April 18, 2024 • 47 mins
When Stan Smith first laid eyes on that Craigslist pit bull, little did he know it would pave the way to founding X-Dog and revolutionizing the canine supplement industry. Join us as we uncover Stan's journey from a troubled childhood companioned by loyal dogs, to breaking into and rising above the pushback of the established dog community, and onto the inception of X-Dog, a testament to his dedication to improving dog well-being. We tackle the challenges of e-commerce, the significance of quality in pet supplements, and how Stan's personal mission morphed into a thriving business that's setting new standards in the canine world.
Navigating the intricacies of product quality and inventory management, the episode reveals the hurdles and eureka moments in the development of the X-Dog V4 series. We'll share how this functional dog harness is changing the game in canine fitness and weight management, maintaining an impeccable safety record while combating dog obesity. Our candid conversation also highlights the lessons learned in business management, the impact of strategic partnerships, and the future plans for X-Dog as we gear up to reach our ambitious goal of impacting a million dogs a year.
But it's not all business; we open the door to the personal side as well. Balancing entrepreneurship with family life, the pride of raising bilingual children, and the hard-earned rewards of a successful venture, we explore the multifaceted life of a CEO. We wrap up with a crucial discussion on leadership, the value of accountability, and the transformation that comes from embracing collaboration. So, if you're passionate about dogs, interested in the intersection of personal growth and business, or simply looking for a story of resilience and success, this episode is ready to captivate and inform.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everybody who's been a part of your journey since you
started this thing, just likeeverybody who's been a part of
mine good, bad, indifferent theyadded value.
And every single employee,every single partner, every
single, whatever, whether itended good or not, there was
value there and, really excitedfor the show today got a friend
(00:47):
of mine, stan smith, in thestudio well, his studio today, I
should say.
Stan is the founder and ceo ofx-dog and unless you've been
under a rock for the lastseveral years and you're
anywhere in the dog space, youhave for sure heard about xDog
and the phenomenal work thatthey're doing, you know, focused
on the health and well-being ofdogs around the world, and so I
(01:10):
had the pleasure of being onStan's podcast a couple of years
ago on one of my trips out toTexas, where he's based out of
got the tourist facility andhang out for a bit, and we've
been connected over the yearsthrough some different things
and you know we finally got himhere on the Big Dog Podcast.
So, stan, welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
What's up, man, glad to be on.
First of all, I want to saythank you for inviting me, man.
I've been watching and a bigfan of your podcast for a long
time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
I'll put you to the list.
With my grandmother, my mom andI think my wife tunes in every
once in we're doing okay, yeah,that's awesome.
How's Texas, baby, how's Texas?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Man, it's raining a lot here.
Other than that, man, it'stypical Texas.
You know, hot one week,freezing cold the next week, but
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
So look, let's dive in.
First talking about kind ofyour story, how you ended up on
this path that led you to X-Dog.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Take us back a little bit.
Tell them about you.
Well, it all initially startedlike my love for dogs when I was
a kid.
I grew up around four years oldI had lost my eye and then I'm
biracial.
I grew up in a small town oflike 2,500 and it's called Mason
City, illinois, so it's atimely white town, father.
I stayed with my father.
My father and my mother gotdivorced and she ended up moving
down to Louisiana and at theend of the day, you know like I
(02:25):
was just a kid with a bunch ofinsecurities and my grandma had
dogs and a few of my friends haddogs and one day I ended up
getting a dog and you know,dealing with a lot of
insecurities.
Dogs don't care about thatstuff.
What type, how rich you are,what type of clothing you wear,
you know they don't care ifyou're disabled or anything else
.
That it was just one of thosethings where I found and fell in
love and trusted dogs.
So when I knew I was able, whenI was older enough to actually
(02:48):
get dogs, I was like, man, I'mgoing to get my first.
You know, pit bull, you know,and it was just one of those
things.
I was in the music industry.
I wanted a pit bull.
I ended up getting a pit bulland then it was just, like you
know, one of those $200 dogs outof Craigslist and met somebody
in the parking lot, got it outof the back of the truck, his
little red-nosed dog named Deja,and then I started taking a
little bit deeper dive.
They had back in the day themessage boards and that's when
(03:10):
the American Bully started toactually become present and I
ended up at the time I thoughtit was a lot of money.
I spent like $1,800 on a dognamed Caution who came out of a
very popular dog of the guy whocreated Razor's Edge American
Bull.
He's actually out of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, and then we got on the message boards and I
went down this rabbit hole ofall these American bullies and
the next thing I know I startedinvesting into American bullies,
throwing them in videos andstuff like that, and gain
popularity and notoriety throughthe music and having the dogs.
But just like with any dogcommunity you're going to run
into, they want you to takecertain steps.
They don't want you to fasttrack.
(03:45):
So you have individuals who'vebeen in the game for a long time
, and then there's this punk kidyou know comes in three years.
He knew how to buy dogs.
I had a vision for phenotyperight.
Like my dad raised king pigeons, and king pigeons is like a 40
ounce man-made bird right Big,short beaks, big chest, short
backs everything that youideally would want in a bully
dog.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Culture-wise.
So I knew what to look for.
You know you want big head.
I know how to look for a bighead.
You wanted short backs.
I knew, you know, like justextremities on basically an
American Pitbull Terrier with alittle bit different demeanor,
and it was just one of thosethings, man, I was able to fast
track through the music industryand then, you know, I started
getting hated on and they didn'tlike that and I was like, well,
(04:27):
I don't want to stay like doingthis where you know like people
are just upset because you knowI was like there has to be a
better way to find a differentcommunity.
And at the end of the day Inoticed when I started going to
shows there's people feedingcertain supplements and there
are supplement vendors and stufflike that, and I didn't really
understand how the supplementworks, both on the human side or
on the dog side.
Back then I just know, if youput it on dog's food, you know
(04:47):
you're supposed to supposedlyget a result.
I didn't know what result, youknow.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, something was probably going to happen, though
.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, and then the number one question was like,
how do you bulk up your dog?
You know, how do you gain massand muscle on your dog?
And I happened to, you know,contact a manufacturer I still
work with today and they let mewhite label a multivitamin.
And, you know, just having themarketing experience in the
music industry and brandingexperience, I just took a
popular dog and threw it on thelabel that was in our community.
They were able to.
You know, we were able to getlike 30 bottles and then you
could get like every 10 bottlesyou get two frees.
(05:18):
I took like 36 units with thislabel, popped my trunk like I
was selling CDs, and 30 sold out.
I was like, oh, I got somethinghere.
So we started out withsupplements and then to fast
track it, you know about 2012,my business partner I was
telling him I was like man, ifwe could come out with like a
weight vest, you know, I thinkwe could really change the game.
And I was looking for likeseven years to find a
(05:38):
manufacturer.
I didn't have.
No, I had no clue how to lookfor a manufacturer.
There was one in the US and Ididn't know how to contact
anybody overseas and he justmade one email and got a
response.
And it's with the manufacturerthat we work with today and it
was just a human weight vestmanufacturer that you know.
We customized and modified thevest and man in 2017, we made
our first sale on August 8th andit just kind of took off from
(06:00):
there.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, that's incredible.
And there, yeah, that'sincredible.
And so it starts with thispassion for dogs as a kid and
you know the dogs being able tohelp offset, you know, maybe,
some insecurities and you knowkind of finding your way and
write such a common, a commonstory that you hear from people
within our community and howthey, the route they end up
going with the dogs and thedifferent type of dogs that that
(06:21):
bring that comfort, that thatfind that family bond, you know,
with the individual in it, andso you're able, like so many
people I talk to, to take andspin kind of that passion into
life and a business model.
And what can we do?
You know you were musicindustry.
You were doing that.
You learned promotion.
You learned marketing.
The dogs are still a big partof your life at that time.
(06:42):
What you're doing, that's likethe supplement piece.
Now you know 2017, the vestscome out.
What was kind of talk aboutthat?
That the early days when causeyou're, you know, when I started
out, it was hard and I'mservice-based right, no product,
it's service.
I just need to find someone whowants to pay me to deliver my
service.
There's no manufacturinginvolved there.
(07:05):
Manufacturing involved.
There's no white labeling.
There's no coming up creatinginventing of my own.
It's a service that I'm goingto provide.
So now that I have gotten overinto that side a little bit,
which I'm still not an expert in, it is such a different
ballgame than a service-basedbusiness.
So, starting out, I think thiscan be really valuable for
others who have that productthat they believe in and they
think is going to be special,whether it's pet industry or not
(07:26):
.
Talk about some of thosestruggles when you were getting
started and those lessons thatyou were learning.
You know, coming up on both thesupplement and the vest side,
because those are two differentthings as well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, so on the supplement side, the biggest
struggle was understanding howto sell it outside of just going
to shows, right, like I had noeducation on e-commerce and how
to build websites and stuff likethat, how to set up websites or
getting a merchant account torun credit cards.
I had no understanding on thatand so that was the biggest
(07:55):
challenge is that.
I mean to be completely honestwith you.
This whole journey through thisbusiness side has been in a
very expensive, hands-on journeybecause I'm not educated.
I didn't go to school forbusiness and, quite frankly,
after going through all this, Idon't know if you know, business
school would even have helpedus because of how fast you know
business is transitioning nowand how people do business.
And so the first initial wasit's like you know one, you got
(08:17):
to find a manufacturer.
But second you got to educateyourself on you know, on the
product.
You know I initially whitelabeled, but I noticed I
recognized real early and thisis, I think, where I was.
I got really lucky is I.
I understood how you know.
Um, you know when people whitelabel, it's one thing, but to
custom formulate a product andnot cut corners, that's what
gave us a competitive advantagebecause our products actually
(08:38):
work, you know.
So, when you're talking aboutthe pet product, especially the
food industry and people don'tquite understand this dog food
alone when you're talking aboutthe big boys like the you know
the pedigrees, the Nestle's, theMars, you know the Hill science
and stuff like that, they'reliterally competing for 20, 30
cents a bag, right, literallycompeting for 30, 20,.
You know 20, 30 cents a bag.
So they're going to cut cornersany way possible, right, you
(08:59):
know.
So they're going to put thecheapest ingredients throughout,
you know, throughout the dogfood.
And what was interesting is that, I guess, to go back to the
challenging part was, at thebeginning, a lot of it the
supplements was people thoughtit was snake oil.
So it's a snake oil, snake oil,snake oil I feed all natural.
I mean it's like well, turn,turn your bag of dog food around
.
You're going to see that notonly are you feeding snake oil,
you're feeding the cheapest formof snake oil, because enrich
(09:21):
every bag of dog food, probablywith the pre-vitamins coming out
of China, you know.
And so the education part wasthe toughest.
And then, you know, I learned,I was like well, we started at
the very beginning there was afew ingredients that were
actually recognized as musclebuilders.
One of them was creatine.
At the time there was a bigmisconception that it's hard on
livers and you know it was likesuper hard on your body.
(09:43):
Now it's considered a superfood,so we were able to create
products based on ingredientsthat I took from the human side
that I knew it works Because,when you think about it, a lot
of the human grade products aretested on animals, right, and so
they're either tested on miceor they're tested on, basically,
mice in general and rats, andso I knew that it yielded a
result.
(10:03):
So when people actually usedour products, we would cut the
corner on putting all the taking, removing all the junk out,
base our products with superfoodLike, for example, I could have
put my microlose, which is asugar right, as a base.
Instead, I'm like I'm usingbone broth protein.
I'll use, you know, a superhealthy fat source, like coconut
oil, as my base, and then I'llput an active ingredient in it
to bulk it up, like creatine.
And dogs are getting a resultbecause they're getting a high
(10:25):
quality protein, a healthy fat,and then something that supports
muscle.
And now we look at creatine andit's not only is it great for
muscle building, it's also greatfor neurological support and
health.
So you know like the dogs areable to remember things for a
longer period of time, focus fora longer period of time.
It also supports bone densitysupport.
So, like when your dog ages,your dog's bones are going to
(10:49):
eventually get brittle, you know.
So there's just so many healthbenefits, but that was like the
main challenge is just educatingpeople.
Now I'm seeing a transitionwhere now people are
understanding you got to putwhole food sources in your
kibble.
Kibble isn't the greatest, youknow.
It's enough to keep your dogalive, but it's your dog's not
going to thrive.
And then add some supplementscan really help.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, that's incredible.
And there's so many, right,Like the pet food industry.
There's so many options andthey're all pretty good
marketers.
And so you know, you can have10 different products, not just
different in name butlegitimately different in
compound, everything of what itconsists of, and you could buy
each one if you went for facevalue of what the descriptions
(11:25):
are and the marketing campaignssay a great food, a great
product for your dog.
And if you don't know, youreally just don't know.
And you've seen horror stories.
I've seen them all the time andread them, and so that is a
part where the education piecereally comes into play.
And I agree with you.
I'm glad to see more peoplestarting to recognize hey,
there's better options out herefor you know your pet than what
(11:47):
you could grab from the gasstation on the way home because
you forgot to you know planahead for your, for your animal.
Let's talk vests a little bit.
You know, cause this issomething that's always been
fascinating to me and you know,gosh, you've had so many
different designs and styles andstuff, from the weighted vest
to stress relief, to cooling, toheating.
(12:09):
Talk about the vest a littlebit.
What brought that to your mindas being like hey, this is a
viable piece that's missingBecause there's a million
harnesses out there, right, and95% of them are dog shit.
I mean, they're just terrible.
They're just terrible.
Your product, just fromexperience, using hands-on.
You know, see, this is not acrap product if you've never
(12:33):
heard of it before and we'regonna have links to the site on
the show and stuff like that,but you know, so people can
click on and and follow it andlook into it.
But man, this is an incredibleproduct and it's scalable to so
many different sizes of dogs andneeds.
What got you there to that Likethis is a legitimate need that
we can help with.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, that's a great question.
So, first of all, you know,when you talk about, you know my
, my whole mission was I want toeliminate dog obesity.
So it was like, okay, can weeducate the consumer on what to
feed?
That's going to be prettydifficult because everybody's
kind of set in their ways onwhat they're currently feeding,
right.
And then we go, okay, let'slook at their lifestyle.
Now there's a lot of dogs whohave, let's just say, one over
(13:12):
one out of five, one out of twodogs, over 50% are either
overweight or obese.
And so I'm like, okay, well,it's going to be hard to educate
them.
It's going to be hard to getpeople out there to exercise
your dog.
What is there?
What's one thing that we canoffer all dogs, no matter what
diet they're eating, whatlifestyle they're living, that
can generally give them acompetitive advantage in life
(13:33):
when it comes to improving theiroverall health and well-being,
and that's exercise, and anelevated form of exercise would
be fitness and resistancetraining.
So how do we do that?
Well, that's where the weightedvest comes in.
And then you know so, forexample, as soon as you put the
vest on the dog, which takesabout 15 to 20 seconds a day
right and less than that, totake it off.
(13:53):
As soon as you put it on thedog, it immediately is receiving
the health benefits of exercise.
So it doesn't matter what, youdon't have to change his
lifestyle and you do not have tochange his diet.
At the bare minimum, put it onyour dog for an hour or two a
day and it's going to transformyour dog's life and it's going
to slow down the aging processof living cells, keep them at a
healthy weight, improve jointhealth, and then I mean we can
take even a deeper dive when itcomes to lowering the risk of
(14:14):
health-related diseases.
And then going into the dogpsychology side of things,
because you know it's now we'renow being sought after for its
anxiety, ability to addressanxiety and behavior issues,
which is like a major thing, andso I really believe it's the
most impactful tool that's everhit the pet industry when it
comes to your dog's overallhealth and well-being, both
physically and mentally.
And once we get that messageout, man, I think we're off to
(14:36):
the races.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And the thing too, you know,it's not just the benefits of
the dog wearing it.
I mean this is a functionalharness.
I mean there's otheraccessories that you use.
We've actually I had a dog thatworked great on.
We would track with it.
It was very comfortable for thedog you know to wear.
You know for that it wasactually a perfect setup for
that particular dog.
But I mean you guys have, youknow, weighted bags.
(14:59):
You know that can be pulled.
You know attached to theharness.
Or you know what are the bands,resistance bands, the
parachutes.
You know it is a veryfunctional.
I mean it's got pockets, it canget.
You can care, the dog can carrystuff.
You have it set up where thesmall weight bags, because when
you purchase the vest it comeswith the weight bags and your
recommendation is usually what?
Like pellet, like BBs?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah.
So, for example, the new V4 wemodify, which is going to be our
newest version that we'reactually going to launch next
month, we have two forms of it.
Right, we have the X-Dog V4 andthen we have the V4 Max.
Now the V4 Max is what you'retalking about, which is going to
have the additional D-rings for, kind of like, those extreme
dog owners, like those whocompete at the highest level and
(15:40):
really want to talk to the nextlevel.
That way you can use theresistant accessories like the
weighted drag bag, the speedshoe or the resistance band, and
it's got to have front shoulderweights.
And then we're going to launchthe V4 Max, which is going to be
a more affordable version thatwe're going to go into major
retails with.
So we're going out to petglobal on the 19th through the
22nd of this month and we'resitting down with major buyers
(16:01):
right now.
Major retail, which is like adream come true, but we got to
make sure that we have it at agreat price point to where it's
going to move.
So you know, the everyday dogowner who's not an extremist can
utilize the X-Dog V4.
And then you have yourextremists that can use the
X-Dog.
You know V4 Max.
And yes, so each vest will comewith a set of warming and
cooling gel packs, which isgreat.
(16:23):
You can use that as far as arecovery If you have a dog,
that's if it's hot outside andyou want to work them out, you
can, you can freeze the gelpacks, or if it's cold outside
you can warm them up and theyalso that which also makes great
for like warming and cooling,compression, depending on the
symptoms that you know a dogdealing with anxiety issues may
be dealing with.
And then we have weighted bagsthat you can gradually increase
(16:44):
the weight With these.
On the V4, we initially wentwith BBs with the zipper pockets
, but now we ran into a problem.
That's another issue.
When you develop a product,you're going to have to test the
market and figure out how youcan modify and make things
better.
We took the weight bags and wewent back to the Velcro bags,
(17:06):
and that way you can either usesand or BBs and each one can
reach the ideal weight of 5% forhigh velocity training, which
includes, like anything that's,sprinting, running, jumping or
low impact movement, up to 10%,which is, you know, control,
leash walks, obedience trainingand stuff like that.
And so, with that method ofgradually conditioning your dog,
either using the weighted gelpacks or gradually filling you
know the weight bags up.
You're going to be able tocondition the muscles correctly
and since 2017, we've had zeroinjury reports.
(17:29):
We've sold almost 100,000 vestsand we've had zero injury
reports Now on average, just onthe FlexiLead alone.
It's on average, yearly about20,000, both 20,000 people and
dogs get injured just on theFlexiLead youLead.
It's crazy.
Not to have an injury using afitness tool like a weighted
vest is remarkable.
(17:50):
That's something I'm reallyproud of, right there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
No, and you should be .
The thing that I've always beencrazy impressed with is you
didn't come out with the vestand just say, hey, this is the
best vest on the market.
These are the benefits.
Nothing's going to equate tothis, you know, and just push it
and push it, and push it.
I mean, I've been connected andcommunicating with you and
following you for years andyears and years and you are
always innovating.
(18:15):
You are always looking for away to improve the product,
right, and which plays into themission of, you know,
eliminating dog obesity.
It's like, what else can we doto help these dogs?
And it's a constant cycle.
Right, like you could.
You could have the same vestand change the color and you'd
(18:35):
be able to sell some more vests.
There's people out there thatare going to buy every color,
every size, like every rendition, and that's cool and that's a
scalable opportunity.
But the fact that not only areyou doing that, but you're also
looking to improve the product,whether it through accessories,
whether it's through materials,quality, impact, that's awesome,
(18:56):
man, so many manufacturers allthey're looking for is cutting
costs, right, they figured outhow to make something, all right
.
Now how do we make this ascheap as possible.
Now, obviously, from a businessstandpoint, you have to do that
.
It's like, hey, how do I makethis to my expectations for as
cheap as possible?
That's important, but the focusisn't let's sacrifice 40% of my
(19:17):
expectation for this product sothat we can sell it for cheaper
.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, that's the beauty about the V4.
I'm sorry to interrupt you.
The V4 is that we were able tocut costs on our manufacturing
side, at the same time increasethe quality of the vest.
But we didn't how we did it wasokay.
We're like okay, I want to, Iwant to, I want to impact a
million dogs on a calendar year.
And I'm like, how are we goingto do that?
(19:40):
Well, we had to bring in apartner, right?
Well, that partner who has comein, guess what?
They've been in the industryfor 20 years and guess what?
They're good friends with someother manufacturers who actually
own it and there's no middleman.
And so we're actually going outthere and a lot of people have
their products made in China.
But we're actually going to sitdown with a manufacturer out of
(20:00):
Vietnam this coming up week.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
And that's.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's kind of sits at home because my mother's from
there, right, okay, and,ironically, ideal goal by
probably about 20%.
And another 25% because, ifpeople don't know, this is that
there's a 25% tariff tax onanything dog related to come out
of China.
So if you get it done inVietnam and then have it
imported from Vietnam, that's25% that you're saving.
(20:46):
So if you're spending $100 outof China, you're going to.
So if you're spending a hundreddollars out of China, you're
going to spend about $127 and 40cents out for that product,
right, and then, and so that's abig margin when you're talking
about tens of thousands of units, and so relationships are
important, you know, and sobeing able to take that because
the main thing is is like weneed to get this on the shelves
with these retailers to wherethey get their 60 points Right
(21:09):
and we make our margins as well.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
We need to be able to sell it for around 49 99.
Like that's our ideal goal, andthen get it to our trainers at
an extremely premium wholesaleprice so that they're getting
their 60 points as well.
And that we're all able toimpact and win.
You know, at the end of the daythat's that's the the more dogs
we can impact.
It's just a perfect ecosystemfor all of us.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, I agree and talk a little bit about kind of
manufacturing headaches over thelast couple of years, cause I
know you said you got a newmanufacturer now and that's
helping a lot on costs,increased margins for both
yourself, any vendors you'reworking with, et cetera.
But what were some challengesover the last couple of years
that were hemming you guys up,if any, or were you not impacted
(21:51):
over the last couple of yearswith materials and stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
The tariff on China was the big thing.
When you're importing acontainer and you're usually
expecting like $8,000 to $10,000for the container and you get a
bill for $40,000, you're likewhoa, it's big, big spike on
that.
But on the manufacturing sidewe got really lucky.
If I was to say if you aregoing to get products
manufactured, make sure you getthe prototypes in and then you
(22:17):
test the shit out of them.
Just test them and test themand test them, because our first
mistake when we initially gotthe vest on our first batch is
when they came in first.
They were about 120 days latebecause we didn't know the
importing time Right and then wedidn't double check any of the
stitching.
So our consumers were upset.
They get the vest and nextthing I know we're getting
hundreds of emails of their vestfalling apart, and so you know
(22:39):
that was.
That was a big, costly learningexperience, but it was a
valuable learning experiencebecause you know we increased
the durability and understoodwhere the weak areas were and we
were lucky to have veryunderstanding customers right.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And that was early on .
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That was early on.
So now it was just basicallythe sizing thing.
So with the V4, we moved thefitness bands from the back
shoulders to the front shoulders, which now addresses the issue.
On the neck size.
We went from having 12 sizes tonow we're going to have five
sizes that will cover the lion'sshare of dogs that weigh
between 15 pounds to 180 pounds.
(23:14):
And, yeah, it's a big deal.
Yeah, like when you're tryingto maintain 12 colors and 12
sizes, you're going to run intosizing issues as far as, like
man, we're not.
You know, we've got a boat loadof these colors and these sizes
and we're not sitting and weneed these sizes.
We don't have them in stock.
So that was a manufacturingissue that we got fixed.
But it took someone like Brian,who came in and partnered up
(23:35):
with us who does the partner,manufacturer of distribution to
go?
What are your two top sellingproducts and what are the way of
the dogs and can we create aproduct?
And I don't know why it didn't,it didn't dawn onto me, but he
planted that seed and I was likeI think we can do that and we
ended up doing it and I'mexcited about it because it's
less of a headache because, youknow, even selling on e-commerce
(23:55):
and just creating all thoselistings on e-commerce is just a
nightmare.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
you know no dude, when I came by and saw your
guys' place and you were walkingme through the warehouse and
you know fulfillment andshipping and showing me all the
different you know areas set up,and I'm sitting there my mind
was going bonkers and you hadlike a I think a container had
just showed up, like rightbefore I was getting ready to
leave, so they startedoffloading and doing different
(24:21):
things.
I'm like holy crap, likethere's so much stuff here and
I'm thinking about all thedifferent SKws and getting
everything in and like if youget behind on maintaining
inventory, your numbers arejacked.
And I just think about, from abusiness management standpoint,
how difficult and challengingthat is.
So you're like man, it tooksomeone like you said Brian, is
that your partner, is you knowBrian?
(24:43):
To come in and say, hey, whydon't we do blah, blah, blah,
have you thought about it?
And you're like what the hell?
Why didn't I think about that?
Well, sometimes, man, we're sodeep in it, right, all we see is
what's like five feet in frontof us and it's impossible to see
those moves that literally canequate to one big margins, less
(25:03):
stress most of the time, and youknow a better, but you're just
rolling.
And when you're rolling or ifyou're dealing with other
outside pressures or things likethat.
Man, I I do that all.
I hate to admit that, but I meanthat happens to me all the time
that there's things and I Iwant to believe I'm getting, but
I do believe I'm getting betterbut, you know, it's like if you
can't get that partner who canhave eyes from a different
(25:26):
vantage point, or a consultantor a coach or somebody who can
just see it from a littledifferent perspective, or
someone who's been where you'retrying to go before, to come in
and say, hey, you can get whereyou want to be, but not with how
you're doing it right now,because we don't know what we
don't know.
And then it's the part tounderstand, and I think this is
(25:47):
important for all theentrepreneurs out there.
It's like you don't know whatwe don't know, yeah, and then
it's the part to understand Ithink this is important for you
know all the entrepreneurs outthere.
It's like you don't know whatyou don't know.
When you know it, be humble,yeah, the ego and switch.
Yes.
That means your whole businessmodel is about to change.
It doesn't mean your vision andyour idea and your concept is
shit.
It just means you're doingpretty good job getting to where
you are.
(26:07):
But if you really want to do itright, yep, you probably got to
take some considerations inthat you don't know exist and
don't let your ego keep you fromfrom winning yeah, and that was
a blessing.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Like I said, when brian had came on, he initially
came on just to sublease and Ithink he was just kind of
watching to see how well thevests were selling.
Because I kept selling I waslike was like, dude, you need to
jump on board on this.
And it was one of those thingswhere you know he's a numbers
guy, so I deal with maybe 40pallets at a time.
He deals with about 1200 to1500 pallets at a time, right,
wow, yeah, about 40 skews.
(26:40):
Um, he'll probably knock thatdown a little bit.
However, margins matter to himand so for him to come on board
to be a part of this, it waslike I got an expert in-house
who's consulting me and hebrings a strength to the group
that I didn't have, or my otherbusiness partner, steven, didn't
have.
So now we have a person who isin-house that is an expert on
(27:05):
wholesale distribution to majorretails.
He's not big on e-commerce,he's part of Vendor Central.
Amazon, which is almost you haveto be invited to be on Vendor
Central and so, for example,amazon gives him a purchase
order list of containers at atime and they sell his product.
Where we post our listings onAmazon and sell on their
(27:25):
platform, there's a bigdifference.
He's getting a check every 90days or every 60 days.
Platform there's a bigdifference.
He's getting a check every 90days, you know, or every six.
It's a big check and I try toget on there.
They're like, yeah, we'll hityou off when you're ready?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
yeah, we'll, we'll let you know.
It's like calling americanexpress trying to get the black
card they're like well, mrwilson, no, we'll have our
people, call your people andthat won't be happening.
So the v4 and the v4 max is thenew model, yep, that's coming
(27:57):
out that we're so excited about.
What is what's next for x dog,like?
What's next for stan, like what?
Where are y'all headed?
You know what are you dreamingfor, what's the vision, like I
know, a million dogs you want toimpact in a year, which I love,
man and I can get behind forsure.
But what else is going on?
What?
Because I know, I know you,brother, and your mind is always
(28:20):
racing with with ideas andthoughts, and you know what are
you up to.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So the new thing is I've always done this on
e-commerce right and I was likein order to impact a million
dogs.
It's going to be challenging todo it that way.
However, if we can get intoretail, that's going to be our
big play right, and obviouslyBrian has these relationships
with Petco, petsmart, HollywoodFeed, pet Supplies, plus I mean,
(28:45):
we got meetings with buyersafter buyers after buyers, and
retail is our next thing, like Iwant to like.
ideally, my dream is not to bedoing the day-to-day operational
stuff here and actually gettingand and getting in the car and
going or traveling to all theselocations and educating the
stores.
Educating it's just that'swhat's really exciting for me.
(29:06):
I've always dreamed of it,right, like I've always wanted
to get in there.
And then, in addition, isgetting with, with these
trainers.
You know the new program isgoing to be that we're setting
up is going to also be great forour, for the trainers that are
in our network, because nowthey're able to.
They don't have to carry 12products as 12 different sizes.
Right, you can carry the casethat has two, you know know, two
(29:27):
like a two smalls, two mediums,two large, which will be the
lion's share of, uh, probably,the client base that you're
going to be dealing with, andit's going to be at a super
affordable price.
So you'll, you'll, you'll findanother avenue to, you know, um,
to actually, you know, bring ingeneral revenue for your
business, and that's that's thebeauty, like, that's all.
That's the next big play.
(29:48):
I, you know, I'm, I thinkambition is great.
At the same time, you have to,you have to dial it in.
That's what kind of put me in abad place.
You know, I created customformulated dog food.
I did a bunch of toppers, I didtreats.
You know I had to go and go.
What's working, bring it backin.
These are the supplements we'regoing to focus on and now we're
going to work out, focus one-commerce, the vest and going
(30:09):
into retail, and that's that'sour move.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Good for you.
And the thing that's great toois you go in and have these
meetings with the retailers isyou actually have data to show
that, hey, we've pushed ahundred thousand plus of these
things through e-commerce andtrain shows.
It's going to move off yourshelves right, Like I I've been
out here doing this on my ownfor these last several years
(30:31):
like put it in front of peoplein a store and where they're
walking through, like they aregonna move and it.
I'm excited for you, man.
I mean, I I'm praying thatthese meetings go tremendously
well beyond your wildest dreamsand imagination with it and that
fulfillment is.
Fulfillment is is easy and youcan deliver what they're
ordering after the first roundor two, because I I believe,
(30:53):
once you get it that easy infront of somebody not these, not
the little boutique shopsyou're talking about like major
players in the pet industry andthe boutiques push product for
you and that's that's great,that's awesome.
It's just at a smaller scale,but the reach that those big
names that you mentioned have,oh my gosh man.
Oh yeah, that's a game changer.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I'm even thinking like Walmart Cabela's Bass Pro
Shop.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's where we want to go with this thing and the
buyers you know as soon as wesend them over the product
sheets they're excited becauseit's something unique.
Because when you go to thesetrade shows dog bed, dog bull,
another leash, another collar,freeze, dried, everything now
it's just like they're like what.
There's a product that canactually I can feel good about
(31:37):
selling to our consumers becauseit solves a lot of problems.
It's going to, it's a greatinvestment for any dog owner and
I want it to be as common as aleash and collar.
But I really believe it's goingto be the most impactful tool
to ever hit the market.
If we can get the message out,we can convey the message
properly, which is againsimplifying it.
You know, warming, cooling vest.
(31:58):
We're going to deal withfitness, uh, anxiety and
behavior.
If your dog has behavior issues, this vest can help get with a
certified trainer.
If your dog has anxiety issues,utilize this tool, get with a
certified trainer.
And if you want to improve yourdog's health, just invest into
it.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yeah, that's dope.
That's great man Talk family alittle bit.
How's family?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Family's good.
You know, I had a new son.
He's about 18 months and man,he's man.
He's changed my life as far aslike really, you know my, my
unique perspective on howhealthy I need to be to sustain
the energy levels to keep upwith them you know, run business
and to be able to keep up withthem is absolutely challenging,
but man it.
(32:38):
You know, I have two older kids.
I have a son who's 22 and adaughter who's 20.
And, um, I was young when I hadhim and so it's kind of like I
don't know.
It's almost kind of like I gotthis grandparent mentality.
You know everything.
I've messed up where I feltlike I messed up with my other
children, which I don't, youknow, they're great kids, but
I'm like man, I would have donethat a lot better.
You know, as far as just youknow, guiding the right
(32:59):
direction.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, it's funny you say that.
So Logan graduated um June lastyear, you know, took the summer
to just chill and relax and inAugust, you know, came to work
for us and you know that's whathe wanted to do.
He decided that, like junioryear of high school, he wanted
to be a part of the business andI'm like, well, man, look, we
can get you learning more in sixmonths and four years of
(33:20):
college.
So you know, if you want to bein the pet industry, and
particularly on the marketingside, and dogs, let's roll.
Particularly on the marketingside, and dogs, let's roll.
I would love for you to be here, but it's so funny because I
think about that, I'm like, allright, he's going to be 20 in
December and a couple of ourreally, really close friends
they kind of did the opposite ofmy wife and I, like my wife and
(33:43):
I, graduated college, gotmarried, had kids pretty quickly
.
Our dearest friends, most ofthem waited until they were like
late 30s, early 40s to starthaving kids.
Yeah, and I'm like my kids aregraduated, walking out the door
uh-huh and now, like my godson's, like five and like six, and
you, know, my little nephews andnieces are all teeny, tiny and
I'm looking at him and I'm like,god bless y'all, I don't have
(34:04):
it in me, right, I couldn't doit right now.
I'm gonna be a great, I'll be agreat granddaddy one day, like
I'll be the awesome, the bestgrandpa like you could imagine.
But Holy cow, if I had to havemy own or if I was starting over
right now, I'd be in trouble,stan.
I mean, we make it work becausemy wife's an angel.
But, brother, I would be introuble if I was starting over.
Trouble if I was starting over.
(34:25):
But there's so many things thatI'm to your point of like I'm.
I learned from the first two,who are older now you're talking
about and the things you'redoing differently with the baby.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuffPoor Logan had to take on the
chin and just deal with causehis dad was a dumb ass.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It's such an interesting thing because it's
like man, like you know, I Iinvest the time and energy into
you know his learning curve.
You know the kid speaks, he'sbilingual already and he's super
advanced at that, and he'ssigning, like he does a bunch of
sign language stuff now.
So I've had to learn spanish,I've had to learn sign language
and it's been fun and it's just,it's so interesting just
(35:04):
sitting back and watching himgrow and I know if I know I can
nurture him with the rightthings to put in his mind,
making him earn things.
You know, now I feel like youknow, the world's getting softer
and you can get your kids to.
You know, have a little littlebeast in them, you know, just
have a little dog in them.
They're going to be able to runthings and so that's great.
(35:25):
That Logan, at being 20 yearsold, to want to jump in business
.
It's such, a, such acompetitive advantage, man, for
the rest of his life to learnthings that you're going to need
to learn to to be anentrepreneur, cause business is
one of the most challenging, ifnot the most challenging thing
you can do as far as careerchoice wise, is running a
business.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Oh yeah, A lot easier things to do.
Logan, jump in here real quick.
Jump on on video.
I'm going to show off.
I'm going to do a flex withStan.
So you're talking about howyour 18 month old's bilingual
right Like I couldn't take thatsubtle flex, Just let it fly.
My son here is also bilingual.
Logan hit us with some Spanish.
Oh wow, that's right.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
All right, Get out of here, hey man yeah, he's going
to be traveling to Texas.
A lot, right, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, he's got to get it in.
He's got to get it in.
Man, that's so funny.
No, it's one of my, probablyone of the things I'm proudest
of in my life, you know.
Second only to, you know, mywife, you know, still wanting to
be with me every day, you know,and loving me after all these
years, because we started datingwhen we were 16.
Right, and we met when we were14.
(36:34):
You know, I'm very proud thatI'm still someone that she
chooses to be with, because Isurely don't make that easy.
But a very close second to thatis that we created something
that my son wants to be a partof.
Right, because I work likecrazy.
This business, you know, hasprovided everything, but it's
(36:55):
also cost me everything, and youknow, people who aren't in it
can't really understand thatstatement.
Like, and what I mean by like,yes, it's provided everything,
but the cost is so great.
And whether it's, you know,personal wellness, you know,
mental well-being, mental health, family time, financial
resources or lack thereof, youknow it's so much and it
(37:18):
literally costs everything, butit provides everything.
And to the fact that it'ssomething that we've built that
he chooses to be a part of, youknow, it's really haven't lacked
motivation like I.
Stay fired up.
Man, I'm like you, like I'm,I'm driven, I'm ready to roll.
But there has been this newsense of like revigoration, with
(37:38):
logan coming in yeah where I'mlike, oh man, we're just getting
started.
Yeah, we're just now.
You know we've we've kicked offsome different stuff, but we
had to be very strategic with itbecause, I agree, you started
talking about like the treatsand this and that and it's
almost like a distraction, right, a distraction from what really
really works.
And we've started some stuffover the years but we've had to
(38:00):
let it sit because it couldn'tget the focus, because the
training is the primary thing.
Yeah, right, that is who we areat.
Our core is the training piece.
But as we've grown, you know,we've tried some of the things,
but for success or failure Iwouldn't say any of them failed.
It just wasn't worth it to be apriority, yeah, and it
distracted from the, the biggerpicture and the.
(38:23):
But last year we did kick offour, our media company and you
know that's been freakingtremendous and it's it's married
right up with the dog trainingside and and we're servicing a
lot of my off leash caninelocations but then also helping
other businesses as well, andit's been really freaking great
(38:43):
and it hasn't been a distractionto the core business.
It's really been a greataddition.
But this was the trick for usand this is why I'm really
excited for you and your journey, where you're on, is because
you've got the right partners.
Finally, yeah, you've got theright team in place, and some of
the stuff we've been working onand implementing the last year
(39:03):
or two I could have never donein my wildest dreams, no matter
how much I wanted to, because Ididn't have the right team in
place to create that margin thatI needed to either come up with
the concept, to come up withhow to implement it, because I
can be an implementer right, Ican be the tactical person, do
(39:27):
those things.
But that's not my gift.
My gift is the visionary, theideas, big ideas, see things
from a global perspective, andthen I need to be able to
communicate it in such a waywhere the implementers can go
and run with it right andthey're motivated to run with it
Well.
For so long I had to be bothno-transcript excited for you
(40:08):
because just in our most recentconversation and then hearing
you talk about it today, youknow you've everybody who's been
a part of your journey sinceyou started this thing, just
like everybody who's been a partof mine good, bad, indifferent
they added value.
Yeah, and you know every singleemployee, every single partner,
know, every single employee,every single partner, every
single whatever.
You know, whether it ended goodor not, there was value add
(40:30):
there and they were importantfor a season of the business.
Um, and people think you got todo stuff together forever, and
that's not necessarily the case.
Some people are seasonal andthere's nothing wrong with that,
and people should be honoredfor the season that they helped
your business get where it was.
But it doesn't mean you'regoing to be the one to get me to
that next part, right?
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yes, absolutely, I completely understand that.
Yeah, it's like the only personwho's actually with me right
now is Steven, who has been withme from the very beginning, you
know, and it's because he'sinvested as much as I am, as far
as just like it's.
It's he wants to see this thingthrough and win.
Yeah.
And then the new members of ourteam they both have successful
businesses, you know.
(41:10):
Even James I didn't evenmention him, you know he's a guy
who's came in here and he ownsa company called the 411 agency
and it is a big.
It's a big, uh, it's a media.
They, they produce a lot ofmarketing material.
So we have in-house marketing.
We can create our marketinginside in-house, so any type of
marketing materials that we need.
But not just that.
(41:30):
He's has so many resources,like he does the pamphlets for
the Dallas Cowboys and a lot ofhuge networks and stuff like
that.
And there's a big differencebecause, even if they weren't
invested into the business atthe current moment, they were
invested into seeing me win,like they were helping me when I
was going through a very darktime, and it's just because they
(41:53):
actually care and I was like,oh, this is what friendship's
all about.
Right, like it was realfriendship, where you can't
offer them anything at themoment and they want to still
help you out.
You know that's right and sothat's.
And, like you said, like youknow, no hard feelings to
anybody who was here.
You know they were all.
They were all probably great.
They're all great people, youknow, and at the end of the day,
(42:14):
one of the biggest challengeswas going.
You know it's my fault.
You know if it didn't work out,it's because I did something
wrong and I needed to learn fromthat and it needed to learn
from that, and it was the season.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So I take 100 accountability because I'm 100
accountable, you know.
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's ahard pill to swallow, but it is.
You know, and I say it all thetime like, at the end of the day
, it's my fault, because even ifyou screwed it up and I'm the
one who put you in that positionyeah, you screw it up, I'm the
one who thought you'd be able tohandle it yeah, I think you
know.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
We have this feeling that they're going to learn the
same way you know, or they?
Have the same they're investedjust the same and it's just,
it's one of those things.
It's it's it's kind of it'sjust a very challenging thing,
cause you again, it was alearning lesson and you just
(43:07):
learn from it and you move onand you know you don't, you
don't make the same mistakes.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
One of the most painful lessons I learned very
early on and not early on enoughwas because it used to just
frustrate me to no end.
I'm like I just don'tunderstand why they don't care
as much as me.
Yeah, I'm like, well, theydon't give a shit, they're paid
like an employee.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
You know they're paid , they're going to look at it as
an employee and and, and theyshould.
So I need to get better withvision.
Yeah, I need to get better atmaking that.
Even if I do all those things,I need to understand that it's
impossible for them to care asmuch as me because it's mine
(43:53):
yeah, it's mine.
Like I care about your sonbecause I'm a good human being.
That's your son.
I want your son to be healthyand grow, and that would be the
best guy in the world.
Right, I can't care about yourson as much as you want to or as
much as you do.
It's impossible.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
And it's the same thing with our businesses.
But man, I could not understandthat.
It would piss me off to no endand it and then.
But that was just immaturityfrom a leadership standpoint.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, leadership is so challenging.
Man Like I, I can't even like Ihate.
I always hate being a leader,you know.
Yeah, because you know it'sjust like you're the tip of the
spear.
So if somebody messes up,they're not getting called out,
you're getting called outpublicly.
You know, right, customerservice, it's all Stan's fault,
yeah.
You know, and it technically isat the end of the day.
(44:40):
You know, like you said, sellthem on the vision.
They have to understand thatthere is growth, an opportunity
for them to have an investedinterest.
You know, and for me, like I was, like you know I was it was one
of those things where I justdidn't position people right and
I wanted to make sure.
(45:01):
I wanted to make sure they weretaken care of.
So I just put band-aids overeverything and I kind of just
let things, you know, slide whenI should have held people
accountable, cause I thought Icouldn't do it myself.
I was forced to have to learnto do it myself.
And then I'm like man, I gotripped off.
I've been getting ripped offthis whole time.
And now the new partners thatare coming in, they've all had,
(45:22):
they all have an investedinterest.
So, like it's, it's just a newenergy, getting you know,
getting these texts from theseguys going, hey, this is what we
can do.
You know, I think I got.
I got a guy who could do thisand I got a person who could do
that.
Or we can make this marketmaterial.
Here's a new fly.
I want to show you that.
I think, man, it just helpedconvert better, or this.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Well, look, man, I want tohonor your time.
I appreciate you so much.
I think the world of you andwhat you're doing.
I'm going to hit you up.
I might be in the area nextweek.
If you're in town, maybe we canhook up.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
I'll be gone the 19th or the 22nd, but other other
than that, if you're, if you'rehere, I'll make time for it for
sure, because I I know we can dosomething big together for sure
yeah, I'm excited about thatand I want to.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I want to keep talking and pressing that
forward.
I want to help you get to thatmillion man.
So you know, and I think thatwe can do that in a big way
across a couple channels.
So there's some stuff I want totalk to you about.
But what's the best way forpeople to connect with you guys?
Learn more about X dog, youknow what.
What's a good way for them tofollow you guys?
Speaker 2 (46:26):
X dogcom and, you know, add X dog on Facebook,
instagram.
Um, those are, those are theeasiest ways to get in contact
with us.
Um, just X dogcom, check out Xdog university.
We're going to launch thatpretty soon and that's going to
be on the educational side and Ithink that's you know those.
I think that's going to be veryimpactful.
Just other than that, that'show you can reach out to us.
(46:47):
Just support us there, man,just message us.
We're here to help.
You don't have to buy ourproducts.
If you have a question about adog, message us, we're here to
help you out.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah, that's cool.
That's cool.
He means that, guys, this isone of those genuine dudes on
the planet when he's saying hecares about these dogs and their
health and bettering theirlives.
I mean, it's a genuinestatement.
So, stan, it's an honor man.
Thank you for coming on andtalking to our listeners and our
viewers.
I'll catch up with you soon.
Guys, share the show, leave areview.
(47:17):
If you've got questions forStan, and you can send them to
us, we'll get them over to himand connect you'all, but
anything we can do to help.
But we'll catch you next timeon the big dog podcast.
Thanks, stan, you.
Everybody who's been a part of your journey since you
started this thing, just likeeverybody who's been a part of
mine good, bad, indifferent theyadded value.
And every single employee,every single partner, every
single, whatever, whether itended good or not, there was
value there and, really excitedfor the show today got a friend
(00:47):
of mine, stan smith, in thestudio well, his studio today, I
should say.
Stan is the founder and ceo ofx-dog and unless you've been
under a rock for the lastseveral years and you're
anywhere in the dog space, youhave for sure heard about xDog
and the phenomenal work thatthey're doing, you know, focused
on the health and well-being ofdogs around the world, and so I
(01:10):
had the pleasure of being onStan's podcast a couple of years
ago on one of my trips out toTexas, where he's based out of
got the tourist facility andhang out for a bit, and we've
been connected over the yearsthrough some different things
and you know we finally got himhere on the Big Dog Podcast.
So, stan, welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
What's up, man, glad to be on.
First of all, I want to saythank you for inviting me, man.
I've been watching and a bigfan of your podcast for a long
time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
I'll put you to the list.
With my grandmother, my mom andI think my wife tunes in every
once in we're doing okay, yeah,that's awesome.
How's Texas, baby, how's Texas?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Man, it's raining a lot here.
Other than that, man, it'stypical Texas.
You know, hot one week,freezing cold the next week, but
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
So look, let's dive in.
First talking about kind ofyour story, how you ended up on
this path that led you to X-Dog.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Take us back a little bit.
Tell them about you.
Well, it all initially startedlike my love for dogs when I was
a kid.
I grew up around four years oldI had lost my eye and then I'm
biracial.
I grew up in a small town oflike 2,500 and it's called Mason
City, illinois, so it's atimely white town, father.
I stayed with my father.
My father and my mother gotdivorced and she ended up moving
down to Louisiana and at theend of the day, you know like I
(02:25):
was just a kid with a bunch ofinsecurities and my grandma had
dogs and a few of my friends haddogs and one day I ended up
getting a dog and you know,dealing with a lot of
insecurities.
Dogs don't care about thatstuff.
What type, how rich you are,what type of clothing you wear,
you know they don't care ifyou're disabled or anything else
.
That it was just one of thosethings where I found and fell in
love and trusted dogs.
So when I knew I was able, whenI was older enough to actually
(02:48):
get dogs, I was like, man, I'mgoing to get my first.
You know, pit bull, you know,and it was just one of those
things.
I was in the music industry.
I wanted a pit bull.
I ended up getting a pit bulland then it was just, like you
know, one of those $200 dogs outof Craigslist and met somebody
in the parking lot, got it outof the back of the truck, his
little red-nosed dog named Deja,and then I started taking a
little bit deeper dive.
They had back in the day themessage boards and that's when
(03:10):
the American Bully started toactually become present and I
ended up at the time I thoughtit was a lot of money.
I spent like $1,800 on a dognamed Caution who came out of a
very popular dog of the guy whocreated Razor's Edge American
Bull.
He's actually out of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, and then we got on the message boards and I
went down this rabbit hole ofall these American bullies and
the next thing I know I startedinvesting into American bullies,
throwing them in videos andstuff like that, and gain
popularity and notoriety throughthe music and having the dogs.
But just like with any dogcommunity you're going to run
into, they want you to takecertain steps.
They don't want you to fasttrack.
(03:45):
So you have individuals who'vebeen in the game for a long time
, and then there's this punk kidyou know comes in three years.
He knew how to buy dogs.
I had a vision for phenotyperight.
Like my dad raised king pigeons, and king pigeons is like a 40
ounce man-made bird right Big,short beaks, big chest, short
backs everything that youideally would want in a bully
dog.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Culture-wise.
So I knew what to look for.
You know you want big head.
I know how to look for a bighead.
You wanted short backs.
I knew, you know, like justextremities on basically an
American Pitbull Terrier with alittle bit different demeanor,
and it was just one of thosethings, man, I was able to fast
track through the music industryand then, you know, I started
getting hated on and they didn'tlike that and I was like, well,
(04:27):
I don't want to stay like doingthis where you know like people
are just upset because you knowI was like there has to be a
better way to find a differentcommunity.
And at the end of the day Inoticed when I started going to
shows there's people feedingcertain supplements and there
are supplement vendors and stufflike that, and I didn't really
understand how the supplementworks, both on the human side or
on the dog side.
Back then I just know, if youput it on dog's food, you know
(04:47):
you're supposed to supposedlyget a result.
I didn't know what result, youknow.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, something was probably going to happen, though
.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, and then the number one question was like,
how do you bulk up your dog?
You know, how do you gain massand muscle on your dog?
And I happened to, you know,contact a manufacturer I still
work with today and they let mewhite label a multivitamin.
And, you know, just having themarketing experience in the
music industry and brandingexperience, I just took a
popular dog and threw it on thelabel that was in our community.
They were able to.
You know, we were able to getlike 30 bottles and then you
could get like every 10 bottlesyou get two frees.
(05:18):
I took like 36 units with thislabel, popped my trunk like I
was selling CDs, and 30 sold out.
I was like, oh, I got somethinghere.
So we started out withsupplements and then to fast
track it, you know about 2012,my business partner I was
telling him I was like man, ifwe could come out with like a
weight vest, you know, I thinkwe could really change the game.
And I was looking for likeseven years to find a
(05:38):
manufacturer.
I didn't have.
No, I had no clue how to lookfor a manufacturer.
There was one in the US and Ididn't know how to contact
anybody overseas and he justmade one email and got a
response.
And it's with the manufacturerthat we work with today and it
was just a human weight vestmanufacturer that you know.
We customized and modified thevest and man in 2017, we made
our first sale on August 8th andit just kind of took off from
(06:00):
there.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, that's incredible.
And there, yeah, that'sincredible.
And so it starts with thispassion for dogs as a kid and
you know the dogs being able tohelp offset, you know, maybe,
some insecurities and you knowkind of finding your way and
write such a common, a commonstory that you hear from people
within our community and howthey, the route they end up
going with the dogs and thedifferent type of dogs that that
(06:21):
bring that comfort, that thatfind that family bond, you know,
with the individual in it, andso you're able, like so many
people I talk to, to take andspin kind of that passion into
life and a business model.
And what can we do?
You know you were musicindustry.
You were doing that.
You learned promotion.
You learned marketing.
The dogs are still a big partof your life at that time.
(06:42):
What you're doing, that's likethe supplement piece.
Now you know 2017, the vestscome out.
What was kind of talk aboutthat?
That the early days when causeyou're, you know, when I started
out, it was hard and I'mservice-based right, no product,
it's service.
I just need to find someone whowants to pay me to deliver my
service.
There's no manufacturinginvolved there.
(07:05):
Manufacturing involved.
There's no white labeling.
There's no coming up creatinginventing of my own.
It's a service that I'm goingto provide.
So now that I have gotten overinto that side a little bit,
which I'm still not an expert in, it is such a different
ballgame than a service-basedbusiness.
So, starting out, I think thiscan be really valuable for
others who have that productthat they believe in and they
think is going to be special,whether it's pet industry or not
(07:26):
.
Talk about some of thosestruggles when you were getting
started and those lessons thatyou were learning.
You know, coming up on both thesupplement and the vest side,
because those are two differentthings as well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, so on the supplement side, the biggest
struggle was understanding howto sell it outside of just going
to shows, right, like I had noeducation on e-commerce and how
to build websites and stuff likethat, how to set up websites or
getting a merchant account torun credit cards.
I had no understanding on thatand so that was the biggest
(07:55):
challenge is that.
I mean to be completely honestwith you.
This whole journey through thisbusiness side has been in a
very expensive, hands-on journeybecause I'm not educated.
I didn't go to school forbusiness and, quite frankly,
after going through all this, Idon't know if you know, business
school would even have helpedus because of how fast you know
business is transitioning nowand how people do business.
And so the first initial wasit's like you know one, you got
(08:17):
to find a manufacturer.
But second you got to educateyourself on you know, on the
product.
You know I initially whitelabeled, but I noticed I
recognized real early and thisis, I think, where I was.
I got really lucky is I.
I understood how you know.
Um, you know when people whitelabel, it's one thing, but to
custom formulate a product andnot cut corners, that's what
gave us a competitive advantagebecause our products actually
(08:38):
work, you know.
So, when you're talking aboutthe pet product, especially the
food industry and people don'tquite understand this dog food
alone when you're talking aboutthe big boys like the you know
the pedigrees, the Nestle's, theMars, you know the Hill science
and stuff like that, they'reliterally competing for 20, 30
cents a bag, right, literallycompeting for 30, 20,.
You know 20, 30 cents a bag.
So they're going to cut cornersany way possible, right, you
(08:59):
know.
So they're going to put thecheapest ingredients throughout,
you know, throughout the dogfood.
And what was interesting is that, I guess, to go back to the
challenging part was, at thebeginning, a lot of it the
supplements was people thoughtit was snake oil.
So it's a snake oil, snake oil,snake oil I feed all natural.
I mean it's like well, turn,turn your bag of dog food around
.
You're going to see that notonly are you feeding snake oil,
you're feeding the cheapest formof snake oil, because enrich
(09:21):
every bag of dog food, probablywith the pre-vitamins coming out
of China, you know.
And so the education part wasthe toughest.
And then, you know, I learned,I was like well, we started at
the very beginning there was afew ingredients that were
actually recognized as musclebuilders.
One of them was creatine.
At the time there was a bigmisconception that it's hard on
livers and you know it was likesuper hard on your body.
(09:43):
Now it's considered a superfood,so we were able to create
products based on ingredientsthat I took from the human side
that I knew it works Because,when you think about it, a lot
of the human grade products aretested on animals, right, and so
they're either tested on miceor they're tested on, basically,
mice in general and rats, andso I knew that it yielded a
result.
(10:03):
So when people actually usedour products, we would cut the
corner on putting all the taking, removing all the junk out,
base our products with superfoodLike, for example, I could have
put my microlose, which is asugar right, as a base.
Instead, I'm like I'm usingbone broth protein.
I'll use, you know, a superhealthy fat source, like coconut
oil, as my base, and then I'llput an active ingredient in it
to bulk it up, like creatine.
And dogs are getting a resultbecause they're getting a high
(10:25):
quality protein, a healthy fat,and then something that supports
muscle.
And now we look at creatine andit's not only is it great for
muscle building, it's also greatfor neurological support and
health.
So you know like the dogs areable to remember things for a
longer period of time, focus fora longer period of time.
It also supports bone densitysupport.
So, like when your dog ages,your dog's bones are going to
(10:49):
eventually get brittle, you know.
So there's just so many healthbenefits, but that was like the
main challenge is just educatingpeople.
Now I'm seeing a transitionwhere now people are
understanding you got to putwhole food sources in your
kibble.
Kibble isn't the greatest, youknow.
It's enough to keep your dogalive, but it's your dog's not
going to thrive.
And then add some supplementscan really help.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, that's incredible.
And there's so many, right,Like the pet food industry.
There's so many options andthey're all pretty good
marketers.
And so you know, you can have10 different products, not just
different in name butlegitimately different in
compound, everything of what itconsists of, and you could buy
each one if you went for facevalue of what the descriptions
(11:25):
are and the marketing campaignssay a great food, a great
product for your dog.
And if you don't know, youreally just don't know.
And you've seen horror stories.
I've seen them all the time andread them, and so that is a
part where the education piecereally comes into play.
And I agree with you.
I'm glad to see more peoplestarting to recognize hey,
there's better options out herefor you know your pet than what
(11:47):
you could grab from the gasstation on the way home because
you forgot to you know planahead for your, for your animal.
Let's talk vests a little bit.
You know, cause this issomething that's always been
fascinating to me and you know,gosh, you've had so many
different designs and styles andstuff, from the weighted vest
to stress relief, to cooling, toheating.
(12:09):
Talk about the vest a littlebit.
What brought that to your mindas being like hey, this is a
viable piece that's missingBecause there's a million
harnesses out there, right, and95% of them are dog shit.
I mean, they're just terrible.
They're just terrible.
Your product, just fromexperience, using hands-on.
You know, see, this is not acrap product if you've never
(12:33):
heard of it before and we'regonna have links to the site on
the show and stuff like that,but you know, so people can
click on and and follow it andlook into it.
But man, this is an incredibleproduct and it's scalable to so
many different sizes of dogs andneeds.
What got you there to that Likethis is a legitimate need that
we can help with.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, that's a great question.
So, first of all, you know,when you talk about, you know my
, my whole mission was I want toeliminate dog obesity.
So it was like, okay, can weeducate the consumer on what to
feed?
That's going to be prettydifficult because everybody's
kind of set in their ways onwhat they're currently feeding,
right.
And then we go, okay, let'slook at their lifestyle.
Now there's a lot of dogs whohave, let's just say, one over
(13:12):
one out of five, one out of twodogs, over 50% are either
overweight or obese.
And so I'm like, okay, well,it's going to be hard to educate
them.
It's going to be hard to getpeople out there to exercise
your dog.
What is there?
What's one thing that we canoffer all dogs, no matter what
diet they're eating, whatlifestyle they're living, that
can generally give them acompetitive advantage in life
(13:33):
when it comes to improving theiroverall health and well-being,
and that's exercise, and anelevated form of exercise would
be fitness and resistancetraining.
So how do we do that?
Well, that's where the weightedvest comes in.
And then you know so, forexample, as soon as you put the
vest on the dog, which takesabout 15 to 20 seconds a day
right and less than that, totake it off.
(13:53):
As soon as you put it on thedog, it immediately is receiving
the health benefits of exercise.
So it doesn't matter what, youdon't have to change his
lifestyle and you do not have tochange his diet.
At the bare minimum, put it onyour dog for an hour or two a
day and it's going to transformyour dog's life and it's going
to slow down the aging processof living cells, keep them at a
healthy weight, improve jointhealth, and then I mean we can
take even a deeper dive when itcomes to lowering the risk of
(14:14):
health-related diseases.
And then going into the dogpsychology side of things,
because you know it's now we'renow being sought after for its
anxiety, ability to addressanxiety and behavior issues,
which is like a major thing, andso I really believe it's the
most impactful tool that's everhit the pet industry when it
comes to your dog's overallhealth and well-being, both
physically and mentally.
And once we get that messageout, man, I think we're off to
(14:36):
the races.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And the thing too, you know,it's not just the benefits of
the dog wearing it.
I mean this is a functionalharness.
I mean there's otheraccessories that you use.
We've actually I had a dog thatworked great on.
We would track with it.
It was very comfortable for thedog you know to wear.
You know for that it wasactually a perfect setup for
that particular dog.
But I mean you guys have, youknow, weighted bags.
(14:59):
You know that can be pulled.
You know attached to theharness.
Or you know what are the bands,resistance bands, the
parachutes.
You know it is a veryfunctional.
I mean it's got pockets, it canget.
You can care, the dog can carrystuff.
You have it set up where thesmall weight bags, because when
you purchase the vest it comeswith the weight bags and your
recommendation is usually what?
Like pellet, like BBs?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah.
So, for example, the new V4 wemodify, which is going to be our
newest version that we'reactually going to launch next
month, we have two forms of it.
Right, we have the X-Dog V4 andthen we have the V4 Max.
Now the V4 Max is what you'retalking about, which is going to
have the additional D-rings for, kind of like, those extreme
dog owners, like those whocompete at the highest level and
(15:40):
really want to talk to the nextlevel.
That way you can use theresistant accessories like the
weighted drag bag, the speedshoe or the resistance band, and
it's got to have front shoulderweights.
And then we're going to launchthe V4 Max, which is going to be
a more affordable version thatwe're going to go into major
retails with.
So we're going out to petglobal on the 19th through the
22nd of this month and we'resitting down with major buyers
(16:01):
right now.
Major retail, which is like adream come true, but we got to
make sure that we have it at agreat price point to where it's
going to move.
So you know, the everyday dogowner who's not an extremist can
utilize the X-Dog V4.
And then you have yourextremists that can use the
X-Dog.
You know V4 Max.
And yes, so each vest will comewith a set of warming and
cooling gel packs, which isgreat.
(16:23):
You can use that as far as arecovery If you have a dog,
that's if it's hot outside andyou want to work them out, you
can, you can freeze the gelpacks, or if it's cold outside
you can warm them up and theyalso that which also makes great
for like warming and cooling,compression, depending on the
symptoms that you know a dogdealing with anxiety issues may
be dealing with.
And then we have weighted bagsthat you can gradually increase
(16:44):
the weight With these.
On the V4, we initially wentwith BBs with the zipper pockets
, but now we ran into a problem.
That's another issue.
When you develop a product,you're going to have to test the
market and figure out how youcan modify and make things
better.
We took the weight bags and wewent back to the Velcro bags,
(17:06):
and that way you can either usesand or BBs and each one can
reach the ideal weight of 5% forhigh velocity training, which
includes, like anything that's,sprinting, running, jumping or
low impact movement, up to 10%,which is, you know, control,
leash walks, obedience trainingand stuff like that.
And so, with that method ofgradually conditioning your dog,
either using the weighted gelpacks or gradually filling you
know the weight bags up.
You're going to be able tocondition the muscles correctly
and since 2017, we've had zeroinjury reports.
(17:29):
We've sold almost 100,000 vestsand we've had zero injury
reports Now on average, just onthe FlexiLead alone.
It's on average, yearly about20,000, both 20,000 people and
dogs get injured just on theFlexiLead youLead.
It's crazy.
Not to have an injury using afitness tool like a weighted
vest is remarkable.
(17:50):
That's something I'm reallyproud of, right there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
No, and you should be .
The thing that I've always beencrazy impressed with is you
didn't come out with the vestand just say, hey, this is the
best vest on the market.
These are the benefits.
Nothing's going to equate tothis, you know, and just push it
and push it, and push it.
I mean, I've been connected andcommunicating with you and
following you for years andyears and years and you are
always innovating.
(18:15):
You are always looking for away to improve the product,
right, and which plays into themission of, you know,
eliminating dog obesity.
It's like, what else can we doto help these dogs?
And it's a constant cycle.
Right, like you could.
You could have the same vestand change the color and you'd
(18:35):
be able to sell some more vests.
There's people out there thatare going to buy every color,
every size, like every rendition, and that's cool and that's a
scalable opportunity.
But the fact that not only areyou doing that, but you're also
looking to improve the product,whether it through accessories,
whether it's through materials,quality, impact, that's awesome,
(18:56):
man, so many manufacturers allthey're looking for is cutting
costs, right, they figured outhow to make something, all right
.
Now how do we make this ascheap as possible.
Now, obviously, from a businessstandpoint, you have to do that
.
It's like, hey, how do I makethis to my expectations for as
cheap as possible?
That's important, but the focusisn't let's sacrifice 40% of my
(19:17):
expectation for this product sothat we can sell it for cheaper
.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, that's the beauty about the V4.
I'm sorry to interrupt you.
The V4 is that we were able tocut costs on our manufacturing
side, at the same time increasethe quality of the vest.
But we didn't how we did it wasokay.
We're like okay, I want to, Iwant to, I want to impact a
million dogs on a calendar year.
And I'm like, how are we goingto do that?
(19:40):
Well, we had to bring in apartner, right?
Well, that partner who has comein, guess what?
They've been in the industryfor 20 years and guess what?
They're good friends with someother manufacturers who actually
own it and there's no middleman.
And so we're actually going outthere and a lot of people have
their products made in China.
But we're actually going to sitdown with a manufacturer out of
(20:00):
Vietnam this coming up week.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
And that's.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's kind of sits at home because my mother's from
there, right, okay, and,ironically, ideal goal by
probably about 20%.
And another 25% because, ifpeople don't know, this is that
there's a 25% tariff tax onanything dog related to come out
of China.
So if you get it done inVietnam and then have it
imported from Vietnam, that's25% that you're saving.
(20:46):
So if you're spending $100 outof China, you're going to.
So if you're spending a hundreddollars out of China, you're
going to spend about $127 and 40cents out for that product,
right, and then, and so that's abig margin when you're talking
about tens of thousands of units, and so relationships are
important, you know, and sobeing able to take that because
the main thing is is like weneed to get this on the shelves
with these retailers to wherethey get their 60 points Right
(21:09):
and we make our margins as well.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
We need to be able to sell it for around 49 99.
Like that's our ideal goal, andthen get it to our trainers at
an extremely premium wholesaleprice so that they're getting
their 60 points as well.
And that we're all able toimpact and win.
You know, at the end of the daythat's that's the the more dogs
we can impact.
It's just a perfect ecosystemfor all of us.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, I agree and talk a little bit about kind of
manufacturing headaches over thelast couple of years, cause I
know you said you got a newmanufacturer now and that's
helping a lot on costs,increased margins for both
yourself, any vendors you'reworking with, et cetera.
But what were some challengesover the last couple of years
that were hemming you guys up,if any, or were you not impacted
(21:51):
over the last couple of yearswith materials and stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
The tariff on China was the big thing.
When you're importing acontainer and you're usually
expecting like $8,000 to $10,000for the container and you get a
bill for $40,000, you're likewhoa, it's big, big spike on
that.
But on the manufacturing sidewe got really lucky.
If I was to say if you aregoing to get products
manufactured, make sure you getthe prototypes in and then you
(22:17):
test the shit out of them.
Just test them and test themand test them, because our first
mistake when we initially gotthe vest on our first batch is
when they came in first.
They were about 120 days latebecause we didn't know the
importing time Right and then wedidn't double check any of the
stitching.
So our consumers were upset.
They get the vest and nextthing I know we're getting
hundreds of emails of their vestfalling apart, and so you know
(22:39):
that was.
That was a big, costly learningexperience, but it was a
valuable learning experiencebecause you know we increased
the durability and understoodwhere the weak areas were and we
were lucky to have veryunderstanding customers right.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And that was early on .
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That was early on.
So now it was just basicallythe sizing thing.
So with the V4, we moved thefitness bands from the back
shoulders to the front shoulders, which now addresses the issue.
On the neck size.
We went from having 12 sizes tonow we're going to have five
sizes that will cover the lion'sshare of dogs that weigh
between 15 pounds to 180 pounds.
(23:14):
And, yeah, it's a big deal.
Yeah, like when you're tryingto maintain 12 colors and 12
sizes, you're going to run intosizing issues as far as, like
man, we're not.
You know, we've got a boat loadof these colors and these sizes
and we're not sitting and weneed these sizes.
We don't have them in stock.
So that was a manufacturingissue that we got fixed.
But it took someone like Brian,who came in and partnered up
(23:35):
with us who does the partner,manufacturer of distribution to
go?
What are your two top sellingproducts and what are the way of
the dogs and can we create aproduct?
And I don't know why it didn't,it didn't dawn onto me, but he
planted that seed and I was likeI think we can do that and we
ended up doing it and I'mexcited about it because it's
less of a headache because, youknow, even selling on e-commerce
(23:55):
and just creating all thoselistings on e-commerce is just a
nightmare.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
you know no dude, when I came by and saw your
guys' place and you were walkingme through the warehouse and
you know fulfillment andshipping and showing me all the
different you know areas set up,and I'm sitting there my mind
was going bonkers and you hadlike a I think a container had
just showed up, like rightbefore I was getting ready to
leave, so they startedoffloading and doing different
(24:21):
things.
I'm like holy crap, likethere's so much stuff here and
I'm thinking about all thedifferent SKws and getting
everything in and like if youget behind on maintaining
inventory, your numbers arejacked.
And I just think about, from abusiness management standpoint,
how difficult and challengingthat is.
So you're like man, it tooksomeone like you said Brian, is
that your partner, is you knowBrian?
(24:43):
To come in and say, hey, whydon't we do blah, blah, blah,
have you thought about it?
And you're like what the hell?
Why didn't I think about that?
Well, sometimes, man, we're sodeep in it, right, all we see is
what's like five feet in frontof us and it's impossible to see
those moves that literally canequate to one big margins, less
(25:03):
stress most of the time, and youknow a better, but you're just
rolling.
And when you're rolling or ifyou're dealing with other
outside pressures or things likethat.
Man, I I do that all.
I hate to admit that, but I meanthat happens to me all the time
that there's things and I Iwant to believe I'm getting, but
I do believe I'm getting betterbut, you know, it's like if you
can't get that partner who canhave eyes from a different
(25:26):
vantage point, or a consultantor a coach or somebody who can
just see it from a littledifferent perspective, or
someone who's been where you'retrying to go before, to come in
and say, hey, you can get whereyou want to be, but not with how
you're doing it right now,because we don't know what we
don't know.
And then it's the part tounderstand, and I think this is
(25:47):
important for all theentrepreneurs out there.
It's like you don't know whatwe don't know, yeah, and then
it's the part to understand Ithink this is important for you
know all the entrepreneurs outthere.
It's like you don't know whatyou don't know.
When you know it, be humble,yeah, the ego and switch.
Yes.
That means your whole businessmodel is about to change.
It doesn't mean your vision andyour idea and your concept is
shit.
It just means you're doingpretty good job getting to where
you are.
(26:07):
But if you really want to do itright, yep, you probably got to
take some considerations inthat you don't know exist and
don't let your ego keep you fromfrom winning yeah, and that was
a blessing.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Like I said, when brian had came on, he initially
came on just to sublease and Ithink he was just kind of
watching to see how well thevests were selling.
Because I kept selling I waslike was like, dude, you need to
jump on board on this.
And it was one of those thingswhere you know he's a numbers
guy, so I deal with maybe 40pallets at a time.
He deals with about 1200 to1500 pallets at a time, right,
wow, yeah, about 40 skews.
(26:40):
Um, he'll probably knock thatdown a little bit.
However, margins matter to himand so for him to come on board
to be a part of this, it waslike I got an expert in-house
who's consulting me and hebrings a strength to the group
that I didn't have, or my otherbusiness partner, steven, didn't
have.
So now we have a person who isin-house that is an expert on
(27:05):
wholesale distribution to majorretails.
He's not big on e-commerce,he's part of Vendor Central.
Amazon, which is almost you haveto be invited to be on Vendor
Central and so, for example,amazon gives him a purchase
order list of containers at atime and they sell his product.
Where we post our listings onAmazon and sell on their
(27:25):
platform, there's a bigdifference.
He's getting a check every 90days or every 60 days.
Platform there's a bigdifference.
He's getting a check every 90days, you know, or every six.
It's a big check and I try toget on there.
They're like, yeah, we'll hityou off when you're ready?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
yeah, we'll, we'll let you know.
It's like calling americanexpress trying to get the black
card they're like well, mrwilson, no, we'll have our
people, call your people andthat won't be happening.
So the v4 and the v4 max is thenew model, yep, that's coming
(27:57):
out that we're so excited about.
What is what's next for x dog,like?
What's next for stan, like what?
Where are y'all headed?
You know what are you dreamingfor, what's the vision, like I
know, a million dogs you want toimpact in a year, which I love,
man and I can get behind forsure.
But what else is going on?
What?
Because I know, I know you,brother, and your mind is always
(28:20):
racing with with ideas andthoughts, and you know what are
you up to.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So the new thing is I've always done this on
e-commerce right and I was likein order to impact a million
dogs.
It's going to be challenging todo it that way.
However, if we can get intoretail, that's going to be our
big play right, and obviouslyBrian has these relationships
with Petco, petsmart, HollywoodFeed, pet Supplies, plus I mean,
(28:45):
we got meetings with buyersafter buyers after buyers, and
retail is our next thing, like Iwant to like.
ideally, my dream is not to bedoing the day-to-day operational
stuff here and actually gettingand and getting in the car and
going or traveling to all theselocations and educating the
stores.
Educating it's just that'swhat's really exciting for me.
(29:06):
I've always dreamed of it,right, like I've always wanted
to get in there.
And then, in addition, isgetting with, with these
trainers.
You know the new program isgoing to be that we're setting
up is going to also be great forour, for the trainers that are
in our network, because nowthey're able to.
They don't have to carry 12products as 12 different sizes.
Right, you can carry the casethat has two, you know know, two
(29:27):
like a two smalls, two mediums,two large, which will be the
lion's share of, uh, probably,the client base that you're
going to be dealing with, andit's going to be at a super
affordable price.
So you'll, you'll, you'll findanother avenue to, you know, um,
to actually, you know, bring ingeneral revenue for your
business, and that's that's thebeauty, like, that's all.
That's the next big play.
(29:48):
I, you know, I'm, I thinkambition is great.
At the same time, you have to,you have to dial it in.
That's what kind of put me in abad place.
You know, I created customformulated dog food.
I did a bunch of toppers, I didtreats.
You know I had to go and go.
What's working, bring it backin.
These are the supplements we'regoing to focus on and now we're
going to work out, focus one-commerce, the vest and going
(30:09):
into retail, and that's that'sour move.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Good for you.
And the thing that's great toois you go in and have these
meetings with the retailers isyou actually have data to show
that, hey, we've pushed ahundred thousand plus of these
things through e-commerce andtrain shows.
It's going to move off yourshelves right, Like I I've been
out here doing this on my ownfor these last several years
(30:31):
like put it in front of peoplein a store and where they're
walking through, like they aregonna move and it.
I'm excited for you, man.
I mean, I I'm praying thatthese meetings go tremendously
well beyond your wildest dreamsand imagination with it and that
fulfillment is.
Fulfillment is is easy and youcan deliver what they're
ordering after the first roundor two, because I I believe,
(30:53):
once you get it that easy infront of somebody not these, not
the little boutique shopsyou're talking about like major
players in the pet industry andthe boutiques push product for
you and that's that's great,that's awesome.
It's just at a smaller scale,but the reach that those big
names that you mentioned have,oh my gosh man.
Oh yeah, that's a game changer.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I'm even thinking like Walmart Cabela's Bass Pro
Shop.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's where we want to go with this thing and the
buyers you know as soon as wesend them over the product
sheets they're excited becauseit's something unique.
Because when you go to thesetrade shows dog bed, dog bull,
another leash, another collar,freeze, dried, everything now
it's just like they're like what.
There's a product that canactually I can feel good about
(31:37):
selling to our consumers becauseit solves a lot of problems.
It's going to, it's a greatinvestment for any dog owner and
I want it to be as common as aleash and collar.
But I really believe it's goingto be the most impactful tool
to ever hit the market.
If we can get the message out,we can convey the message
properly, which is againsimplifying it.
You know, warming, cooling vest.
(31:58):
We're going to deal withfitness, uh, anxiety and
behavior.
If your dog has behavior issues, this vest can help get with a
certified trainer.
If your dog has anxiety issues,utilize this tool, get with a
certified trainer.
And if you want to improve yourdog's health, just invest into
it.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yeah, that's dope.
That's great man Talk family alittle bit.
How's family?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Family's good.
You know, I had a new son.
He's about 18 months and man,he's man.
He's changed my life as far aslike really, you know my, my
unique perspective on howhealthy I need to be to sustain
the energy levels to keep upwith them you know, run business
and to be able to keep up withthem is absolutely challenging,
but man it.
(32:38):
You know, I have two older kids.
I have a son who's 22 and adaughter who's 20.
And, um, I was young when I hadhim and so it's kind of like I
don't know.
It's almost kind of like I gotthis grandparent mentality.
You know everything.
I've messed up where I feltlike I messed up with my other
children, which I don't, youknow, they're great kids, but
I'm like man, I would have donethat a lot better.
You know, as far as just youknow, guiding the right
(32:59):
direction.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, it's funny you say that.
So Logan graduated um June lastyear, you know, took the summer
to just chill and relax and inAugust, you know, came to work
for us and you know that's whathe wanted to do.
He decided that, like junioryear of high school, he wanted
to be a part of the business andI'm like, well, man, look, we
can get you learning more in sixmonths and four years of
(33:20):
college.
So you know, if you want to bein the pet industry, and
particularly on the marketingside, and dogs, let's roll.
Particularly on the marketingside, and dogs, let's roll.
I would love for you to be here, but it's so funny because I
think about that, I'm like, allright, he's going to be 20 in
December and a couple of ourreally, really close friends
they kind of did the opposite ofmy wife and I, like my wife and
(33:43):
I, graduated college, gotmarried, had kids pretty quickly
.
Our dearest friends, most ofthem waited until they were like
late 30s, early 40s to starthaving kids.
Yeah, and I'm like my kids aregraduated, walking out the door
uh-huh and now, like my godson's, like five and like six, and
you, know, my little nephews andnieces are all teeny, tiny and
I'm looking at him and I'm like,god bless y'all, I don't have
(34:04):
it in me, right, I couldn't doit right now.
I'm gonna be a great, I'll be agreat granddaddy one day, like
I'll be the awesome, the bestgrandpa like you could imagine.
But Holy cow, if I had to havemy own or if I was starting over
right now, I'd be in trouble,stan.
I mean, we make it work becausemy wife's an angel.
But, brother, I would be introuble if I was starting over.
Trouble if I was starting over.
(34:25):
But there's so many things thatI'm to your point of like I'm.
I learned from the first two,who are older now you're talking
about and the things you'redoing differently with the baby.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuffPoor Logan had to take on the
chin and just deal with causehis dad was a dumb ass.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It's such an interesting thing because it's
like man, like you know, I Iinvest the time and energy into
you know his learning curve.
You know the kid speaks, he'sbilingual already and he's super
advanced at that, and he'ssigning, like he does a bunch of
sign language stuff now.
So I've had to learn spanish,I've had to learn sign language
and it's been fun and it's just,it's so interesting just
(35:04):
sitting back and watching himgrow and I know if I know I can
nurture him with the rightthings to put in his mind,
making him earn things.
You know, now I feel like youknow, the world's getting softer
and you can get your kids to.
You know, have a little littlebeast in them, you know, just
have a little dog in them.
They're going to be able to runthings and so that's great.
(35:25):
That Logan, at being 20 yearsold, to want to jump in business
.
It's such, a, such acompetitive advantage, man, for
the rest of his life to learnthings that you're going to need
to learn to to be anentrepreneur, cause business is
one of the most challenging, ifnot the most challenging thing
you can do as far as careerchoice wise, is running a
business.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Oh yeah, A lot easier things to do.
Logan, jump in here real quick.
Jump on on video.
I'm going to show off.
I'm going to do a flex withStan.
So you're talking about howyour 18 month old's bilingual
right Like I couldn't take thatsubtle flex, Just let it fly.
My son here is also bilingual.
Logan hit us with some Spanish.
Oh wow, that's right.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
All right, Get out of here, hey man yeah, he's going
to be traveling to Texas.
A lot, right, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, he's got to get it in.
He's got to get it in.
Man, that's so funny.
No, it's one of my, probablyone of the things I'm proudest
of in my life, you know.
Second only to, you know, mywife, you know, still wanting to
be with me every day, you know,and loving me after all these
years, because we started datingwhen we were 16.
Right, and we met when we were14.
(36:34):
You know, I'm very proud thatI'm still someone that she
chooses to be with, because Isurely don't make that easy.
But a very close second to thatis that we created something
that my son wants to be a partof.
Right, because I work likecrazy.
This business, you know, hasprovided everything, but it's
(36:55):
also cost me everything, and youknow, people who aren't in it
can't really understand thatstatement.
Like, and what I mean by like,yes, it's provided everything,
but the cost is so great.
And whether it's, you know,personal wellness, you know,
mental well-being, mental health, family time, financial
resources or lack thereof, youknow it's so much and it
(37:18):
literally costs everything, butit provides everything.
And to the fact that it'ssomething that we've built that
he chooses to be a part of, youknow, it's really haven't lacked
motivation like I.
Stay fired up.
Man, I'm like you, like I'm,I'm driven, I'm ready to roll.
But there has been this newsense of like revigoration, with
(37:38):
logan coming in yeah where I'mlike, oh man, we're just getting
started.
Yeah, we're just now.
You know we've we've kicked offsome different stuff, but we
had to be very strategic with itbecause, I agree, you started
talking about like the treatsand this and that and it's
almost like a distraction, right, a distraction from what really
really works.
And we've started some stuffover the years but we've had to
(38:00):
let it sit because it couldn'tget the focus, because the
training is the primary thing.
Yeah, right, that is who we areat.
Our core is the training piece.
But as we've grown, you know,we've tried some of the things,
but for success or failure Iwouldn't say any of them failed.
It just wasn't worth it to be apriority, yeah, and it
distracted from the, the biggerpicture and the.
(38:23):
But last year we did kick offour, our media company and you
know that's been freakingtremendous and it's it's married
right up with the dog trainingside and and we're servicing a
lot of my off leash caninelocations but then also helping
other businesses as well, andit's been really freaking great
(38:43):
and it hasn't been a distractionto the core business.
It's really been a greataddition.
But this was the trick for usand this is why I'm really
excited for you and your journey, where you're on, is because
you've got the right partners.
Finally, yeah, you've got theright team in place, and some of
the stuff we've been working onand implementing the last year
(39:03):
or two I could have never donein my wildest dreams, no matter
how much I wanted to, because Ididn't have the right team in
place to create that margin thatI needed to either come up with
the concept, to come up withhow to implement it, because I
can be an implementer right, Ican be the tactical person, do
(39:27):
those things.
But that's not my gift.
My gift is the visionary, theideas, big ideas, see things
from a global perspective, andthen I need to be able to
communicate it in such a waywhere the implementers can go
and run with it right andthey're motivated to run with it
Well.
For so long I had to be bothno-transcript excited for you
(40:08):
because just in our most recentconversation and then hearing
you talk about it today, youknow you've everybody who's been
a part of your journey sinceyou started this thing, just
like everybody who's been a partof mine good, bad, indifferent
they added value.
Yeah, and you know every singleemployee, every single partner,
know, every single employee,every single partner, every
single whatever.
You know, whether it ended goodor not, there was value add
(40:30):
there and they were importantfor a season of the business.
Um, and people think you got todo stuff together forever, and
that's not necessarily the case.
Some people are seasonal andthere's nothing wrong with that,
and people should be honoredfor the season that they helped
your business get where it was.
But it doesn't mean you'regoing to be the one to get me to
that next part, right?
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yes, absolutely, I completely understand that.
Yeah, it's like the only personwho's actually with me right
now is Steven, who has been withme from the very beginning, you
know, and it's because he'sinvested as much as I am, as far
as just like it's.
It's he wants to see this thingthrough and win.
Yeah.
And then the new members of ourteam they both have successful
businesses, you know.
(41:10):
Even James I didn't evenmention him, you know he's a guy
who's came in here and he ownsa company called the 411 agency
and it is a big.
It's a big, uh, it's a media.
They, they produce a lot ofmarketing material.
So we have in-house marketing.
We can create our marketinginside in-house, so any type of
marketing materials that we need.
But not just that.
(41:30):
He's has so many resources,like he does the pamphlets for
the Dallas Cowboys and a lot ofhuge networks and stuff like
that.
And there's a big differencebecause, even if they weren't
invested into the business atthe current moment, they were
invested into seeing me win,like they were helping me when I
was going through a very darktime, and it's just because they
(41:53):
actually care and I was like,oh, this is what friendship's
all about.
Right, like it was realfriendship, where you can't
offer them anything at themoment and they want to still
help you out.
You know that's right and sothat's.
And, like you said, like youknow, no hard feelings to
anybody who was here.
You know they were all.
They were all probably great.
They're all great people, youknow, and at the end of the day,
(42:14):
one of the biggest challengeswas going.
You know it's my fault.
You know if it didn't work out,it's because I did something
wrong and I needed to learn fromthat and it needed to learn
from that, and it was the season.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So I take 100 accountability because I'm 100
accountable, you know.
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's ahard pill to swallow, but it is.
You know, and I say it all thetime like, at the end of the day
, it's my fault, because even ifyou screwed it up and I'm the
one who put you in that positionyeah, you screw it up, I'm the
one who thought you'd be able tohandle it yeah, I think you
know.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
We have this feeling that they're going to learn the
same way you know, or they?
Have the same they're investedjust the same and it's just,
it's one of those things.
It's it's it's kind of it'sjust a very challenging thing,
cause you again, it was alearning lesson and you just
(43:07):
learn from it and you move onand you know you don't, you
don't make the same mistakes.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
One of the most painful lessons I learned very
early on and not early on enoughwas because it used to just
frustrate me to no end.
I'm like I just don'tunderstand why they don't care
as much as me.
Yeah, I'm like, well, theydon't give a shit, they're paid
like an employee.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
You know they're paid , they're going to look at it as
an employee and and, and theyshould.
So I need to get better withvision.
Yeah, I need to get better atmaking that.
Even if I do all those things,I need to understand that it's
impossible for them to care asmuch as me because it's mine
(43:53):
yeah, it's mine.
Like I care about your sonbecause I'm a good human being.
That's your son.
I want your son to be healthyand grow, and that would be the
best guy in the world.
Right, I can't care about yourson as much as you want to or as
much as you do.
It's impossible.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
And it's the same thing with our businesses.
But man, I could not understandthat.
It would piss me off to no endand it and then.
But that was just immaturityfrom a leadership standpoint.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, leadership is so challenging.
Man Like I, I can't even like Ihate.
I always hate being a leader,you know.
Yeah, because you know it'sjust like you're the tip of the
spear.
So if somebody messes up,they're not getting called out,
you're getting called outpublicly.
You know, right, customerservice, it's all Stan's fault,
yeah.
You know, and it technically isat the end of the day.
(44:40):
You know, like you said, sellthem on the vision.
They have to understand thatthere is growth, an opportunity
for them to have an investedinterest.
You know, and for me, like I was, like you know I was it was one
of those things where I justdidn't position people right and
I wanted to make sure.
(45:01):
I wanted to make sure they weretaken care of.
So I just put band-aids overeverything and I kind of just
let things, you know, slide whenI should have held people
accountable, cause I thought Icouldn't do it myself.
I was forced to have to learnto do it myself.
And then I'm like man, I gotripped off.
I've been getting ripped offthis whole time.
And now the new partners thatare coming in, they've all had,
(45:22):
they all have an investedinterest.
So, like it's, it's just a newenergy, getting you know,
getting these texts from theseguys going, hey, this is what we
can do.
You know, I think I got.
I got a guy who could do thisand I got a person who could do
that.
Or we can make this marketmaterial.
Here's a new fly.
I want to show you that.
I think, man, it just helpedconvert better, or this.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Well, look, man, I want tohonor your time.
I appreciate you so much.
I think the world of you andwhat you're doing.
I'm going to hit you up.
I might be in the area nextweek.
If you're in town, maybe we canhook up.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
I'll be gone the 19th or the 22nd, but other other
than that, if you're, if you'rehere, I'll make time for it for
sure, because I I know we can dosomething big together for sure
yeah, I'm excited about thatand I want to.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I want to keep talking and pressing that
forward.
I want to help you get to thatmillion man.
So you know, and I think thatwe can do that in a big way
across a couple channels.
So there's some stuff I want totalk to you about.
But what's the best way forpeople to connect with you guys?
Learn more about X dog, youknow what.
What's a good way for them tofollow you guys?
Speaker 2 (46:26):
X dogcom and, you know, add X dog on Facebook,
instagram.
Um, those are, those are theeasiest ways to get in contact
with us.
Um, just X dogcom, check out Xdog university.
We're going to launch thatpretty soon and that's going to
be on the educational side and Ithink that's you know those.
I think that's going to be veryimpactful.
Just other than that, that'show you can reach out to us.
(46:47):
Just support us there, man,just message us.
We're here to help.
You don't have to buy ourproducts.
If you have a question about adog, message us, we're here to
help you out.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah, that's cool.
That's cool.
He means that, guys, this isone of those genuine dudes on
the planet when he's saying hecares about these dogs and their
health and bettering theirlives.
I mean, it's a genuinestatement.
So, stan, it's an honor man.
Thank you for coming on andtalking to our listeners and our
viewers.
I'll catch up with you soon.
Guys, share the show, leave areview.
(47:17):
If you've got questions forStan, and you can send them to
us, we'll get them over to himand connect you'all, but
anything we can do to help.
But we'll catch you next timeon the big dog podcast.
Thanks, stan, you.
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