpetuity of some kind and
getting a fraction of everynickel a nickel off of your
vacuum cleaner made or whateverit may be, and he would have
probably made a lot more moneythat way.
So I think when you're lookingat innovation as an opportunity
(26:52):
to develop something new, don'tbe afraid to sell out.
If that's not your dream, don'tobviously go for it.
Be the business.
But it's okay to build abusiness model that's intended
to be purchased, becausesometimes you just want your
idea out in the world that youdon't necessarily have to be the
billionaire on top of themountain.
(27:13):
You can just be themultimillionaire or you can just
be just a guy who made it.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, and often the best disruptions come out of
necessity and need right Most ofthem, in fact and in Spangler's
case I don't think he was hehad a dream to be an inventor or
an innovator to change theworld.
He had a job to do and it wasexasperating his asthma, so he
(27:41):
was like I'm going to fix this.
And then he tried to run acompany and that just wasn't
really where his skill set wasand Hoover just was in the right
place at the right time and hadthe funds and the know-how to
take that invention and marketthe invention and scale it, and
I think that that's reallyimportant to keep in mind.
(28:02):
Even going back to boost Likehe was an architect, he was very
talented, he had a great job.
He didn't need to reinvent thewheel as far as vacuum cleaner
goes, but it sparked an interestand he said this could be
better.
He probably could have gone onto make a portable version and
keep making better iterations ofthat device, but he was
(28:27):
satisfied to take what was thereand take it to the next level
and then let someone else carrythat baton.
I think that happens a lot.
I mean, you mentioned theiPhone.
The origins of the iPhoneprobably came.
You could trace that all theway back to telegrams, right,
like when did mass communicationstart?
(28:47):
When did digital communicationstart?
It's all just a step on thejourney.
A lot of people are going tocome in and they're going to
disrupt one part of it.
Make one small tweak and thenext person's going to take that
continue.
So you don't have to come upwith a great mind blowing iPhone
idea out of the gate.
It's unrealistic and you'rejust going to shut yourself down
.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
And you look at something like Stonehenge.
Right, we're standing inStonehenge and they're like well
, it took this many hundredyears for them to move the
stones from this mountain tothis mountain, and there's all
kinds of theories about giantsand things that are out there.
But, barring that right, you'retalking about generations of
people who took one small steptowards that goal, not
necessarily someone solving theentire problem at once.
(29:31):
And if that's the case, ifyou're spending hundreds and
hundreds of years moving stonesfrom 2,300 miles away to this
spot and then erecting them andthen putting stones on top of
stones and all these types ofthings, I imagine there was a
lot of innovation that came fromthere.
And one of the things thatpeople say is if you want to
promote innovation, give hardtasks to lazy people because
(29:53):
they'll find a faster way to doit.
I think if I'm Spangler and I'vegot asthma and I'm using a
pillowcase to suck up dust,there's still a ton of dust in
the air, but I know I can mostlyjust hold my breath and run,
just collect a bunch of you knowand get it done faster, which
will make it better, and then Iget more time to recover.
And then you start doubletripling the pillowcases and
(30:13):
trying to, you know, minimizethe dust from there.
But but yeah, you've gotsomebody who just has a need to
make it faster.
That would be my, my, call toaction.
If you're an innovator and youwant to change the world that
you're in, whether that changesthe grand scope of everything
you know is kind of irrelevant.
(30:34):
Your baby's crying thissolution solves my needy from
crying.
And prove upon that.
Xyz Don't feel it need to be abusiness owner.
Don't feel the need to come upwith the iPhone.
Don't feel the need to makethis big, impactful step.
Focus more on solving theproblem where you're at.
That makes life easier, and ifyou can make money on that,
great.
If you can't make money on that, guess what?
(30:56):
You innovate it, and that'sthat's okay too.
And I think there's so manyinstances where people run into
something every day and they, oh, that's really cool and and
that that's you know at.
Innovate the ordinary.
That's more or less what we do,right?
I mean you.
You get people who say, what doyou do?
And I'm like, if you walk intoa business or a you know a home
or something and you say, wow,that's really neat, that's what
(31:19):
we make right Things thatinnovate ordinary spaces, that
bring a different element,whether it be automated, whether
it be technology, whether it bea physical change, whether it
just be a better, more efficientlayout, something that's built
for that business or thathomeowner.
Innovate the ordinary.
That's what we do is we try andmake it as impactful as we can
(31:43):
and deliver some kind offinished product to that person
or just do consulting it.
That's, that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
And don't discredit your idea, right Like it doesn't
have to be ground breaking,earth shattering to be of value.
You could.
You could innovate the smallestthing in your home to solve
your problem.
And, like you said, john,someone might come in and say,
wow, I would never have thoughtto do that.
Maybe you just put the cup over, you know, use a mug to fill
(32:13):
with hot water and heat up ababy bottle that was frozen full
of milk.
That's, that's not a realinnovation.
I don't think anyone's donethat as kids, but you know,
someone did that for the firsttime, you know.
So, even if it's something smallthat solves a problem in your
life, you can share that.
You can share that word ofmouth by showing your friends.
You can sell anything at Etsyif you're trying to make a book,
(32:35):
and that's also what we do,right, like, we're not innovate
the ordinary.
We're not trying to, you know,reinvent everything, but maybe
just look at something a littlebit differently and say that
space can be configured a littleslightly differently.
Or you can build this in a wayto improve your, your business,
or improve your employees, youknow, day to day on the job, et
(32:57):
cetera.
It doesn't have to be somethingreally, really, really
disruptive.
It can just be something thatis just thought a little
differently and impactful andsolves a problem.
So don't discredit yourself,because it's not this huge
disruptive idea.
If it solves a problem and it'sattainable, go for it and be
proud of it.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, and I think the easiest one that I can give
verbally on a podcast is if yougo to the grocery store and I'm,
I'm, I was born and raised inthe South so we call it a buggy.
But I believe up in theNorthern the rest of the world
called a shopping cart A cart.
But if you go into the sectionwhere they sell the beverages,
(33:39):
so you take a six pack ofGatorade, you can take the six
pack of Gatorade and you can putit on the edge of the shopping
cart and the Gatorade willstraddle the edge of the
shopping cart and take up almostno space in the shopping cart
at all.
It'll just kind of ride, youknow, like a, like a horse on a
saddle, someone sitting on ahorse on the edge of the
shopping cart.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
At some point someone went hey you're talking about
just taking the six pack ofGatorade that's connected by the
plastic rings and and puttingit on the edge of the cart.
So three of the Gatoradebottles are in the car, floating
inside the car and three arefloating outside.
Is what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Exactly Right.
So somebody somewhere had alittle bit of a physics mind and
went hey, that's equallybalanced, I can just do this and
it and it you.
If you go to your local grocerystore and you do that, at least
three people will go hey that'sa really good idea.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Every time you do it, I say it's a good idea because
I forget.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
And I learned it from a bagger at Publix, Right,
Right.
So I think innovations can besmall and that is okay.
It can be something very, very,very simple and with that we
will, we'll wrap the show up.
I want to kind of leave somespace for for next week's
episode.
But before we go, Katie, I wantto bring up that, that hoodie
(34:52):
you're wearing.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh, yes, you like my bright orange hoodie with a
shark on it.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I do, and this show is brought to you by that bright
orange hoodie.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yes, it's very cool.
I'm glad you asked.
I wore it because I was fishing, fishing for a compliment, pun
intended.
I got this hoodie from Salt inFinn, so that'd be like salt and
fin, but instead of and it'sjust the end, because super
trending, cool Salt and Finn Co,which is a shark and ocean
loving apparel company with amission to save Atlantic white
(35:22):
sharks, which is something Ireally love because I have an
affinity for all things marine.
So if you would like anythingshark inspired jewelry,
sweatshirts, hats, et cetera youcan get them from Salt and Co.
Everything is made and designedin New Bedford, massachusetts.
And just a little tidbit oflittle fact for you from their
(35:47):
website, which I love anestimated 100 million sharks are
killed per year throughout theworld.
So join the shiver and help thesharks.
As humans, we have anobligation to care for the ocean
and the animals that live in it, as we will always coexist.
I just love that.
So, again, if you want to checkout Salt and Fin, a shark
inspired apparel, head over toshop salt and the letter N
(36:10):
fincocom, that's shop salt andfincocom.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Awesome, and anybody who knows this knows that shark
week is a big deal in our house,so that's huge the biggest
cancel all the plans, close thewindows.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
We're not leaving for a week.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We're doing shark themed foods for a week.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
We will.
We probably should have savedthis shout out.
For what is it?
June, June.
But that's okay, We'll talkabout it again when it gets
closer to shark week.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Thank you so much for joining us.
Remember to stay curious.
You can connect with us atinnovatetheordinarycom or find
us on various social mediaplatforms Facebook, instagram,
excel.
Hello, I am your host , John Mode.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And I'm your other host, Katie Mode.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And this is the Innovate Everything podcast,
where we unpack and exploreinnovation as innovators.
But first a drink.
I am an avid bourbon lover.
I am the founder of the DannyBeach Bourbon Club.
I joined a podcast calledImplicit Bias, which is also a
lot about drinking bourbon, andI originally had a podcast for
(00:24):
Innovate Everything and as weunpack what we've done and how
it's built and how it's been run, we find opportunities to
improve.
And we were sitting down, mywife and I, and having a
discussion about the InnovateEverything podcast and she said
it's not that great and she alsosaid we can do better.
(00:44):
And she said I think you need aco-host.
And I said what a great idea.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And I think you said we need someone who is readily
available and accessible.
And I said, yes, that's exactlywhat you need.
And then you just kept staringat me and then I realized that
person had to be me.
So here I am and we're on thisjourney together.
We will drink bourbon, talkinnovation and hopefully it's a
(01:08):
valuable journey for everyone inour revamping.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, but I digress.
So what we're going to do iswe're going to start every show
with a quick bourbon tasting.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
My favorite bourbon on the shelf, which is the St
Augustine Bourbon.
Like you said, it's very lightand easy.
It's a beginner's bourbon.
We're going to drink it neatbut I think something really fun
came in the mail the other daythat you want us to try.
I'm a little apprehensive aboutit.
So, in lieu of a cocktail,we're going to try an experience
(01:40):
, a bourbon experience.
Why don't you tell us moreabout that?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And we already had our Excite my Common Focus
Wellness gummies to get us kindof dialed in for the show.
So Implicit Bias did a segmenta couple of weeks ago on their
show where they tasted bourbonand they used something called a
buzz button.
And Caleb Morris, the rusticrenegade, went ahead and mailed
me some of these buzz buttonsand I have experienced one
(02:07):
already and I decided what agreat opportunity to have my
wife experience this with all ofyou.
With all of you.
So the trick to a buzz button,it is a Should we tell them
first what a buzz button is.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, we should do that Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So a buzz button is an unbloomed, it's a flower bud
of a I don't know what specificflower it is, I'm not sure it
really matters when it comesdown to this but basically
there's a biochemical compoundin this flower bud that changes
the way that your tongue tastesand experiences flavors, and so
there's a cocktail called theCosmo, where the objective is to
drink the Cosmo, eat the buzzbutton and then drink the Cosmo
(02:47):
again and see kind of how itchanged things.
So it works for bourbon as well.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I was wildly lazy and did not make a Cosmo.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's a little more involved, so I don't blame you.
So these were mailed to us, andso we're going to give these a
spin right now.
So, kate, grab your glass, I'mgoing to open it.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
These are really beautiful.
They're like what are they likefreeze, dried or something?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
They're no, they're fresh, but they're.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
They're fresh, then they're fresh buds, and do I eat
the stem with it, or do I just?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
No, just the yellow part.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Okay, just the flower bit Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I don't know what's going to happen.
So when a soldier tells you notto eat something, definitely
don't eat it.
So he said don't eat the greenpart.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Don't eat the green part.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I don't know what that means, if that means bad
things will happen or not.
But just don't eat the greenpart.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's the first time in my life of being told not to
eat the green part.
Okay, all right, so let me takethe All right, so I eat it
first and then I sip the bourbon.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, no, let's sip the bourbon first.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Let's sip the bourbon first.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I'm drinking new lute toasted barrel, okay, okay, and
so on my, I got Okie notes.
We've got some caramel, alittle bit of nuttiness, a
really nice kind of palletedbourbon.
I picked it on purpose, niceand light and fresh, to start
the show.
And now eat the buzz button.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Okay, okay, oh my gosh, I'm salivating so much,
like it's like when you have tothrow up, like you're, I'm sorry
.
Is that okay to say on thisshow, okay, I feel like I'm
gonna throw up, but like I'm notsick, it's just I'm salivating
some.
It's not fun, it's not, it'snot Mm-mm.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
All right.
So sip the bourbon.
I get a lot of lemony.
I'm getting a lot of, I getnothing but numb.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
My whole face is numb Like I can't feel my tongue All
right Now, sip the bourbon.
Okay, okay.
I don't know what the point ofthis experiment is.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Did you taste anything different?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
No, I mean, I think the only thing it does is numb
your face and so you just don'ttaste that first burn of the
bourbon.
But I think I was just so.
I'm just so preoccupied by thefact that I can't taste anything
in my mouth to enjoy any oflike the hidden notes of bourbon
.
If maybe you could pull themout.
But I'm just, I'm never doingthat again.
(05:03):
You can give those flowers tosomebody else.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I might do three or four of them and try some
different, some different things, but I give it a zero out of 10
recommend.
I, I, I will certainly say itis a strange experience and
sorry, baby you're going to be,that's going to be a good 30
minutes of that, or probablythree, four minutes.
My gum's so funny.
I think it's one of those,those things in life.
That's just a weird experience.
I think it's.
The salivation is verydifferent, for sure, but I think
(05:29):
it's a.
It's a unique and differentexperience.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I feel like if I ate this in the wild, I would think
I was dying, like I would.
I would be like I I just atesomething that is it's over for
me and would go into a fullfledge panic attack.
That's just not an experience Iwant to have again.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And the the irony of of this buzz button.
Right, this is something thatthese companies make and they
will ship to you for you toexperience this buzz button.
And I find it fascinatingbecause when you're in a
wilderness survival typesituations and you're eating
plants, one of the the basicrules is do not eat a plant.
If you have an extreme reactionLike this, I would.
(06:07):
I would call a buzz button anextreme reaction.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I would classify that as extreme.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Now it does.
It does change how you tasteeverything.
The other day when I first gothim and I gave it to a buddy of
mine, he had a sip of beer andhe nearly like speeded it all
over my countertop and was likedon't drink beer after this.
So I don't know if I wouldexperience beer with it, but
whiskey's got enough of a enoughof its own profile that I would
.
I would say whiskey was fun forme.
The buzz button is very odd.
(06:32):
You've got to want thatexperience to do it.
But if you, if you're the kindof person that just takes a
little bit of pride and pain,give it a try.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Give it a try.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Cocktail hour's over, let's get to the drink.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Get rid of these flowers and just enjoy our
bourbon as we continue on.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, let's get to, so let's get to business right
Get to business.
So that was our, our cocktailhour.
Let's go to work when we talkabout.
So the quote that I read in thevery beginning of everything
that can be invented has alreadybeen invented.
It's a quote that's been longattributed to Charles Duell,
who's the who's the commissionerof the U?
S patent office in 1899.
And when you think back to 1899, you talk about the guy who ran
(07:07):
the patent office.
He's in charge of the patentoffice.
He's been watching all thesepatents flood in for the through
the industrial revolution.
Everyone's inventing new thingsand he's got so much work on
his plate and he's starting tosee some some repetition in the
market, and so he says tohimself that's it, everything
that can be invented has beeninvented.
It was on headlines.
(07:28):
It was kind of his way, in myopinion, of saying like, can we
just slow down with the patents?
I've got to read all thesethings, my team's got to read
all these things.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I don't want to work.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, well, and also I'm starting to see a lot of
repetition, right?
So someone who thinks they knowwhat they're doing, somebody
who goes, who's sitting in their, in their basement, maybe,
maybe you're sitting in your,you're living in them right now
and you're saying to yourself,what if there was an app that
could do inter, inter, whateverthere, right, what if there was
(07:58):
an app that could do that?
And when you think through that, what, what if there was this?
Now, today, you go to theinternet and you type in apps
that do this.
Back in the 1899, you mailed aletter to the US patent office
with your doohickey that didthis.
Right, your widget, this iswhat, what I think it can do.
(08:18):
And you, you submit it to thepatent office.
Now they have to filter throughall this stuff and say, yep,
this already exists.
Here's the reference tosomebody else, and so I think
some of that was frustration.
But that line, that quote, isso famously associated with
narrow mindedness and when youthink of all the things, the
electronics, all the things thathave happened since that time,
(08:39):
it almost seems like a sillyquote.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
No, it isn't silly quote.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So if you're an innovator and you're, and you're
at home right now, you think toyourself so I'm an innovator,
right?
So what?
What do I do with that?
And I think what we're going totalk about a little bit we're
going to get into some historyhere in a second we're going to
talk about people who havedoubled down on things that
already existed, right?
So there's always that guy thatthinks of the first thing.
(09:05):
There's always that, that guyor girl, there's always that
person that thinks of the firstthing, and they come up with the
initial idea.
They come up with this, withthis idea of I'm going to make
this, and it actually issomething new and exciting.
Right, let's think of theiPhone.
Something new, exciting.
No one's ever seen it before.
That doesn't make all theiterations after that null and
(09:27):
void.
It doesn't make improving uponsomething not worth it.
And so, when you see a lot ofinnovations that are going
around today, all these, some ofthese companies are doing is
they're taking big industrialthings that have been in the
market since 1905.
And they're saying, well, thisis a big industrial process
that's been happening.
I'm going to shrink this downand bring it to your home, right
(09:49):
?
The first thing I think of issomething like force of nature.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh yeah, I was thinking about that one too.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So force of nature is an electrified water.
You can go to their website andlearn all about it, but it's
basically salt water and vinegarand they turn it into an acid
that is a cleaning chemical.
That acid has existed foralmost 100 years.
It's been used wildly in Japanand everywhere else, but up
until force of nature did whatthey did, it was a huge
industrial machine that makesits head to be exactly right.
(10:15):
You have to make it exactly theright way or it doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Right, and this place was normally isolated to places
like hospitals, where they hadan entire room or rooms or
floors where they could run thismachine, and it wasn't
something that could ever beleveraged in a home scenario
until force of nature came alongand they basically shrank it
down to a home-based cooker thatyou can put on your counter,
(10:42):
and now you can have it in thehome.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And it costs you like eight cents a bottle to make a
cleaning chemical thatdisinfects and does all these
things.
We use it in our home, we loveit On everything, and what got
us specifically is you can spraydirectly on your children's
hands, and that, to me, is like.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, we don't have to bathe them anymore.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And so if you're looking at whoever invented the
force of nature, maybe we'llfind them and interview them at
some point.
But you look at that particularcompany and that particular
product and you think, okay,well, somebody looked at that
and said, okay, here's anopportunity.
And when you have anopportunity, you have two
(11:23):
choices.
You can say, okay, I'm going tobottle this and try and rapidly
ship it, or I'm going to shrinkthis down.
And shrinking it down is noeasy feat.
It's something that takes a lotof innovation and thought
process and there's a lot thatgoes into it.
So you're an innovator, you'retrying to figure out what the
next step is and I think thefirst and foremost thing and
(11:45):
Katie's going to go a little bitinto the nitty gritty here, but
let's look at the vacuum.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The vacuum.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Let's break down the vacuum.
Everyone thinks themselveswhat's the greatest innovation
in vacuum cleaners?
That must be Dyson.
Dyson's really good aboutselling their process and how
they've recreated the vacuumchamber and all those different
pieces.
But, Katie, let's take a lookback.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, no, we have to go way back, and the vacuum
cleaners are a great example,because it's a huge need.
Cleaning your floors, yourupholstery, your carpets has
been, it will always be aproblem and even with the
innovations we have today it's achore.
But let's go way back and Ilike that you set the stage for
us, john, with the early 20thcentury, in the late 19th
(12:37):
century, in the opening of thissegment, because that's exactly
where we're going.
We're going to go back to thelate 1800s.
There wasn't a lot as far asquick ways to clean your
upholstery or your floor, yourcarpets.
People were using rooms to pushdust around.
They're banging their carpetsout outside trying to get the
(13:00):
dirt dislodged, and that was theonly way to clean their floors.
And the story of the vacuumcleaner, I think, in my humble
opinion, has two heroes orinnovators, and the first one,
hubert, or Hubert Booth, andmost people don't think of him
because he predates our secondhero, who is the person most
people think about, but he wasan engineer, a brilliant
(13:23):
engineer actually, but heprimarily worked on suspension
bridges and like fairgroundferris wheels was like kind of
his niche and he turned hisattention to the vacuuming
device or this problem that wehad still have of how do we
clean our floors.
When he was at a fair and atthe very turn of the century, so
(13:47):
early 1900s, he took aninterest because he saw a demo
of what was the first mechanicalvacuum cleaner and it was very
sexually named the pneumaticcarpet renovator machine.
I know it sounds like he justreally want to buy that, right
the carpet renovator, right therenovator.
But you couldn't buy it becauseit was massive.
(14:08):
This was a imagine, a horsedrawn buggy.
The device was the size of thebuggy and it was pulled by a
team of horses.
It was huge and it didn'tactually suck up anything.
It blew air out at a highvelocity, was gasoline powered,
so it was really inefficient.
They would blow the air at thecarpets or the or the, the
(14:33):
upholstery, whatever you'retrying to clean, and then it
would attempt to capture thedust out of the air into a
receptacle.
So not super great, but betterthan using a really firm push
broom or banging your yourcarpet with a broom.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
So just to paint a picture here, what you're
talking about is somebody with aleaf blower running around your
house and saying hey, honey,chase me around with the vacuum
cleaner sucking up the dustthat's in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Essentially, yeah, it was really innovative and
disruptive because it was amachine that did this and it was
using air in some way todislodge dust and dirt.
But yeah, he thought that wasreally fascinating and but he
asked a really innovative,disruptive question and I know
(15:19):
you know we're going to betalking a lot on the show about
asking questions and solving forproblems and his question he
went right up to the inventorand he said hey, why doesn't it
suck?
Why does it blow?
It should suck.
This is getting over it.
But he said why, why doesn't itsuck?
And this said this inventor off.
He got pissed, he wasfloundering and saying that
(15:42):
could never, you could never dothat.
That would never work.
And it's stressing out and inbooth said Hold my beer, hold my
bourbon.
I don't know if he said that,there's no record of him saying
that but he basically set off atthat point and decided that he
was going to reinvent thisdevice.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
And so okay.
So what you're looking at rightthere, in my opinion, is
something that's talked about alot in the market right now.
It's called psychologicalsafety.
Correct, right?
So somebody brings up an ideaand you immediately go on the
defensive and you say, no, myidea is, it's the right idea,
I've worked so hard, and there'sall kinds of good reasons for
not having psychological safety,but that's an interesting
(16:21):
example of where somebody,because of the lack of
psychological safety and becausethey had a lot of confidence in
their own abilities, he wentout and did it himself, right?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, right, and the original inventor was highly
offended, instead of seeing hisown blind spot and saying, yeah,
you're right, let's partner onthis, which I think is fair.
As human beings, we don't liketo be called out for our blind
spots, but he was very upsetthat he must have gone to.
Harvard Called them out.
So Booth went off and he setoff to answer this question.
(16:50):
And what I find fascinating isit nearly killed him.
What he did in the verybeginning was simply stick a
kerchief over his mouth and suckup dirt with his mouth, like,
will this work if I just suck itup with a filter?
And he got dirt and stuff inhis lungs and got really sick
(17:11):
and then almost killed him.
But he continued to work on it.
He ended up reverse engineeringthe original device and he came
up with the same bulky, massivemachine that he had started on.
The original, very well namedpneumatic carpet renovator
(17:34):
looked the same, function thesame, but instead of blowing out
air, it sucked and he named itthe puffing billy.
And again this thing wasmassive, it was pulled by a
horse or two horses and it wasboxy and it was red and it was
just like a state.
He wanted people to know he wascoming and what he would do is
he would go through town towealthy upper crust customers
(17:55):
and he would enter their homesthrough the window, like he
would have.
The device was a big tube andit would go through the window
or the front door and he wouldsuck up the dirt and it would go
into this big box in the streeton this carriage called the
puffing billy, and it was.
He was also a marketing geniusbecause he had the tubes and the
(18:18):
vessel on the puffing billycollecting the dust.
He had them designed so theywould be see through, so people
walking by could stop and lookat all the dust he was
collecting from his customershomes and then that created
demand and excitement.
So he was really really smartin that way to show people who
he wasn't actually servicingthat it was working and who else
does that that we know of todaywho uses see through canisters
(18:44):
to show you how effective theirmachine is.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Every bagglesque, bagglesque.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Well, everyone now.
But who?
Who started that?
I'm pretty sure it was.
It was Dyson, right, and peoplewere like, look how much dirt
this is pulling up.
I mean it's, it's effective,people don't change.
He was wildly successful.
He ended up cleaningWestminster Abbey for the
coronation of King Edward theseventh in Queen Alexandra, and
they were so impressed that theybought two of the puffing
(19:09):
billies, one to clean theBuckingham Palace and one to
clean Windsor Castle.
So he, he really was successfulat this.
Did you have a question?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I think that that's the biggest takeaway that I've
gotten so far from this, andcorrect me if I'm wrong.
Here is his biggest innovationis basically reversing the the
the pole.
So instead of blowing, you'resucking.
And then everything else fromthere was was marketing and
showing a competitive advantage.
Because I think if two thingsis a salesperson right, so I am
(19:44):
a fabricator and innovator.
I build awesome things, but Istill have to go out and sell,
right.
And so when you look at thesales piece of that, it's
something as simple as walkinginto the home afterwards and
saying, hey, look everything.
There's not dust floatingeverywhere, there's no reclean,
because all this, all the dustsettled later and, more
(20:04):
importantly, open this drawer,look at all this dust and you
can watch it come out.
He really engaged the peoplearound him, and I'm sure we can
find many other instances wherepeople have done that, but I
think that, to me, is thebiggest piece of innovation.
Was just the famous Steve Jobs.
Think differently.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, absolutely You're right.
And he quickly became the guyto remove dust and crime from
your carpets, from your floor,from your upholstery.
Again, for the upper crust,this was expensive.
He wasn't going around toeveryone, it was just the
wealthy in London.
He was in London I don't knowif I had prefaced that but in
(20:42):
London he was going to thewealthy homes and using this
puffing billy to get the grimeout of their houses.
It became kind of a householdstaple name.
Again, it wasn't a householdstaple, but it was very well
known on the streets.
Then enters our second hero.
His name was James Spangler,and this is a name that most
(21:04):
people will probably recognizebecause he is credited with the
invention of the vacuum cleaneras we know it today, people
don't think about the puffingbilly as much because it doesn't
really match up with what wesee as the vacuum cleaner, as an
in-home device.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
People naturally think Dyson, not Stanley Steamer
.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Exactly, exactly.
So.
He was a janitor and he was incharge of cleaning this massive
department store, which wasarduous at the time, and he had
asthma, so he was always gettingreally sick.
He was trying to figure out away to clean carpets without
stirring up all the dust andexasperating his asthma.
So he was a tinkerer and heputs together his own
(21:46):
contraption, which included abroom, a pillowcase and an
electric motor, and the bonuswas it stood upright and it was
portable.
So this was a big deal.
There was another criticalchange he added a rotating brush
that he salvaged from a carpetsweeper and it was incredibly
efficient the most efficientvacuum to date and people loved
(22:06):
it.
So he quit his job as a janitorand he started his own company
called the Electric SuctionSweeper Company, and he got
investors, including hisprevious employer.
So the department store that hehad worked up for when he
invented this totally backed himand invested in his company and
he started to distribute hisinvention.
(22:28):
Here's the kicker he bankrupt.
He didn't have a mind forbusiness.
I think this is something weneed to talk about in this maybe
not today, but in our in theseries is he didn't know how to
run a company.
He had a great idea, he madethe device and it was a great
device, but he just he ran outof money.
So this is where we see theswitch to the name that we all
(22:48):
know, hoover.
He couldn't afford to keep hiscompany open, so his cousin,
whose last name is Hoover, herhusband, invested in the company
.
They bought the patents fromStangler and, with proper
marketing and business sense anda sales strategy, they took the
(23:09):
company.
You know to where it is today.
They exploded and, as of 2022,hoover had a net sales of over
20 million and their name thatis still very well known and
applicable today.
So I think that's just reallyinteresting.
And you know, from then, fromthat original design, the vacuum
cleaner hasn't changed much.
(23:31):
I mean, we've got greatinnovations to the portability
of vacuums, the charging ofvacuums.
We've got, you know, the robotvacuums that are disruptive and
great, but they still use thesame mechanics.
Not much has changed from thatoriginal prototype that Spangler
invented while working as ajanitor at a department store.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
And I think that a lot of people can be discouraged
when you, when you look at themarket now we have so many
precision machines, you've gotso much.
They're CNC machines andthere's all these really tight
tolerances and when you'resitting in your home and you're
like I would love to invent orbuild this product that I think
is really really neat and reallyreally cool, and you think to
(24:15):
yourself well, I mean, everyonethinks of Apple when they think
of innovation, and so everyonefeels the need to make this
beautiful finished product, andbeautiful finished products cost
so much money.
And I think that the greatequalizer in today's market,
today's day and age, is the 3Dprinter, and I think you've seen
(24:37):
a really a big explosion ofreally neat things that people
have made using 3D printers,because it takes a basic
understanding and a relativelyquick learning curve to learn
how to draw something for a 3Dprinter, and you can also use an
endless library of shapes andthings that people have already
designed to 3D print.
(24:58):
So I think we're in kind of anera again because of 3D printing
and because of some of thescalability of these items,
where you can make a reallygreat prototype simply by
knowing the right avenues to use, and we'll talk a bit about
that as the podcast goes along.
But I think the main takeawayhere is I think what we found
(25:21):
ourselves in is a little bit ofan industrial evolution type era
where everyone's looking andsaying well, these big companies
, they own everything.
Every time a great idea comesalong, they buy it, and there's
a consolidation of the marketdown into these large companies
and these large footprints.
And so At this stage, I thinkwhat you'd find is, I think that
(25:45):
if you found someone likeSpangler, who changed the vacuum
cleaner market forever, or atleast forever for now, he
brought it to the layman.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You couldn't get your carpet cleaned by the puffing
billy unless you had money.
He changed that to beaccessible to everyone.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
If I'm Spangler, I'm walking around the streets going
.
I have improved the smell ofevery home in America.
I'm very proud of that.
But because he was in that era,he may not have known that he
was in this period ofconsolidation.
But had he have known?
If he had the internet he couldGoogle and figure out what was
(26:25):
happening in the world.
At the time he may have beenmore privy to starting out
selling to Hoover in aperpetuity of some kind and
getting a fraction of everynickel a nickel off of your
vacuum cleaner made or whateverit may be, and he would have
probably made a lot more moneythat way.
So I think when you're lookingat innovation as an opportunity
(26:52):
to develop something new, don'tbe afraid to sell out.
If that's not your dream, don'tobviously go for it.
Be the business.
But it's okay to build abusiness model that's intended
to be purchased, becausesometimes you just want your
idea out in the world that youdon't necessarily have to be the
billionaire on top of themountain.
(27:13):
You can just be themultimillionaire or you can just
be just a guy who made it.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, and often the best disruptions come out of
necessity and need right Most ofthem, in fact and in Spangler's
case I don't think he was hehad a dream to be an inventor or
an innovator to change theworld.
He had a job to do and it wasexasperating his asthma, so he
(27:41):
was like I'm going to fix this.
And then he tried to run acompany and that just wasn't
really where his skill set wasand Hoover just was in the right
place at the right time and hadthe funds and the know-how to
take that invention and marketthe invention and scale it, and
I think that that's reallyimportant to keep in mind.
(28:02):
Even going back to boost Likehe was an architect, he was very
talented, he had a great job.
He didn't need to reinvent thewheel as far as vacuum cleaner
goes, but it sparked an interestand he said this could be
better.
He probably could have gone onto make a portable version and
keep making better iterations ofthat device, but he was
(28:27):
satisfied to take what was thereand take it to the next level
and then let someone else carrythat baton.
I think that happens a lot.
I mean, you mentioned theiPhone.
The origins of the iPhoneprobably came.
You could trace that all theway back to telegrams, right,
like when did mass communicationstart?
(28:47):
When did digital communicationstart?
It's all just a step on thejourney.
A lot of people are going tocome in and they're going to
disrupt one part of it.
Make one small tweak and thenext person's going to take that
continue.
So you don't have to come upwith a great mind blowing iPhone
idea out of the gate.
It's unrealistic and you'rejust going to shut yourself down
.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
And you look at something like Stonehenge.
Right, we're standing inStonehenge and they're like well
, it took this many hundredyears for them to move the
stones from this mountain tothis mountain, and there's all
kinds of theories about giantsand things that are out there.
But, barring that right, you'retalking about generations of
people who took one small steptowards that goal, not
necessarily someone solving theentire problem at once.
(29:31):
And if that's the case, ifyou're spending hundreds and
hundreds of years moving stonesfrom 2,300 miles away to this
spot and then erecting them andthen putting stones on top of
stones and all these types ofthings, I imagine there was a
lot of innovation that came fromthere.
And one of the things thatpeople say is if you want to
promote innovation, give hardtasks to lazy people because
(29:53):
they'll find a faster way to doit.
I think if I'm Spangler and I'vegot asthma and I'm using a
pillowcase to suck up dust,there's still a ton of dust in
the air, but I know I can mostlyjust hold my breath and run,
just collect a bunch of you knowand get it done faster, which
will make it better, and then Iget more time to recover.
And then you start doubletripling the pillowcases and
(30:13):
trying to, you know, minimizethe dust from there.
But but yeah, you've gotsomebody who just has a need to
make it faster.
That would be my, my, call toaction.
If you're an innovator and youwant to change the world that
you're in, whether that changesthe grand scope of everything
you know is kind of irrelevant.
(30:34):
Your baby's crying thissolution solves my needy from
crying.
And prove upon that.
Xyz Don't feel it need to be abusiness owner.
Don't feel the need to come upwith the iPhone.
Don't feel the need to makethis big, impactful step.
Focus more on solving theproblem where you're at.
That makes life easier, and ifyou can make money on that,
great.
If you can't make money on that, guess what?
(30:56):
You innovate it, and that'sthat's okay too.
And I think there's so manyinstances where people run into
something every day and they, oh, that's really cool and and
that that's you know at.
Innovate the ordinary.
That's more or less what we do,right?
I mean you.
You get people who say, what doyou do?
And I'm like, if you walk intoa business or a you know a home
or something and you say, wow,that's really neat, that's what
(31:19):
we make right Things thatinnovate ordinary spaces, that
bring a different element,whether it be automated, whether
it be technology, whether it bea physical change, whether it
just be a better, more efficientlayout, something that's built
for that business or thathomeowner.
Innovate the ordinary.
That's what we do is we try andmake it as impactful as we can
(31:43):
and deliver some kind offinished product to that person
or just do consulting it.
That's, that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
And don't discredit your idea, right Like it doesn't
have to be ground breaking,earth shattering to be of value.
You could.
You could innovate the smallestthing in your home to solve
your problem.
And, like you said, john,someone might come in and say,
wow, I would never have thoughtto do that.
Maybe you just put the cup over, you know, use a mug to fill
(32:13):
with hot water and heat up ababy bottle that was frozen full
of milk.
That's, that's not a realinnovation.
I don't think anyone's donethat as kids, but you know,
someone did that for the firsttime, you know.
So, even if it's something smallthat solves a problem in your
life, you can share that.
You can share that word ofmouth by showing your friends.
You can sell anything at Etsyif you're trying to make a book,
(32:35):
and that's also what we do,right, like, we're not innovate
the ordinary.
We're not trying to, you know,reinvent everything, but maybe
just look at something a littlebit differently and say that
space can be configured a littleslightly differently.
Or you can build this in a wayto improve your, your business,
or improve your employees, youknow, day to day on the job, et
(32:57):
cetera.
It doesn't have to be somethingreally, really, really
disruptive.
It can just be something thatis just thought a little
differently and impactful andsolves a problem.
So don't discredit yourself,because it's not this huge
disruptive idea.
If it solves a problem and it'sattainable, go for it and be
proud of it.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, and I think the easiest one that I can give
verbally on a podcast is if yougo to the grocery store and I'm,
I'm, I was born and raised inthe South so we call it a buggy.
But I believe up in theNorthern the rest of the world
called a shopping cart A cart.
But if you go into the sectionwhere they sell the beverages,
(33:39):
so you take a six pack ofGatorade, you can take the six
pack of Gatorade and you can putit on the edge of the shopping
cart and the Gatorade willstraddle the edge of the
shopping cart and take up almostno space in the shopping cart
at all.
It'll just kind of ride, youknow, like a, like a horse on a
saddle, someone sitting on ahorse on the edge of the
shopping cart.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
At some point someone went hey you're talking about
just taking the six pack ofGatorade that's connected by the
plastic rings and and puttingit on the edge of the cart.
So three of the Gatoradebottles are in the car, floating
inside the car and three arefloating outside.
Is what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Exactly Right.
So somebody somewhere had alittle bit of a physics mind and
went hey, that's equallybalanced, I can just do this and
it and it you.
If you go to your local grocerystore and you do that, at least
three people will go hey that'sa really good idea.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Every time you do it, I say it's a good idea because
I forget.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
And I learned it from a bagger at Publix, Right,
Right.
So I think innovations can besmall and that is okay.
It can be something very, very,very simple and with that we
will, we'll wrap the show up.
I want to kind of leave somespace for for next week's
episode.
But before we go, Katie, I wantto bring up that, that hoodie
(34:52):
you're wearing.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh, yes, you like my bright orange hoodie with a
shark on it.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I do, and this show is brought to you by that bright
orange hoodie.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yes, it's very cool.
I'm glad you asked.
I wore it because I was fishing, fishing for a compliment, pun
intended.
I got this hoodie from Salt inFinn, so that'd be like salt and
fin, but instead of and it'sjust the end, because super
trending, cool Salt and Finn Co,which is a shark and ocean
loving apparel company with amission to save Atlantic white
(35:22):
sharks, which is something Ireally love because I have an
affinity for all things marine.
So if you would like anythingshark inspired jewelry,
sweatshirts, hats, et cetera youcan get them from Salt and Co.
Everything is made and designedin New Bedford, massachusetts.
And just a little tidbit oflittle fact for you from their
(35:47):
website, which I love anestimated 100 million sharks are
killed per year throughout theworld.
So join the shiver and help thesharks.
As humans, we have anobligation to care for the ocean
and the animals that live in it, as we will always coexist.
I just love that.
So, again, if you want to checkout Salt and Fin, a shark
inspired apparel, head over toshop salt and the letter N
(36:10):
fincocom, that's shop salt andfincocom.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Awesome, and anybody who knows this knows that shark
week is a big deal in our house,so that's huge the biggest
cancel all the plans, close thewindows.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
We're not leaving for a week.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We're doing shark themed foods for a week.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
We will.
We probably should have savedthis shout out.
For what is it?
June, June.
But that's okay, We'll talkabout it again when it gets
closer to shark week.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Thank you so much for joining us.
Remember to stay curious.
You can connect with us atinnovatetheordinarycom or find
us on various social mediaplatforms Facebook, instagram,
excel.
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