Podcast Announcement: "Joy In Every Pop - Bubbles, Pets, and the Man Behind the Magic"
Get ready for a truly bubbly episode of Calling All Creatures! This Thursday, May 29th at 8pm MST / 11pm EST, we're thrilled to welcome John Reider, The Bubble Man, and owner of Atomic Bubbles, to the show.
John has brought joy to countless pets and people with his amazing creations—safe, pet-friendly bubbles for your dogs and cats, and dazzling people bubbles like glowing bubbles and elegant wedding bubbles. We'll be talking with John about how he came up with the idea for pet bubbles, the process behind testing them for safety, and some heartwarming (and hilarious) stories from his bubble-loving customers.
Tune in and float away with us as we dive into the magic behind every pop!
Get ready for a truly bubbly episode of Calling All Creatures! This Thursday, May 29th at 8pm MST / 11pm EST, we're thrilled to welcome John Reider, The Bubble Man, and owner of Atomic Bubbles, to the show.
John has brought joy to countless pets and people with his amazing creations—safe, pet-friendly bubbles for your dogs and cats, and dazzling people bubbles like glowing bubbles and elegant wedding bubbles. We'll be talking with John about how he came up with the idea for pet bubbles, the process behind testing them for safety, and some heartwarming (and hilarious) stories from his bubble-loving customers.
Tune in and float away with us as we dive into the magic behind every pop!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good evening everybody, and welcome to Calling All Creatures. I'm
your host, Lori, and tonight we have a bubblerific podcast
for you. You might say, we are going to be
having joy in every pop tonight because we're talking to
John Ryder, the bubble Man, and he makes bubbles for
(00:23):
pets along with humans of course, but for pets for
our podcast, because you know we are a you know,
pet friendly podcast. So anyway, we're out further ado. I'm
going to go ahead and say thank you John for
being on the podcast tonight to talk about your awesome
bubbles and bubble making. And I'm glad you were able
(00:44):
to be on.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, Laurie, thank you so much for having me. It's
always a pleasure to I love talking about what we
do and it's always wonderful to meet new people in
the industry.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Great.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So why don't you go ahead and tell us, I mean,
how did you get to the bubble business? I mean,
has this been something that you've always kind of wanted
or thought about doing. Did it just kind of fall
into your lap and you said, hey, that's a great idea,
we're going to do this. How'd you get into doing
the bubbles?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, you know, it started back somewhere in the nineties.
I was on you know that thing, that newly invented
thing called the internet, right, and we were we were
I was out just searching one night and I found
a guy who had had advertised these bubbles that he
claimed glowed under black light.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Okay, and it and I'm reading this.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Guy's you know, item description, and it's like, wow, these
things are pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I went ahead and ordered some from him, and.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Lo and behold, when you blew these bubbles under black light,
they glowed and they were like the coolest thing I'd
ever seen.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
My wife and I were in the kitchen playing with them,
and to make a long story short, over time we
I thought it was so cool.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I was looking for like a side.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Household on the side, you know, uh, you know, something
to have fun with it. We we bought his his formulas,
patents and trademarks, and we started selling those glowing black
light bubbles or or you know, thought we were going to.
And you know, so that's how, you know, that's how
(02:20):
the bubble, you know, that's how I got into the bubble.
Is this other than blowing bubbles like you know, you
and I both did when we were kids. I never
really had you know, I didn't dream at night about
you know, becoming this great bubble meister and and that
sort of thing. It just kind of it, you know,
it just kind of found its way into my modem
one night.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh that's funny. So you weren't like the Willy Wonka
of bubbles, you know what.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It didn't. You know, it didn't start that way.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
People who come into our warehouse now get a big
kick out of what we've created.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
But yeah, it didn't. It didn't start. It started in
my living room with just finding this guy online. What
I do is it was kind of one of those stories.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
That's pretty cool about that. I mean, you were able
to find this on the internet in acquire and that
you've you know, made such a great business out of
it and everything. That's pretty that's pretty awesome, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, you know, looking back, there was no.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Real gait and it was just one of those things
and and uh, you know, I think it was just
one of those things that I was I was super
interested in this.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I thought it was. I think I was more fascinated
that this guy had come up with this kind of
crazy product.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I was more impressed with, you know, the invention and
his entrepreneurial spirit and the product was super cool. And
I was kind of a young entrepreneur at the time,
and I think it all just kind of, you know,
the dots began to connect, and here we are twenty
plus years later, where you know, where we make a
living making and blowing bubbles.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
It's it's it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Oh, I'm sure it is. It's gotta be a lot
of fun. And before we actually kind of lunched more
of the pet talk. So you guys have the obviously
the glowing bubbles, and then you also have wedding bubbles,
and remember the other ones are daytime bubbles.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, so we have a complete line.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So for you know, for many years, we we created
bubbles for uh uh uh you know humans and and
you know, we were just making you know, you know,
we started with the glowing bubbles and then started branching
out and got into some neon paint spatter bubbles, and
then we uh you know, created some bubbles for the
wedding industry that smell like roses, pionies, and orchids. I
(04:38):
just made some of those today and they boy, they
make the warehouse smell wonderful, smells like a like a
florist shop. I mean, they really smell like authentic. Yeah,
So we just messed around with you know, human and
and and daylight bubbles and and and then our black
light bubbles until you know, until the pandemic came around.
(04:58):
And then that's when we kind of got into you know,
the pet you know, the pet bubble thing.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Awesome. So let me ask what's the most challenging bubble
type that you've ever tried to create?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So, you know, years ago, there was a there was
a bubble that was created a guy. It was called Zubbles.
I don't know if you ever heard of him. He
was a guy who did invent it. He had cracked
the code on making like these these invisible ink colored
bubbles like you could.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Blow him in in in blue.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Red, green, orange, yellow, and they were very colorful when
they were in the liquid state. But when they would
pop and evaporate, they would go to nothing, but they
would you know, they would just evaporate and and go
in visical kind of like that, you know, the old fashioned.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Invisible ink that you spray on people.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And once I saw that he had cracked that code.
I mean, I wanted to come up with something, you know,
similar to it, but it's it's it's it's.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Some pretty deep science. And uh so.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's something, you know, one of these days i'd like
to go back to. He's no longer in the business.
His patterns and everything are are you know, have aged out.
But I'm always I'm always captivated by you know, colorful things.
I would think that that would be something cool to
go after again.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That'd be kind of cool. Sorry, I'm just thinking, you know,
when you're talking about the colorful bubbles, I was just
thinking about how you know they have the the race
is now the color races where you're throwing the colored
powder on people. Wouldn't that be cool if you could
(06:37):
blow the colored bubbles at him and they would you know,
do you like the powder and color them?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, And uh yeah, I'm a guy that's drawing the color.
I'm you know, I'm like I'm off to a flame,
like when I see vivid colors and and especially like
neon and and and and that's what kind of drew
drew me to that first black light bubble, because you know,
I always love black light posters as a kid and Halloween,
you know when you went out the black lights and things.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Are blowing it. It's just kind of it's just really
kind of, you know, a cool effect.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I'm a nean pink person myself.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, neon take is cool. That's a great color color. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So how did you come up with the idea for
pet bubbles? I mean, was it inspired by a particular
pet or a particular moment in your life? How did
you come up with it?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, you know, so during pandemic, you know, when the
world stopped and everybody was trying to figure out, you know,
what they were going to do, and.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
How the toilet paper was the toilet paper was disappearing.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And we were at a party one night and a
dear friend of ours who is a pet.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Lover or dog lover.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We would just be yesing around, you know, you know,
some wine one night after dinner and she goes, you know, John,
just kind of out of the blue, she said, you know,
if you would come up with a bubble for dogs
or pets, I think I think you'd really you know,
have something.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I think it'd be a good business.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And she said it very whimsically and and you know
just kind of you know, maybe the wine was talking.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I woke up the next day and for some reason
that you know, that that conversation stuck in my head.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
So I get on the internet.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
You know, it's like, hey, you know, you know, is
anybody else making pet bubbles? If you know, if so,
who's making them? Are they made here? They made overseas?
Are they any good?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And that's when I started.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
My research and and you know, found out that, you know,
pet bubbles were a thing. I didn't invent them, but
I did find that most of the ones that had
been created were very poor quality, most were made overseas,
and and a lot of them got really bad reviews.
So so somebody had tried it, they just hadn't done
it very well. And so I knew we had a
(08:57):
great bubble, and so we went to work on, uh,
you know, formulating a very safe certified bubble that's you know,
safe and non toxic. And then thought, well, you know,
we might want to put some sense in there to
entice engagement and.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And activity with dogs and cats.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So that's what we came up with our peanut butter
scented and our bacon scented for dogs. And then our
first cat bubble was a cat up infuse bubble, and
that's that's that's one of our number one sellers, truly.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I mean, our our our Kittie Love Bubble is is
is a rock star.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I bet it is. I'm just imagining cats going after
the bubbles. That's got to be great. I mean, if
you think a laser pointer is fun, and bubble's got
to be even better.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, you know, yeah, we've seen some really fun videos
and cute videos with dogs and cats, but you know,
dog or you know, cats, they just have this way
about it when they're playing with something that yeah, you know,
I mean, now you know, they just have a different way.
Like dogs are all all in and they're jumping in shopping,
but uh uh, cats just you have a different way
(10:07):
where their playing with things.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
But well, yeah, they got to kind of look to
see if you're watching them or not. You know, you
keep the pretense up to I'm the King kitty here
and Queen kitty whichever you may have.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right right, right then those balls go faster than you
can see. It was amazed at how fast they you know,
a cat can batch something.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, Wow, it's amazing. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So so again it was you know, like me finding
those bubbles online one night. I had no intention or
even an idea or thought of doing a bubble for
pet or the pet industry until it came up in
a conversation. And I think what I did, though, was
I remembered it and and and I kind of went
after it. You know, so many times we hear things
(10:53):
or or you know, you know, you think, oh, I'm
gonna you know, you know, look that up or see
and and then but so many time if we both don't.
And I'm guilty of that as well, but I'm very
thankful that morning I woke up and said, hey, I
better check into this. Someone was clicking on that one,
you know.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right right, and you know, and I was actually going
to ask you this in a minute, but you just
kind of touched on it. I was going to ask
you about what makes your pet bubbles you know, different
from regular bubbles. But number one, it sounds like you've
kind of perfected maybe the quality of the bubbles for
the pets, and then with the different sense and stuff
(11:32):
that you add into them, that would definitely set them off,
I would think maybe a little differently than some of
the other pet I've got to and I'm going to
have to ask this in a minute too before I
get off track here. When you were talking about the safety,
that's I was going to ask you about that as well.
How are they especially formulated for safety for pets?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So we go through Yeah, so what we did was obviously,
all all bubbles, whether you know, like a manufacturer you know,
states it or not, they all have a certain amount
of soap and them they have to.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
I mean, that's what makes a bubble bubble. You know.
What you need to.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Do is is is you need to find that safest,
gentlest cosmetic grade, you know, something that's safe you know,
to get on your skin and on and on your
body and if you happen to get them in your mouth,
they're not going to be harmful.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Uh So you know, is that right?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
You know? Combination is trying to find, uh the mix
of raw materials that make a good quality bubble, but
then also make it not harmful.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
And then we do send them through.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
The consumer product uh safety commissions testing, you know, certification
process of you know, making them toys safe and and
certifying them non toxic and all of that, so that
uh uh, you know, consumers can be uh, you know,
feel very good and safe about using our products, you know,
(13:08):
for their for their.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Kids, their pets.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Oh good, I mean, And that's important to put out there,
you know, so people do understand that your products are
going through all of this testing and being certified as
being you know, non toxic and safe, you know, birf
skin and stuff like that. And you know, I'm gonna
be honest with you, John, I think back in the day,
they didn't really care what was in the soap when
they stuck it in your mouth. If you said a
(13:32):
swear word you'd been blowing bubbles for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, yeah. Could you imagine looking at your mom and say, now, mom,
is that sort is that far certified non toxic?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Right exactly?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know safe? Yeah, it might have got you another mouthful.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It might very well.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Some of the things that we grew up with that
don't have and nowadays, oh, you.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Know, I can still feel that, you know, they dragging
out of your mouth and they get on the back
of your teeth.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, you're very Yeah, you didn't cuss too much in
my house.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I didn't either, and I'm not saying that my parents.
I don't really remember my parents ever doing the soap
in the mouth, but I never My brother was different
than me. He got a way with doing things I didn't.
So I never really cussed in the house, you know,
but he he would, and I'm I would just look
(14:37):
at him. He'd be just a going and I'd just
look at him and go, Really, I could never think
about being, you know, that disrespectful in front of you know,
and we were had five we only had five years
difference between us. I mean, holy goodness. But yeah, so yeah,
we didn't. I didn't think about cussing around my parents
in my household.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, but you know, you
know that safety thing, you know, that's that's really I
think what put us on, you know, on the map larreat,
you know, because then you know, you know, in all
of my early searches and investigations five years ago, you know,
most of you know, most of these bubbles made overseas,
(15:18):
they didn't have ingredients, they did not have uh, you know,
any ASTM certifications on them. That's that toy safe certification
we're talking about. And I think, you know, people really
are conscious of that these days. I mean, and especially
with their pets. Even sometimes more so with their pets.
You know, they just want to know what's in their food.
(15:38):
They want to know what their toys.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Are made of.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Uh, if they're going to interact with, you know, like
a bubble something that they can pop and get on
them and in our mouths. I mean, they're you know,
they you know, they want to know. So, you know,
I think that's been an important part of our successes,
is is having all that testing and having that safe
bubble you know for.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Sure, right right? Talking about scents and tastes. So okay,
so all these different scented bubbles or tasting bubbles I get,
you know, the bacon and the peanut butter and stuff. Okay,
so I was going to ask you to walk us
through the process of inventing or making you know, something
(16:18):
like the pet bubbles or daylight bubbles or something. But yeah,
definitely in that process. I mean, how do you get
does it have the taste of the bacon or the
peanut butter for the pets or is it just like
the smell the scent of it.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, you know, that's A great question, because a lot
of times, you know, I'll you know, and I'm talking
with people, you know, though you know, you know, they'll say.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
The word flavor or or or what we call the
F word.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay, so our our bubbles are truly just scented. Okay,
So we are not I'm not introducing any flavorings. I'm
not introducing any sweeteners or anything that's going to really
entice the animal to want to eat or ingest my
bubbles that you know. It's really just that right right
(17:06):
right now.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
There are some other companies out there that advertise an
edible bubble. I don't want to go down that road
because I you know, I really don't want to advertise
that because I don't want pets ingesting mine.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
But they are certified.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
If they happen to get them into their system, you know,
they're fine. So so we always stay scented. And uh
and again note enticement flavorings or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Well, that's good because I was just thinking about that too.
I mean, if they got this, if they you know,
if they really get that flavoring and then they smell that,
they would be really just eating these bottles of bubbles
all the time if they could get to them.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, you know that didn't make you know,
when I saw some competitors doing that, I just I,
you know, I wanted to stay away from that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That wasn't what I want to do. I did not want,
you know, a child to be.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Tempted to drink a bottle of soapi.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know this, Yeah, it's it's you know, it gets
it makes my insurance man really nervous.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And it's one thing to have your parents wash your mouth,
that was so I it's entirely another one to drink
a bottle of bubble.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, this call is no longer being recorded. Whoop, that
was me.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I'm like, wow, my phone is freaking out.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah so yeah interesting, I was. I was kind of
wondering about that. But then when you had to explained
like the wedding bubbles earlier, with just the sense of
the flowers and stuff, then it made a little bit
more sense that it would probably just be the scented bubbles,
not the actual the taste. But you know, we really
probably need to clarify these things.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and again I think so, you know,
you know, I think the bubble, you know, the bubble
industry at least now is is is I think just
kind of emerging. I think, you know, people are really
taking to the bubbles for wellness and exercise. That's you know,
that's one thing we really didn't kind of see coming,
(19:15):
you know, I mean, I'm.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
A bubble guy.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
We were in a bubble business for enjoyment and fun
and for entertainment. What we found is is we started
getting a lot of feedback and comments from people say, hey.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
You know, your bubbles are making my dog move more
than he's ever moved or or or or.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
My older cat now seems to be more playful when
I get these bubbles out.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
And so.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
We had no idea that you know, that it was
going to maybe start promoting some you know, some help
and wellness as well, because you know, dogs, dogs and
cats are moving a little more, uh you know, is
exercise chasing.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
These things right exactly well, and then on top of that,
I mean, it's got to be helping out with people
healths on top of it too, because if they're if
you're obviously they're getting outside and playing with their dogs
and cats or maybe not outside of the cats, but
they're getting more active themselves, you know, running around pulling
these bubbles for their pets to go after and play with.
(20:13):
So it's kind of a win win all the way around.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Then, Yeah, it is. It is.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It was design for you to kind of interact and
have a you know, like a moment of you know,
of joy with your animal. But yeah, the you know,
the byproduct is you know, both parties are moving around.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Right right, So when you're actually inventing these bubbles or
coming up with these bubbles or whatever, are you actually
involved in like the chem I'm assuming there's a chemistry
end of all of this or are you not on
that part of it?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, so that's a great question. I'm actually in the lab,
so I am not a I'm not a chemist by
by education. I'm actually I'm an aircraft engineer as far
as my schooling goes. So you know, I do attribute
bubbles to aerodynamics and flying. So I you know, I
(21:10):
feel I'm using my degree and all that money I
spent on or my dad's spent on education. But yeah,
I'm in the lab all the time. Like today, we
were trying some new formulations and we have some new
sense that we're going to be launching hopefully in time
for Super Zoo this year, just a couple of months away.
We have some new things we've got on the table,
(21:31):
and yeah, it's always fun doing different combinations and seeing
my might work and and you know, the ones that
work and the ones that don't work.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
It's always, you.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Know, it's always learning, always a learning process. And I
think that's the funnest part of my job is when
i'm you know, when I get to create and kind
of put the line into coconut, you.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Know, right exactly. That's what I was wondering if you
were in that aspect of it or not, because it
does seem like it'd be kind of fun to be
in there, you know, and figuring that stuff out and
then you know, figure out what they're going to like.
And that kind of comes into the next question. I mean,
what's kind of been your biggest challenge in creating a
bubble that pets actually enjoy or will play with out there.
(22:15):
I mean, obviously the dogs you're coming up with these
different sets, you know, like that peanut butter and bacon
and stuff and stuff like that. But I mean, what's
kind of the biggest challenge for you in creating a
bubble that you think pets might enjoy playing with, right.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Well, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
The biggest Well, so we have to you know, we
have to get that pet owner. So you know, that's
the person that's bringing out their wallet or the card
to make the purchase. So we have to find something
that's going to entice the human buyer to think that, hey,
this is going to be you know, I think this
is something that my pet's going to like. So there's
(22:55):
a lot of psychology that goes into it. It has
to do with even more so than the act a
bubble itself. It's it's it's bottle design, wand wand type colors,
how you present them, uh, you know, in your display
boxes and things. So I didn't realize how much psychology
went into creating products, especially when you need to sell them,
(23:16):
you know, to make money. So you can have a
great product, but if you put it in like a
white label box or you know, a bottle, uh, it
doesn't look like but so you really need to get
something that uh, somebody's gonna want to pick up and
look at. Or your advertising needs to be super awesome
in your and your graphics and your colors.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Need to be captivating.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So you know, you know, the product side of thing
is obviously you have to have a great product too,
you also have to have great people that know how
to help you bring that product to you know, you know,
to the.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Marketplace right right exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You know, and and and actually that's the most fun too,
because sometimes you know, just like the idea is of
getting into the pet you know, sometimes you may go
down this road that you think is you know, the
way to go, and you'll find that your sales were
coming from something totally that you didn't think of, or
something that you know, you discover it it's like, okay,
(24:12):
that's okay, that's why they're buying here, or this part
of the country likes you know, likes this cent or
this is a better time of the year for this area.
And so it's you know, it's just big puzzle. It's
just big gay, which is which is always fun.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and it's always good if you
have someone out there that kind of can help you,
you know, with the marketing aspect of that and you know,
do those little surveys and figure that kind of stuff
out as to you know who you know, that psychology
of it and who you need to you know, or
what might work better with certain ages or crowds or
(24:48):
genres or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know, you know absolutely and and I would you know,
I would love to just say that, you know, my
you know, you know, the success of this company and
the product is one hundred percent me, and it certainly
is not. You know, my lovely wife Beth has been
with me, you know, this whole journey, and you know,
she keeps the back end of our business running, which
(25:11):
is very important. Keakes that stress off of me so
I can be in the lab and do my creative thing.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And I surrounded myself by.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Some really really good talented people who I enjoy working with,
and and everybody does their part. And you know, it
really does take a team to bring any any successful
business or or or product you know, to market for.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Sure, right exactly. And by the way, we should probably
give the company. John's company is actually Atomic Bubbles, so
I don't think we ever did give the name of that.
I thought, well, we better let people know what the
name of your company is in case they're interested in
checking it out, and which I will put a link
for you up on my Facebook page for my podcast,
(25:56):
I'll put a link to your page and stuff, so
people they're online, they can go to years if they
want to. So I do that all the time.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
One yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Atomic Bubbles dot Com is the website, and you know
you can find us out there too on any of
the major.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
E commerce sites.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
If you type in pet Bubbles or Nippi Love Bubbles,
or Kittie Love Bubbles or cat Bubbles, pet Bubbles, Dog
Bubbles wheel, we.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Will come up in most search engines, are sure, yep?
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So do you find that certain types of pets react
differently to bubbles based on maybe their personality or maybe
the breed of say dog or pat Have you heard
anything from many of your customers that says anything about that?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You know, that's interesting as much as we've tried to
figure it out or yet, Yeah, find out if there's
like a best in breed for bubbles or something or
or or the same with you know, are cats. I
don't know if we have got a definitive answer to that.
I think, you know, pets are like people, you know,
(27:08):
I mean you can have little dogs, big dogs, young dogs,
old dogs, and they all kind of react differently to them,
you know, I mean like there's sometimes I'll you know,
like I'll see a dog and it's like I think,
oh my god, that dog's not gonna you know, I mean,
that dog's not going to be entice. And you know,
he turns out to be a rock star. He's getting
(27:29):
all four in the area, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
And and you know.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Like I have two I have two dogs, and one
of them could care less about the ball. I mean,
no matter how many times I blow the bubbles for
the dog it, she just looks at me like, what
are you doing man? And and the other one is
is you know, loves to play with them. And I'm thinking,
you know, the other one better get on the board,
because you know, that's how we pay rent around here.
So you know, we you know, we need to learn
(27:54):
how to like these bubbles. But yeah, you haven't found
them that magic equation or that magic thing that says, hey,
you know, this dog's gonna like them this way, and
they're all they're all different.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
I think that's kind of the fun thing part about it.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, I was just wondering on ed if you had,
if anybody had given to any feedback, or if you
had noticed, because I know I got one saying she's
a senior though, she's she's up there, and so she
would just look at me like you're out your mind
if you think I'm going to go back to those
bubbles at my age.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And as you know, we find uh you know, I
will say sometimes the older you know, the older dogs
and cats are just you know, you know, they're kind
of at that point in our life.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So sometimes.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
They will just look at you like, hey, you know,
I'm doing my thing here. It's like I don't know
what you're doing there, but I'm still doing my thing here.
And uh so, but you know, sometimes those you know,
those older animals will start moving to and that's what
we love to hear.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, mine would just look at me and see what
you're thinking about here. I know she would, because yeah,
she's just not that type of a dog. She she's
never really cared. I mean two bones and stuff, but
like toys and stuff, she's never really cared for them.
So maybe if there was a certain scent or something,
that mightn't type. So I don't know, but I don't
(29:20):
think with her now. Oh, I'll have to wait till
I get some after I lose her and get some puppies.
Then well then we'll talk about bubbles.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Perfect because you know, I'll send you some. I'll send
you some samples to try anytime you like.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Oh cool, cool, Well it'll be a while. I don't
think she's I don't think I'm gonna hopefully not be
losing her too soon. I just lost one of them
a couple of weeks ago, so yeah, well, you know,
they they you know, don't tend to live as long
as we wish they would.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
But yeah, I know, it's always it's always tough. It's
always tough, it is.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
And he was he was a month away from being fourteen.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
So wow, that was a log life fourteen, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And he's a big dog, so yeah, it was a
good long life for a big dog.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yep, yep, yep. Wow. Well a lot of a lot
of great memories.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Oh yeah, yes, yes, and the one I have left.
And this is why I was just talking about this
the other night. I started. I had seven dogs at
one time. I used to do animal control, and you
do animal control, you end up with many dogs or cats,
whatever the case may be. Sometimes other things that might
come in, like snakes and rodents, and you know, not rodents,
(30:36):
but Amster's getting big soul things. So anyway, yeah, I
ended up with seven dogs at one point, and I'm
down to the last girl. She is actually I think
about sixteen, but yeah, she's a medium sized kind of dog.
I think I lost John. Okay, there just last you
for a second and now we're back. So anyway, yeah,
(31:00):
so sixteen, she's about a medium sized dog. But you know,
she was the one of the last ones I think
that I took in. And but yeah, doing animal control,
you tend to end up with many animals in the
home sometimes just because.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I can only imagine you've probably had so many of
those dogs and cats look at you in the end,
you know, it's like, well, I think I better bring
you home.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, you know, it's it's definitely the very first one
we got. My son, I think at that point, was
only like ten or eleven years old, and actually he
was at a friend's house and the lady across the
street who I actually worked with, her dog had puppies,
and of course my son is, oh, I want a puppy,
Want a puppy. So anyway, he was our first and
(31:50):
then it just kind of went from there between us
picking out dogs that came to the shelter and stuff
like that, and we ended up with mostly pitbull and
pit bull mixes. But but you know, yeah, there you know,
And that's the funny part is you'll know if you
I don't know how true it is out for statistics
(32:12):
all around the nation, but here it seems like a
lot of the animal control officers that I have encountered
all have pitbulls. I'm not sure if it's because working
with these animals on a daily basis the way we did,
or do we recognize the qualities in them that a
(32:34):
lot of other people don't see or you know, because
of fear or maybe a bad incident that happened to
them because of and maybe not on the part of
the dog, but because I had a bad owner or something,
you know, along those signes. But you know, and that's fine.
I understand, you know, if you've had a really bad
incident or something like that, I can understand why you
(32:55):
wouldn't like that breed of a dog. But you know,
don't have prejudged biased against something that you really don't
know anything about. And then when I try to explain it,
because I own them and I see what they are
actually capable of and what they're like. Don't sit there
(33:15):
and try to tell me I'm brainwashed and I'm just
trying to brainwash you know, that's just no I have
you know, that's that's anyway. I'm not going to go
off under that sell box. Everybody's got their own opinion,
and that's fine. I you know, it's fine whatever people think.
So yeah, you can like them or you can hate him.
That's up to you know whatever. Anyway, And that's a
(33:36):
lot of different breeds. Some people don't like shepherds, some
people don't like Doberman's, so you know, it just depends.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know what you're Yeah, I mean, I mean,
you're absolutely right. I mean, it's just like a guy
that drives a you know, a Chevy or Ford. You know,
you have guys that love chevyes and will never touch
it for it, and you know, the same way.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And you know, we're the same with you.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Know, you know, with our pets and and you know,
the foods we like and all of that stuff. So yeah, yeah,
you know, I think all you know, I think all
humans and all pets are you know, are capable of love.
It's just kind of sometimes of situations they're in and
the relationships that you have. So I think you just
(34:17):
kind of have to be, uh, as you said, open
to all and kind of form form your own opinions
or experience you know.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yep, exactly, just with any like anything. I mean, life
is an experience. As you go through it, you experience
all sorts of different things and then you make your
you know, judgement, you know, make a judgment or opinion
or whatever you want to call it on those experiences,
you know, right, So you know that's with everything. But anyway,
back to our topic at hand. In the bubbles, so
(34:47):
what's the strangest or most unexpected animal? I know you're
making bubbles for dogs and cats, but what's the strangest
or most unexpected animal that you've maybe seen play with
pet bubbles?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
So, you know, I'll while share a personal story. So
we have the we have a wonderful zoo in Saint Louis.
I'm from Saint Louis and the Saint Louis Zoo is
one of the top ten zoos in the in the
country is you know, great great zoo, and it's one
of the one of the few that's still free.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
And we you know, we love that our zoo is
free here in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Yeah, so we do a lot of bubble events down
there through another company we have, and we entertain a
lot of zoos, you know, zoo guests with bubbles.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
But the large animal uh zoo.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Person came to me a couple of years ago and said, hey,
we're looking for something to give some enrichment to our elephants. Okay,
and we were thinking about bubbles and we saw that
you made these these peanut butter scented bubbles for dogs.
How do you think an elephant might react? And I'm all, well,
I have no idea, but we need to try it.
(35:59):
So I do know that this hate Lotters zoo is
used bubbles uh for enrichment for their elephants, uh from
time to time and uh and I believe that they
say that they that.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
They enjoyed them.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
So I think an elephant is probably the the strangest
animal that's uh that I know of that's encounter bubbles.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
That would be something to see.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So so yeah, they got their own little bubble machine
down there with the remote control. So yeah, it's uh,
you know, yeah, I love it. I love that story.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
It would be really really cute to have a baby
elephant chasing them around trying to.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
My gosh, that.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Would be yeah, that would be the cutest thing.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Would be hilarious, hilarious. Yeah, I need to, you know what,
I need to reach out to her. I haven't chatted
with her in a while. I need to actually, I'll
reach out to her tomorrow and see see how the
elephants are doing and if they need any more retails
down there. I like to you know, you know, keep
my zoo uh.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
You know, uh with bubbles on hand if they need.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking like maybe you were going
to tell me that they were blowing them for like
maybe the tigers, lions or something like that. And then
I'm kind of like, okay, well you know, big cats. Okay,
that just kind of makes sense, but you're.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Right, right, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah. And then and then the other another duke keeper
came over and you know, you know, we were.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Talking about that.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I uh, you know, we're talking about the elephants, and
I said, you know that you know, we have a
cat bubble for you know, for you know, more of
house caps and things like that, uh, small caps, and
she said something about uh, uh that the large cats
don't respond. You know, they've tried it, but uh, there
(38:03):
was another center. There was another herb that they they
responded to better. The large cats responded better than two
than cabinet and I and then and it's I can't
remember it right now, but I did. I you know,
I always find it interesting, uh, you know, different animals
and things like that. Like, you know, I would have
thought that a large cat would have responded to catnip
(38:24):
just like a you know, like a tabby cat.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Would you know, I'm thinking the bacon.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Okay, yeah, something I'm thinking the bacon now too might
be good?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, why not you feed them raw meat.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Exactly exactly. Maybe you could like a carrot, yeah, like
a peared ham.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Center or something.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah. I was gonna say, maybe you could come up
with like a raw steak centers. Put the tigers in
the lions. Now there you go. There would be good
bubbles for them, raw steak sensor something. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
that's good.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Yeah, yeah, that's got a class of wine. You can
have a lot of fun with the different you could
come up with.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Oh yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Because I'd be busy the lab.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
I think. So I'm gonna say right now, there's there's
just some bubbles that probably should never be made.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And of course those are the bubbles I'm thinking about
right now. Oh yeah, I have. I had a dear
friend that I lost a couple of years ago that
would just be sitting here wringing her hands thinking of
all the evil things she could come up with. Percented bubbles.
(39:56):
Oh my goodness. Yes, we used to come up with
some brilliant ideas.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yes, yes, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
All right, So what's the most satisfying part of being
in the bubble business? I mean, obviously you've got to
have a lot of fun. That's got to be so satisfying.
But I want to hear it from you. What's your
most satisfying part of being in the bubble business?
Speaker 2 (40:22):
You know what, you really hit it on the head there.
You know, we've been doing this for some twenty plus
years in many facets, whether we're entertaining people or you know,
we're manufacturing and selling products to other people to use.
But it's it's it's really at the end of the
day that you know, I think the joy in the
(40:44):
smiles that that we see that it brings to people,
because as in any business, even the bubble business, you know,
you have your times that can be really hard and
really frustrating and really stressful. But I think having a
product and a business that actually h is out there
(41:06):
trying to make people smile and happy and spreading love
and joy.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Uh, it's uh.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I think it's what has kept us going, you know,
over you know, like during those hard times or the
hard years, or you know, when things aren't going so
well and and you just think back, it's like, well.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
You know, what would people do if we weren't.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Doing this, you know, and it and it gets you
get your back up the next morning and you know,
like put your boots on and getting back in the trenches.
So yeah, it's it's it's that it's that smile and
that joy that we see that it brings to people
for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah, it's got to be fun to do. I mean, playing
with bubbles and venting bubbles, coming up with the ideas.
It's got to be a bunch of fun to to
do all this kind of stuff. I would enjoy doing it.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yes, Yeah, it's yeah, yeah, sometimes you know, I know
some of the guys that have worked for me over
the years. It's like, I don't know if you tell
my family, you know, my kids asked me, it's like, Dad,
what do you do for a living?
Speaker 3 (42:05):
And it's like I'm almost kind of embarrassed. It's like, well, the.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Son, I make bubbles, you know, and it's like, you know,
it's like what I tell them, It's like, you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Super important, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
I mean, if you weren't making the bubbles, man, you know,
people wouldn't be smiling and having fun, and people wouldn't
be playing with their pets the way they're doing now.
So yeah, it's it's kind of a strange thing to
think about sometimes, but it is. It's a wonderful business,
and we love it and we hope to do it until,
you know, and for many more years.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
So yeah, I think if I was a kid and
I had a parent that did this kind of stuff,
I think that would be cool because you could just
have all good play with these bubbles all the time.
You have friends over playing with bubbles all the time.
Oh yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
My kids and friends are theirs who worked in the
business over the years, many of them and neighborhood people
and people from church.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
In the community and stuff.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
They've all they've all worked for us over the years,
and it's been it's been really fun. We we We've
met a lot of uh great people and hopefully you know,
inspire some of young kids to go out and do
what they you know, what they love or what they're
passionate about.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Ye good good. So I know we talked in the beginning,
you talked about your colored bubbles. So barring the colored bubble,
if you could create a bubble that did anything at all,
or it had no limits or barriers. What what would
you create for a bubble?
Speaker 3 (43:37):
Oh my gosh, oh man, so so many bubbles, so
little time, Laurie, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
You know, stunt.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
You think if.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Somebody asked me one time, if if if they could
if they.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Could put their company logo? Want to bubble? Okay?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
I mean, like if you could blow a bubble and
you could like print something on it, like for advertising.
I have no idea how you.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Could do it.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I have no idea if it's possible, But what a
fun thing that would be to have bubbles that you
could display messages on or or or advertise with and
that's gonna you know, that's going to take some notebook work,
But I think that would be really fun. And who
(44:32):
knows if it could ever be done, but I've had
people ask me about it in the past.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
You know, I think if it can be done, you'd
probably be the person that can probably figure it out.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Well, you know, I'm always looking for the next pet
rock onny so I can retire one of these days.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
So right exactly, Man, pet rocks, weren't those the thing?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Oh my gosh, yeah, boy, that personal idea that guy has,
you know.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Right exactly. That dude made lots of money off of
that one. Love low Overhead too, right exactly. It's not
like you can't go outside and find a rock yep.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
It all goes back to that marketing, right, I mean,
I mean you can have you know, in that case,
the guy had, I mean a rock in a box,
you know, but he has some pretty swift marketing and
and and the guy gave millions yep.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
That's kind of like the little realm fuzzy ball thing
with the two little googly eyes on it.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's there's been many over the time,
and yeah, you know that's what I thought when I
first saw those glow bubbles too, I thought, wow.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
This is so cool and crazy, and I was so
excited about it. I mean, I truly thought that I
wouldn't be able to make them fast enough that people
would want them, that, you know, that badly, And you know,
it didn't turn out that way, you know, And and
it's so interesting, you know what you know, what goes
what they call viral and what doesn't you know, So
you just you just keep pushing and you know, just
(46:10):
keep trying every day.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yep, exactly. So how long have you how long have
you had the bubble atomic bubbles? How long have you
been doing it?
Speaker 3 (46:18):
So some twenty plus years.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah, we weren't always called atomic bubbles, but we've we've
been in that bubble. We've been creating and you know,
messing with bubbles for about one years. That's when I
first found that, you know, that first glowing bubble product.
And that's you know, that's when the journey began.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
So okay, okay, I was just wondering because you know,
there was a time when like neon and stuff like
that was in a little bit more than it is nowadays.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yes, yes, and that kind of seems to come and go,
you know, I mean in.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
The seventies, sixties and seventies.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
Man, it was great in the eighties that kind of
went away nineties, and then starting back in two thousand
and it kind of came back in again. Kind of
like bull bottom jeans. You know, they kind of have
their you know, every twenty years or so, it comes
back and you know in.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Vogue, yep, exactly, lots of stuff does kind of makes
it circle, yes, yes, So do you have any fun
or surprising stories from customers about their pets playing with
your bubbles.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
I'm trying to think. I'm always you know, I'm always
you know, amazed. Now. I love seeing dogs who like
really are into the bubbles and and you know, seeing
that dog that gets.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Up in the air, you know, all all for pause
or in the air and they're just going nuts over
these things. Those have been the coolest and I and
I've seen some in my day, you know, and sometimes
when I be stickpect that, you know, you'll see a
little dog that just crazy over them. But yeah, I think, yeah,
(48:04):
I think, you know, having a dog or it's not
just you know, the ones that are really into the
bubbles that that's that's what really makes me smile, you know,
and it's like wow, okay, it's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
So you did mention that you are working on a
couple of new scents. So I was going to ask
if you have any exciting new inventions on the horizon.
Do you have anything besides the new sense that you're
working on that you can talk about or anything that's
kind of coming up for you in the Bubble business.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
I do.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I would like you to also mention because you do
have the Bubble vand correct that goes and does different
events and stuff. So let's go ahead and talk a
little bit about that stuff and anything you might have
coming up.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, so you know, on the events side of the business.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
So you know, bubble bus is a name another entity
that we have, uh you know within our uh you know,
within our network of businesses, and that's a that's an
event company that goes out and uh you know, does
bubble events for people with humans.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
This year, we have started doing something it's called Party
in a Box where we have uh it's kind of
a do it yourself model where uh people will come
and they'll rent the equipment and and you know, we
give them enough uh you know, you know, bubble fluids
and liquids for one, two, three, four hours whatever.
Speaker 3 (49:31):
You know, their timeline is going to be uh and
they do it.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
They're you know themselves and that's and that's really been
uh and that's really been fun this year. We we
haven't had to worry about running so many crews, which
in the past sometimes has you know, it has been tough
trying to find young people to work for.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Us and and.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
Uh uh you know, get good crews together. So this
year we've kind of started to do less in person
events uh and started this Party in a Box, which
is a do it or sell for people rent it
and do it themselves.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
And that's really been a big hit.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
I mean, we we've been reading those things, you know,
starting uh uh you know, right after the stone melted,
right after February, we start reading those and you know,
we'll have we'll have you know, up to what does
it going out a weekend and and it's uh and
that's been pretty cool. But that's and that's been a
new adventure for us. We're finding people are doing it
uh uh you know for dog birthday parties and things
(50:25):
like that. So that's been that's been pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Nice. Nice, I was gonna say, I was just thinking about,
you know, with your colored bubbles, people could do gender
reveal parties and stuff with those two for the blue
or pink for the bubbles. That would be kind of
cool to have a gender reveal party with the bubbles too.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
That would be cool, you know what.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
You're absolutely right, Yeah, we uh uh one of our
other bubble bus franchisees here in in uh In Town.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
They're just across the river for most here in.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Saint Louis and they and they've done several overtime and that, yeah,
it's really fun. And every boot everybody's on white T
shirts and you really can't tell the color until the
bubble like kind of pops on your T shirt and
it'll either leave like a light blue, you know, residue
or a pink residue.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
And those have been fun parties.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Oh, that'd be cool. People could even do them for
their pets, if they have a pregnant dog. I mean,
it could even well, I guess that wouldn't really work
because you're gonna have both genders in there, so I
guess that one wouldn't work.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
You know, you could have a Yeah, you can have
a purple Yeah, you could have a purple bubble button.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, you could. You could do like different different colors
there that for different to different ones, you know, like
neutral colors or something like that, because you're gonna have
both genders. Yeah, people could do.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
It sure more.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yeah, absolutely, Man, those are using bubbles, we don't care glory.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, Jen, I really appreciate you coming
on the podcast tonight and talking about your wonderful bubbles
and all the great things that you are putting out
there for our pets and letting everybody know that you
are taking care of that safety end of it as
(52:13):
well to make your products as safe for pets and
humans as you possibly can, getting everything certified. So that's
pretty cool, and I'm glad that we were able to
get the word out about you guys a little bit
more so hopefully you know, some of the listeners out
there might get some of your products and stuff like
that and and have bubbles for their dogs and cats.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
Well, we shall appreciate being on with you tonight and
for your listeners and appreciate the opportunity you gave us.
And yeah, I hope if no one has heard of
puppy Love or kittie Love bubbles or pet bubbles in general.
We would hopefully they learned something and we'd.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Love it if they would go out and give us
a try. We sure we'd appreciated yep.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
And again, you can check out John's website more information
about the company, and take a look at the shop
and see all the different bubbles that they have out
there for the cats and the dogs. And if you're
a human, you can check out the human bubbles for yourselves.
I mean, maybe you've got a wedding coming up, you
might want to get some of those wedding bubbles. All
sound like they'd be pretty cool for a wedding with
(53:17):
a different sense and stuff. So go check out John's page,
and like I said, I'll put a link to it
on my Facebook page as well. And again, John, I
really appreciate you being on tonight or and I'm just
good at I'm getting tongue tied. I'm just going to
go ahead and announce the next couple podcasts that I
have coming up this next month, So you're welcome to
(53:40):
stick around and listen to those if you want, but
you're also welcome to jump off because I know, you know,
it gets kind of late and you might have some
things you'd like to get done before bed tonight, So
you're perfectly welcome to jump off as well.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
Lourie, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
On a you Okay, all right, thanks again for being on. John,
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
Okay, have a good night.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
Bye. All right, everybody. John is gone for the night.
That was pretty cool hearing about all the bubbles and stuff,
wasn't it in a different sense. I thought that's pretty
interesting that he was able to come up with the
sense for the bubbles to you know, the peanut butter
(54:22):
and the bacon and stuff like that. So he's got
some interesting bubbles out there. And if you're in the Neon,
he does have those neon colored bubbles. So go check
out the website over there and his shot see if
there's anything you like. And for the next podcast that
I have coming up on June twelfth, I'm going to
(54:45):
have author and philosopher Mark Rowlands on with me and
we are going to be talking about his book, which
is called The Word of Dog. It's got a much
longer title, but I'm just going to say the Word
of dog for this, So now it's meant and Mark
is kind of talking about the philosophical aspects of how humans,
(55:14):
you know, think of dogs and view them as to
their morals and stuff like that. Do they have morals,
do they have the compassion you know, feelings and things
like that that people say that dogs have. We do know,
I'm pretty sure we can all say that dogs have feelings.
But Mark kind of touches on that whole philosophy end
(55:38):
of dogs and how we humans, you know, kind of
view them, and you know how he views that dogs
you know, kind of lived that good life and how
we can learn more about living that good life from
them because they just have that joy of being in
the moment, whereas humans tend to think about things that
(56:02):
you know, they're actually doing, or about how they're living
and about themselves and stuff like that. So we don't
tend to live in that moment like a dog does.
So there's a lot of things that dogs could teach us.
But he's kind of addressing those aspects in the philosophy
end of it. And again, like I said, whether you know,
we think dogs really do have morals and compassion and
(56:28):
think like that, you know, those kinds of things. So
that'll be June twelfth, and then I am going to
have Julie McLaughlin from the Indiana Skunk Rescue on with
me on June twenty sixth, and we are gonna be
talking about well gee, skunks. Since she's with the Indiana
(56:51):
Skunk Rescue, I thought it'd be really cool to actually
have a podcast about skunks and get some facts and
stuff out there about them and maybe, you know, abolish
some of the myths and stuff that are out there
about them as well. I mean, obviously not a lot
(57:11):
of people like skunks because they are a little smelly,
but you know, that's just the way they are and
it's their defense mechanism. So yeah, nothing wrong with skunks
for the most part. You just gotta be careful around them.
So anyway, so Julie will be on on June twenty sixth,
(57:31):
and we're gonna talk skunks. So hopefully you guys will
be able to come back and listen in to the
next coming up podcasts and learn a little bit more
from Mark about dog's philosophy and living a better life,
learning from them to live in the moment. And then
on June twenty sixth, with Julie to talk about skunks.
(57:55):
So hopefully you guys will come back and enjoy those
podcasts as well. Hope you guys like the one tonight
talking with John about the bubbles. And I hope you
guys all have a great weekend. I hope you all
had a wonderful Memorial Weekend over this last weekend. And
I hope you guys all stay safe out there, don't
get into too much trouble, and don't forget to come
(58:17):
back in a couple weeks and listen to the next podcast. Bye, everybody,
Good evening everybody, and welcome to Calling All Creatures. I'm
your host, Lori, and tonight we have a bubblerific podcast
for you. You might say, we are going to be
having joy in every pop tonight because we're talking to
John Ryder, the bubble Man, and he makes bubbles for
(00:23):
pets along with humans of course, but for pets for
our podcast, because you know we are a you know,
pet friendly podcast. So anyway, we're out further ado. I'm
going to go ahead and say thank you John for
being on the podcast tonight to talk about your awesome
bubbles and bubble making. And I'm glad you were able
(00:44):
to be on.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, Laurie, thank you so much for having me. It's
always a pleasure to I love talking about what we
do and it's always wonderful to meet new people in
the industry.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Great.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So why don't you go ahead and tell us, I mean,
how did you get to the bubble business? I mean,
has this been something that you've always kind of wanted
or thought about doing. Did it just kind of fall
into your lap and you said, hey, that's a great idea,
we're going to do this. How'd you get into doing
the bubbles?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, you know, it started back somewhere in the nineties.
I was on you know that thing, that newly invented
thing called the internet, right, and we were we were
I was out just searching one night and I found
a guy who had had advertised these bubbles that he
claimed glowed under black light.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Okay, and it and I'm reading this.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Guy's you know, item description, and it's like, wow, these
things are pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I went ahead and ordered some from him, and.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Lo and behold, when you blew these bubbles under black light,
they glowed and they were like the coolest thing I'd
ever seen.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
My wife and I were in the kitchen playing with them,
and to make a long story short, over time we
I thought it was so cool.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I was looking for like a side.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Household on the side, you know, uh, you know, something
to have fun with it. We we bought his his formulas,
patents and trademarks, and we started selling those glowing black
light bubbles or or you know, thought we were going to.
And you know, so that's how, you know, that's how
(02:20):
the bubble, you know, that's how I got into the bubble.
Is this other than blowing bubbles like you know, you
and I both did when we were kids. I never
really had you know, I didn't dream at night about
you know, becoming this great bubble meister and and that
sort of thing. It just kind of it, you know,
it just kind of found its way into my modem
one night.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh that's funny. So you weren't like the Willy Wonka
of bubbles, you know what.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It didn't. You know, it didn't start that way.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
People who come into our warehouse now get a big
kick out of what we've created.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
But yeah, it didn't. It didn't start. It started in
my living room with just finding this guy online. What
I do is it was kind of one of those stories.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
That's pretty cool about that. I mean, you were able
to find this on the internet in acquire and that
you've you know, made such a great business out of
it and everything. That's pretty that's pretty awesome, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, you know, looking back, there was no.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Real gait and it was just one of those things
and and uh, you know, I think it was just
one of those things that I was I was super
interested in this.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I thought it was. I think I was more fascinated
that this guy had come up with this kind of
crazy product.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I was more impressed with, you know, the invention and
his entrepreneurial spirit and the product was super cool. And
I was kind of a young entrepreneur at the time,
and I think it all just kind of, you know,
the dots began to connect, and here we are twenty
plus years later, where you know, where we make a
living making and blowing bubbles.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
It's it's it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Oh, I'm sure it is. It's gotta be a lot
of fun. And before we actually kind of lunched more
of the pet talk. So you guys have the obviously
the glowing bubbles, and then you also have wedding bubbles,
and remember the other ones are daytime bubbles.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, so we have a complete line.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So for you know, for many years, we we created
bubbles for uh uh uh you know humans and and
you know, we were just making you know, you know,
we started with the glowing bubbles and then started branching
out and got into some neon paint spatter bubbles, and
then we uh you know, created some bubbles for the
wedding industry that smell like roses, pionies, and orchids. I
(04:38):
just made some of those today and they boy, they
make the warehouse smell wonderful, smells like a like a
florist shop. I mean, they really smell like authentic. Yeah,
So we just messed around with you know, human and
and and daylight bubbles and and and then our black
light bubbles until you know, until the pandemic came around.
(04:58):
And then that's when we kind of got into you know,
the pet you know, the pet bubble thing.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Awesome. So let me ask what's the most challenging bubble
type that you've ever tried to create?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So, you know, years ago, there was a there was
a bubble that was created a guy. It was called Zubbles.
I don't know if you ever heard of him. He
was a guy who did invent it. He had cracked
the code on making like these these invisible ink colored
bubbles like you could.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Blow him in in in blue.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Red, green, orange, yellow, and they were very colorful when
they were in the liquid state. But when they would
pop and evaporate, they would go to nothing, but they
would you know, they would just evaporate and and go
in visical kind of like that, you know, the old fashioned.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Invisible ink that you spray on people.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And once I saw that he had cracked that code.
I mean, I wanted to come up with something, you know,
similar to it, but it's it's it's it's.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Some pretty deep science. And uh so.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's something, you know, one of these days i'd like
to go back to. He's no longer in the business.
His patterns and everything are are you know, have aged out.
But I'm always I'm always captivated by you know, colorful things.
I would think that that would be something cool to
go after again.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That'd be kind of cool. Sorry, I'm just thinking, you know,
when you're talking about the colorful bubbles, I was just
thinking about how you know they have the the race
is now the color races where you're throwing the colored
powder on people. Wouldn't that be cool if you could
(06:37):
blow the colored bubbles at him and they would you know,
do you like the powder and color them?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, And uh yeah, I'm a guy that's drawing the color.
I'm you know, I'm like I'm off to a flame,
like when I see vivid colors and and especially like
neon and and and and that's what kind of drew
drew me to that first black light bubble, because you know,
I always love black light posters as a kid and Halloween,
you know when you went out the black lights and things.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Are blowing it. It's just kind of it's just really
kind of, you know, a cool effect.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I'm a nean pink person myself.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, neon take is cool. That's a great color color. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So how did you come up with the idea for
pet bubbles? I mean, was it inspired by a particular
pet or a particular moment in your life? How did
you come up with it?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, you know, so during pandemic, you know, when the
world stopped and everybody was trying to figure out, you know,
what they were going to do, and.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
How the toilet paper was the toilet paper was disappearing.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And we were at a party one night and a
dear friend of ours who is a pet.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Lover or dog lover.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We would just be yesing around, you know, you know,
some wine one night after dinner and she goes, you know, John,
just kind of out of the blue, she said, you know,
if you would come up with a bubble for dogs
or pets, I think I think you'd really you know,
have something.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I think it'd be a good business.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And she said it very whimsically and and you know
just kind of you know, maybe the wine was talking.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I woke up the next day and for some reason
that you know, that that conversation stuck in my head.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
So I get on the internet.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
You know, it's like, hey, you know, you know, is
anybody else making pet bubbles? If you know, if so,
who's making them? Are they made here? They made overseas?
Are they any good?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And that's when I started.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
My research and and you know, found out that, you know,
pet bubbles were a thing. I didn't invent them, but
I did find that most of the ones that had
been created were very poor quality, most were made overseas,
and and a lot of them got really bad reviews.
So so somebody had tried it, they just hadn't done
it very well. And so I knew we had a
(08:57):
great bubble, and so we went to work on, uh,
you know, formulating a very safe certified bubble that's you know,
safe and non toxic. And then thought, well, you know,
we might want to put some sense in there to
entice engagement and.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And activity with dogs and cats.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So that's what we came up with our peanut butter
scented and our bacon scented for dogs. And then our
first cat bubble was a cat up infuse bubble, and
that's that's that's one of our number one sellers, truly.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I mean, our our our Kittie Love Bubble is is
is a rock star.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I bet it is. I'm just imagining cats going after
the bubbles. That's got to be great. I mean, if
you think a laser pointer is fun, and bubble's got
to be even better.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, you know, yeah, we've seen some really fun videos
and cute videos with dogs and cats, but you know,
dog or you know, cats, they just have this way
about it when they're playing with something that yeah, you know,
I mean, now you know, they just have a different way.
Like dogs are all all in and they're jumping in shopping,
but uh uh, cats just you have a different way
(10:07):
where their playing with things.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
But well, yeah, they got to kind of look to
see if you're watching them or not. You know, you
keep the pretense up to I'm the King kitty here
and Queen kitty whichever you may have.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right right, right then those balls go faster than you
can see. It was amazed at how fast they you know,
a cat can batch something.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, Wow, it's amazing. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So so again it was you know, like me finding
those bubbles online one night. I had no intention or
even an idea or thought of doing a bubble for
pet or the pet industry until it came up in
a conversation. And I think what I did, though, was
I remembered it and and and I kind of went
after it. You know, so many times we hear things
(10:53):
or or you know, you know, you think, oh, I'm
gonna you know, you know, look that up or see
and and then but so many time if we both don't.
And I'm guilty of that as well, but I'm very
thankful that morning I woke up and said, hey, I
better check into this. Someone was clicking on that one,
you know.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right right, and you know, and I was actually going
to ask you this in a minute, but you just
kind of touched on it. I was going to ask
you about what makes your pet bubbles you know, different
from regular bubbles. But number one, it sounds like you've
kind of perfected maybe the quality of the bubbles for
the pets, and then with the different sense and stuff
(11:32):
that you add into them, that would definitely set them off,
I would think maybe a little differently than some of
the other pet I've got to and I'm going to
have to ask this in a minute too before I
get off track here. When you were talking about the safety,
that's I was going to ask you about that as well.
How are they especially formulated for safety for pets?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So we go through Yeah, so what we did was obviously,
all all bubbles, whether you know, like a manufacturer you know,
states it or not, they all have a certain amount
of soap and them they have to.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
I mean, that's what makes a bubble bubble. You know.
What you need to.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Do is is is you need to find that safest,
gentlest cosmetic grade, you know, something that's safe you know,
to get on your skin and on and on your
body and if you happen to get them in your mouth,
they're not going to be harmful.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Uh So you know, is that right?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
You know? Combination is trying to find, uh the mix
of raw materials that make a good quality bubble, but
then also make it not harmful.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
And then we do send them through.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
The consumer product uh safety commissions testing, you know, certification
process of you know, making them toys safe and and
certifying them non toxic and all of that, so that
uh uh, you know, consumers can be uh, you know,
feel very good and safe about using our products, you know,
(13:08):
for their for their.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Kids, their pets.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Oh good, I mean, And that's important to put out there,
you know, so people do understand that your products are
going through all of this testing and being certified as
being you know, non toxic and safe, you know, birf
skin and stuff like that. And you know, I'm gonna
be honest with you, John, I think back in the day,
they didn't really care what was in the soap when
they stuck it in your mouth. If you said a
(13:32):
swear word you'd been blowing bubbles for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, yeah. Could you imagine looking at your mom and say, now, mom,
is that sort is that far certified non toxic?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Right exactly?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know safe? Yeah, it might have got you another mouthful.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It might very well.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Some of the things that we grew up with that
don't have and nowadays, oh, you.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Know, I can still feel that, you know, they dragging
out of your mouth and they get on the back
of your teeth.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, you're very Yeah, you didn't cuss too much in
my house.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I didn't either, and I'm not saying that my parents.
I don't really remember my parents ever doing the soap
in the mouth, but I never My brother was different
than me. He got a way with doing things I didn't.
So I never really cussed in the house, you know,
but he he would, and I'm I would just look
(14:37):
at him. He'd be just a going and I'd just
look at him and go, Really, I could never think
about being, you know, that disrespectful in front of you know,
and we were had five we only had five years
difference between us. I mean, holy goodness. But yeah, so yeah,
we didn't. I didn't think about cussing around my parents
in my household.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, but you know, you
know that safety thing, you know, that's that's really I
think what put us on, you know, on the map larreat,
you know, because then you know, you know, in all
of my early searches and investigations five years ago, you know,
most of you know, most of these bubbles made overseas,
(15:18):
they didn't have ingredients, they did not have uh, you know,
any ASTM certifications on them. That's that toy safe certification
we're talking about. And I think, you know, people really
are conscious of that these days. I mean, and especially
with their pets. Even sometimes more so with their pets.
You know, they just want to know what's in their food.
(15:38):
They want to know what their toys.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Are made of.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Uh, if they're going to interact with, you know, like
a bubble something that they can pop and get on
them and in our mouths. I mean, they're you know,
they you know, they want to know. So, you know,
I think that's been an important part of our successes,
is is having all that testing and having that safe
bubble you know for.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Sure, right right? Talking about scents and tastes. So okay,
so all these different scented bubbles or tasting bubbles I get,
you know, the bacon and the peanut butter and stuff. Okay,
so I was going to ask you to walk us
through the process of inventing or making you know, something
(16:18):
like the pet bubbles or daylight bubbles or something. But yeah,
definitely in that process. I mean, how do you get
does it have the taste of the bacon or the
peanut butter for the pets or is it just like
the smell the scent of it.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, you know, that's A great question, because a lot
of times, you know, I'll you know, and I'm talking
with people, you know, though you know, you know, they'll say.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
The word flavor or or or what we call the
F word.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay, so our our bubbles are truly just scented. Okay,
So we are not I'm not introducing any flavorings. I'm
not introducing any sweeteners or anything that's going to really
entice the animal to want to eat or ingest my
bubbles that you know. It's really just that right right
(17:06):
right now.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
There are some other companies out there that advertise an
edible bubble. I don't want to go down that road
because I you know, I really don't want to advertise
that because I don't want pets ingesting mine.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
But they are certified.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
If they happen to get them into their system, you know,
they're fine. So so we always stay scented. And uh
and again note enticement flavorings or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Well, that's good because I was just thinking about that too.
I mean, if they got this, if they you know,
if they really get that flavoring and then they smell that,
they would be really just eating these bottles of bubbles
all the time if they could get to them.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, you know that didn't make you know,
when I saw some competitors doing that, I just I,
you know, I wanted to stay away from that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That wasn't what I want to do. I did not want,
you know, a child to be.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Tempted to drink a bottle of soapi.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know this, Yeah, it's it's you know, it gets
it makes my insurance man really nervous.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And it's one thing to have your parents wash your mouth,
that was so I it's entirely another one to drink
a bottle of bubble.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, this call is no longer being recorded. Whoop, that
was me.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I'm like, wow, my phone is freaking out.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah so yeah interesting, I was. I was kind of
wondering about that. But then when you had to explained
like the wedding bubbles earlier, with just the sense of
the flowers and stuff, then it made a little bit
more sense that it would probably just be the scented bubbles,
not the actual the taste. But you know, we really
probably need to clarify these things.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and again I think so, you know,
you know, I think the bubble, you know, the bubble
industry at least now is is is I think just
kind of emerging. I think, you know, people are really
taking to the bubbles for wellness and exercise. That's you know,
that's one thing we really didn't kind of see coming,
(19:15):
you know, I mean, I'm.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
A bubble guy.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
We were in a bubble business for enjoyment and fun
and for entertainment. What we found is is we started
getting a lot of feedback and comments from people say, hey.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
You know, your bubbles are making my dog move more
than he's ever moved or or or or.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
My older cat now seems to be more playful when
I get these bubbles out.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
And so.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
We had no idea that you know, that it was
going to maybe start promoting some you know, some help
and wellness as well, because you know, dogs, dogs and
cats are moving a little more, uh you know, is
exercise chasing.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
These things right exactly well, and then on top of that,
I mean, it's got to be helping out with people
healths on top of it too, because if they're if
you're obviously they're getting outside and playing with their dogs
and cats or maybe not outside of the cats, but
they're getting more active themselves, you know, running around pulling
these bubbles for their pets to go after and play with.
(20:13):
So it's kind of a win win all the way around.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Then, Yeah, it is. It is.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It was design for you to kind of interact and
have a you know, like a moment of you know,
of joy with your animal. But yeah, the you know,
the byproduct is you know, both parties are moving around.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Right right, So when you're actually inventing these bubbles or
coming up with these bubbles or whatever, are you actually
involved in like the chem I'm assuming there's a chemistry
end of all of this or are you not on
that part of it?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, so that's a great question. I'm actually in the lab,
so I am not a I'm not a chemist by
by education. I'm actually I'm an aircraft engineer as far
as my schooling goes. So you know, I do attribute
bubbles to aerodynamics and flying. So I you know, I
(21:10):
feel I'm using my degree and all that money I
spent on or my dad's spent on education. But yeah,
I'm in the lab all the time. Like today, we
were trying some new formulations and we have some new
sense that we're going to be launching hopefully in time
for Super Zoo this year, just a couple of months away.
We have some new things we've got on the table,
(21:31):
and yeah, it's always fun doing different combinations and seeing
my might work and and you know, the ones that
work and the ones that don't work.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
It's always, you.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Know, it's always learning, always a learning process. And I
think that's the funnest part of my job is when
i'm you know, when I get to create and kind
of put the line into coconut, you.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Know, right exactly. That's what I was wondering if you
were in that aspect of it or not, because it
does seem like it'd be kind of fun to be
in there, you know, and figuring that stuff out and
then you know, figure out what they're going to like.
And that kind of comes into the next question. I mean,
what's kind of been your biggest challenge in creating a
bubble that pets actually enjoy or will play with out there.
(22:15):
I mean, obviously the dogs you're coming up with these
different sets, you know, like that peanut butter and bacon
and stuff and stuff like that. But I mean, what's
kind of the biggest challenge for you in creating a
bubble that you think pets might enjoy playing with, right.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Well, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
The biggest Well, so we have to you know, we
have to get that pet owner. So you know, that's
the person that's bringing out their wallet or the card
to make the purchase. So we have to find something
that's going to entice the human buyer to think that, hey,
this is going to be you know, I think this
is something that my pet's going to like. So there's
(22:55):
a lot of psychology that goes into it. It has
to do with even more so than the act a
bubble itself. It's it's it's bottle design, wand wand type colors,
how you present them, uh, you know, in your display
boxes and things. So I didn't realize how much psychology
went into creating products, especially when you need to sell them,
(23:16):
you know, to make money. So you can have a
great product, but if you put it in like a
white label box or you know, a bottle, uh, it
doesn't look like but so you really need to get
something that uh, somebody's gonna want to pick up and
look at. Or your advertising needs to be super awesome
in your and your graphics and your colors.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Need to be captivating.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So you know, you know, the product side of thing
is obviously you have to have a great product too,
you also have to have great people that know how
to help you bring that product to you know, you know,
to the.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Marketplace right right exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You know, and and and actually that's the most fun too,
because sometimes you know, just like the idea is of
getting into the pet you know, sometimes you may go
down this road that you think is you know, the
way to go, and you'll find that your sales were
coming from something totally that you didn't think of, or
something that you know, you discover it it's like, okay,
(24:12):
that's okay, that's why they're buying here, or this part
of the country likes you know, likes this cent or
this is a better time of the year for this area.
And so it's you know, it's just big puzzle. It's
just big gay, which is which is always fun.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and it's always good if you
have someone out there that kind of can help you,
you know, with the marketing aspect of that and you know,
do those little surveys and figure that kind of stuff
out as to you know who you know, that psychology
of it and who you need to you know, or
what might work better with certain ages or crowds or
(24:48):
genres or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know, you know absolutely and and I would you know,
I would love to just say that, you know, my
you know, you know, the success of this company and
the product is one hundred percent me, and it certainly
is not. You know, my lovely wife Beth has been
with me, you know, this whole journey, and you know,
she keeps the back end of our business running, which
(25:11):
is very important. Keakes that stress off of me so
I can be in the lab and do my creative thing.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And I surrounded myself by.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Some really really good talented people who I enjoy working with,
and and everybody does their part. And you know, it
really does take a team to bring any any successful
business or or or product you know, to market for.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Sure, right exactly. And by the way, we should probably
give the company. John's company is actually Atomic Bubbles, so
I don't think we ever did give the name of that.
I thought, well, we better let people know what the
name of your company is in case they're interested in
checking it out, and which I will put a link
for you up on my Facebook page for my podcast,
(25:56):
I'll put a link to your page and stuff, so
people they're online, they can go to years if they
want to. So I do that all the time.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
One yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Atomic Bubbles dot Com is the website, and you know
you can find us out there too on any of
the major.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
E commerce sites.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
If you type in pet Bubbles or Nippi Love Bubbles,
or Kittie Love Bubbles or cat Bubbles, pet Bubbles, Dog
Bubbles wheel, we.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Will come up in most search engines, are sure, yep?
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So do you find that certain types of pets react
differently to bubbles based on maybe their personality or maybe
the breed of say dog or pat Have you heard
anything from many of your customers that says anything about that?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You know, that's interesting as much as we've tried to
figure it out or yet, Yeah, find out if there's
like a best in breed for bubbles or something or
or or the same with you know, are cats. I
don't know if we have got a definitive answer to that.
I think, you know, pets are like people, you know,
(27:08):
I mean you can have little dogs, big dogs, young dogs,
old dogs, and they all kind of react differently to them,
you know, I mean like there's sometimes I'll you know,
like I'll see a dog and it's like I think,
oh my god, that dog's not gonna you know, I mean,
that dog's not going to be entice. And you know,
he turns out to be a rock star. He's getting
(27:29):
all four in the area, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
And and you know.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Like I have two I have two dogs, and one
of them could care less about the ball. I mean,
no matter how many times I blow the bubbles for
the dog it, she just looks at me like, what
are you doing man? And and the other one is
is you know, loves to play with them. And I'm thinking,
you know, the other one better get on the board,
because you know, that's how we pay rent around here.
So you know, we you know, we need to learn
(27:54):
how to like these bubbles. But yeah, you haven't found
them that magic equation or that magic thing that says, hey,
you know, this dog's gonna like them this way, and
they're all they're all different.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
I think that's kind of the fun thing part about it.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, I was just wondering on ed if you had,
if anybody had given to any feedback, or if you
had noticed, because I know I got one saying she's
a senior though, she's she's up there, and so she
would just look at me like you're out your mind
if you think I'm going to go back to those
bubbles at my age.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And as you know, we find uh you know, I
will say sometimes the older you know, the older dogs
and cats are just you know, you know, they're kind
of at that point in our life.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So sometimes.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
They will just look at you like, hey, you know,
I'm doing my thing here. It's like I don't know
what you're doing there, but I'm still doing my thing here.
And uh so, but you know, sometimes those you know,
those older animals will start moving to and that's what
we love to hear.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, mine would just look at me and see what
you're thinking about here. I know she would, because yeah,
she's just not that type of a dog. She she's
never really cared. I mean two bones and stuff, but
like toys and stuff, she's never really cared for them.
So maybe if there was a certain scent or something,
that mightn't type. So I don't know, but I don't
(29:20):
think with her now. Oh, I'll have to wait till
I get some after I lose her and get some puppies.
Then well then we'll talk about bubbles.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Perfect because you know, I'll send you some. I'll send
you some samples to try anytime you like.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Oh cool, cool, Well it'll be a while. I don't
think she's I don't think I'm gonna hopefully not be
losing her too soon. I just lost one of them
a couple of weeks ago, so yeah, well, you know,
they they you know, don't tend to live as long
as we wish they would.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
But yeah, I know, it's always it's always tough. It's
always tough, it is.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
And he was he was a month away from being fourteen.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
So wow, that was a log life fourteen, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And he's a big dog, so yeah, it was a
good long life for a big dog.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yep, yep, yep. Wow. Well a lot of a lot
of great memories.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Oh yeah, yes, yes, and the one I have left.
And this is why I was just talking about this
the other night. I started. I had seven dogs at
one time. I used to do animal control, and you
do animal control, you end up with many dogs or cats,
whatever the case may be. Sometimes other things that might
come in, like snakes and rodents, and you know, not rodents,
(30:36):
but Amster's getting big soul things. So anyway, yeah, I
ended up with seven dogs at one point, and I'm
down to the last girl. She is actually I think
about sixteen, but yeah, she's a medium sized kind of dog.
I think I lost John. Okay, there just last you
for a second and now we're back. So anyway, yeah,
(31:00):
so sixteen, she's about a medium sized dog. But you know,
she was the one of the last ones I think
that I took in. And but yeah, doing animal control,
you tend to end up with many animals in the
home sometimes just because.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I can only imagine you've probably had so many of
those dogs and cats look at you in the end,
you know, it's like, well, I think I better bring
you home.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, you know, it's it's definitely the very first one
we got. My son, I think at that point, was
only like ten or eleven years old, and actually he
was at a friend's house and the lady across the
street who I actually worked with, her dog had puppies,
and of course my son is, oh, I want a puppy,
Want a puppy. So anyway, he was our first and
(31:50):
then it just kind of went from there between us
picking out dogs that came to the shelter and stuff
like that, and we ended up with mostly pitbull and
pit bull mixes. But but you know, yeah, there you know,
And that's the funny part is you'll know if you
I don't know how true it is out for statistics
(32:12):
all around the nation, but here it seems like a
lot of the animal control officers that I have encountered
all have pitbulls. I'm not sure if it's because working
with these animals on a daily basis the way we did,
or do we recognize the qualities in them that a
(32:34):
lot of other people don't see or you know, because
of fear or maybe a bad incident that happened to
them because of and maybe not on the part of
the dog, but because I had a bad owner or something,
you know, along those signes. But you know, and that's fine.
I understand, you know, if you've had a really bad
incident or something like that, I can understand why you
(32:55):
wouldn't like that breed of a dog. But you know,
don't have prejudged biased against something that you really don't
know anything about. And then when I try to explain it,
because I own them and I see what they are
actually capable of and what they're like. Don't sit there
(33:15):
and try to tell me I'm brainwashed and I'm just
trying to brainwash you know, that's just no I have
you know, that's that's anyway. I'm not going to go
off under that sell box. Everybody's got their own opinion,
and that's fine. I you know, it's fine whatever people think.
So yeah, you can like them or you can hate him.
That's up to you know whatever. Anyway, And that's a
(33:36):
lot of different breeds. Some people don't like shepherds, some
people don't like Doberman's, so you know, it just depends.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know what you're Yeah, I mean, I mean,
you're absolutely right. I mean, it's just like a guy
that drives a you know, a Chevy or Ford. You know,
you have guys that love chevyes and will never touch
it for it, and you know, the same way.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And you know, we're the same with you.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Know, you know, with our pets and and you know,
the foods we like and all of that stuff. So yeah, yeah,
you know, I think all you know, I think all
humans and all pets are you know, are capable of love.
It's just kind of sometimes of situations they're in and
the relationships that you have. So I think you just
(34:17):
kind of have to be, uh, as you said, open
to all and kind of form form your own opinions
or experience you know.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yep, exactly, just with any like anything. I mean, life
is an experience. As you go through it, you experience
all sorts of different things and then you make your
you know, judgement, you know, make a judgment or opinion
or whatever you want to call it on those experiences,
you know, right, So you know that's with everything. But anyway,
back to our topic at hand. In the bubbles, so
(34:47):
what's the strangest or most unexpected animal? I know you're
making bubbles for dogs and cats, but what's the strangest
or most unexpected animal that you've maybe seen play with
pet bubbles?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
So, you know, I'll while share a personal story. So
we have the we have a wonderful zoo in Saint Louis.
I'm from Saint Louis and the Saint Louis Zoo is
one of the top ten zoos in the in the
country is you know, great great zoo, and it's one
of the one of the few that's still free.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
And we you know, we love that our zoo is
free here in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Yeah, so we do a lot of bubble events down
there through another company we have, and we entertain a
lot of zoos, you know, zoo guests with bubbles.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
But the large animal uh zoo.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Person came to me a couple of years ago and said, hey,
we're looking for something to give some enrichment to our elephants. Okay,
and we were thinking about bubbles and we saw that
you made these these peanut butter scented bubbles for dogs.
How do you think an elephant might react? And I'm all, well,
I have no idea, but we need to try it.
(35:59):
So I do know that this hate Lotters zoo is
used bubbles uh for enrichment for their elephants, uh from
time to time and uh and I believe that they
say that they that.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
They enjoyed them.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
So I think an elephant is probably the the strangest
animal that's uh that I know of that's encounter bubbles.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
That would be something to see.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So so yeah, they got their own little bubble machine
down there with the remote control. So yeah, it's uh,
you know, yeah, I love it. I love that story.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
It would be really really cute to have a baby
elephant chasing them around trying to.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
My gosh, that.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Would be yeah, that would be the cutest thing.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Would be hilarious, hilarious. Yeah, I need to, you know what,
I need to reach out to her. I haven't chatted
with her in a while. I need to actually, I'll
reach out to her tomorrow and see see how the
elephants are doing and if they need any more retails
down there. I like to you know, you know, keep
my zoo uh.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
You know, uh with bubbles on hand if they need.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking like maybe you were going
to tell me that they were blowing them for like
maybe the tigers, lions or something like that. And then
I'm kind of like, okay, well you know, big cats. Okay,
that just kind of makes sense, but you're.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Right, right, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah. And then and then the other another duke keeper
came over and you know, you know, we were.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Talking about that.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I uh, you know, we're talking about the elephants, and
I said, you know that you know, we have a
cat bubble for you know, for you know, more of
house caps and things like that, uh, small caps, and
she said something about uh, uh that the large cats
don't respond. You know, they've tried it, but uh, there
(38:03):
was another center. There was another herb that they they
responded to better. The large cats responded better than two
than cabinet and I and then and it's I can't
remember it right now, but I did. I you know,
I always find it interesting, uh, you know, different animals
and things like that. Like, you know, I would have
thought that a large cat would have responded to catnip
(38:24):
just like a you know, like a tabby cat.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Would you know, I'm thinking the bacon.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Okay, yeah, something I'm thinking the bacon now too might
be good?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, why not you feed them raw meat.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Exactly exactly. Maybe you could like a carrot, yeah, like
a peared ham.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Center or something.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah. I was gonna say, maybe you could come up
with like a raw steak centers. Put the tigers in
the lions. Now there you go. There would be good
bubbles for them, raw steak sensor something. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
that's good.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Yeah, yeah, that's got a class of wine. You can
have a lot of fun with the different you could
come up with.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Oh yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Because I'd be busy the lab.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
I think. So I'm gonna say right now, there's there's
just some bubbles that probably should never be made.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And of course those are the bubbles I'm thinking about
right now. Oh yeah, I have. I had a dear
friend that I lost a couple of years ago that
would just be sitting here wringing her hands thinking of
all the evil things she could come up with. Percented bubbles.
(39:56):
Oh my goodness. Yes, we used to come up with
some brilliant ideas.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yes, yes, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
All right, So what's the most satisfying part of being
in the bubble business? I mean, obviously you've got to
have a lot of fun. That's got to be so satisfying.
But I want to hear it from you. What's your
most satisfying part of being in the bubble business?
Speaker 2 (40:22):
You know what, you really hit it on the head there.
You know, we've been doing this for some twenty plus
years in many facets, whether we're entertaining people or you know,
we're manufacturing and selling products to other people to use.
But it's it's it's really at the end of the
day that you know, I think the joy in the
(40:44):
smiles that that we see that it brings to people,
because as in any business, even the bubble business, you know,
you have your times that can be really hard and
really frustrating and really stressful. But I think having a
product and a business that actually h is out there
(41:06):
trying to make people smile and happy and spreading love
and joy.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Uh, it's uh.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I think it's what has kept us going, you know,
over you know, like during those hard times or the
hard years, or you know, when things aren't going so
well and and you just think back, it's like, well.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
You know, what would people do if we weren't.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Doing this, you know, and it and it gets you
get your back up the next morning and you know,
like put your boots on and getting back in the trenches.
So yeah, it's it's it's that it's that smile and
that joy that we see that it brings to people
for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah, it's got to be fun to do. I mean, playing
with bubbles and venting bubbles, coming up with the ideas.
It's got to be a bunch of fun to to
do all this kind of stuff. I would enjoy doing it.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yes, Yeah, it's yeah, yeah, sometimes you know, I know
some of the guys that have worked for me over
the years. It's like, I don't know if you tell
my family, you know, my kids asked me, it's like, Dad,
what do you do for a living?
Speaker 3 (42:05):
And it's like I'm almost kind of embarrassed. It's like, well, the.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Son, I make bubbles, you know, and it's like, you know,
it's like what I tell them, It's like, you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Super important, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
I mean, if you weren't making the bubbles, man, you know,
people wouldn't be smiling and having fun, and people wouldn't
be playing with their pets the way they're doing now.
So yeah, it's it's kind of a strange thing to
think about sometimes, but it is. It's a wonderful business,
and we love it and we hope to do it until,
you know, and for many more years.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
So yeah, I think if I was a kid and
I had a parent that did this kind of stuff,
I think that would be cool because you could just
have all good play with these bubbles all the time.
You have friends over playing with bubbles all the time.
Oh yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
My kids and friends are theirs who worked in the
business over the years, many of them and neighborhood people
and people from church.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
In the community and stuff.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
They've all they've all worked for us over the years,
and it's been it's been really fun. We we We've
met a lot of uh great people and hopefully you know,
inspire some of young kids to go out and do
what they you know, what they love or what they're
passionate about.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Ye good good. So I know we talked in the beginning,
you talked about your colored bubbles. So barring the colored bubble,
if you could create a bubble that did anything at all,
or it had no limits or barriers. What what would
you create for a bubble?
Speaker 3 (43:37):
Oh my gosh, oh man, so so many bubbles, so
little time, Laurie, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
You know, stunt.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
You think if.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Somebody asked me one time, if if if they could
if they.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Could put their company logo? Want to bubble? Okay?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
I mean, like if you could blow a bubble and
you could like print something on it, like for advertising.
I have no idea how you.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Could do it.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I have no idea if it's possible, But what a
fun thing that would be to have bubbles that you
could display messages on or or or advertise with and
that's gonna you know, that's going to take some notebook work,
But I think that would be really fun. And who
(44:32):
knows if it could ever be done, but I've had
people ask me about it in the past.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
You know, I think if it can be done, you'd
probably be the person that can probably figure it out.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Well, you know, I'm always looking for the next pet
rock onny so I can retire one of these days.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
So right exactly, Man, pet rocks, weren't those the thing?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Oh my gosh, yeah, boy, that personal idea that guy has,
you know.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Right exactly. That dude made lots of money off of
that one. Love low Overhead too, right exactly. It's not
like you can't go outside and find a rock yep.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
It all goes back to that marketing, right, I mean,
I mean you can have you know, in that case,
the guy had, I mean a rock in a box,
you know, but he has some pretty swift marketing and
and and the guy gave millions yep.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
That's kind of like the little realm fuzzy ball thing
with the two little googly eyes on it.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's there's been many over the time,
and yeah, you know that's what I thought when I
first saw those glow bubbles too, I thought, wow.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
This is so cool and crazy, and I was so
excited about it. I mean, I truly thought that I
wouldn't be able to make them fast enough that people
would want them, that, you know, that badly, And you know,
it didn't turn out that way, you know, And and
it's so interesting, you know what you know, what goes
what they call viral and what doesn't you know, So
you just you just keep pushing and you know, just
(46:10):
keep trying every day.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yep, exactly. So how long have you how long have
you had the bubble atomic bubbles? How long have you
been doing it?
Speaker 3 (46:18):
So some twenty plus years.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah, we weren't always called atomic bubbles, but we've we've
been in that bubble. We've been creating and you know,
messing with bubbles for about one years. That's when I
first found that, you know, that first glowing bubble product.
And that's you know, that's when the journey began.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
So okay, okay, I was just wondering because you know,
there was a time when like neon and stuff like
that was in a little bit more than it is nowadays.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yes, yes, and that kind of seems to come and go,
you know, I mean in.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
The seventies, sixties and seventies.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
Man, it was great in the eighties that kind of
went away nineties, and then starting back in two thousand
and it kind of came back in again. Kind of
like bull bottom jeans. You know, they kind of have
their you know, every twenty years or so, it comes
back and you know in.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Vogue, yep, exactly, lots of stuff does kind of makes
it circle, yes, yes, So do you have any fun
or surprising stories from customers about their pets playing with
your bubbles.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
I'm trying to think. I'm always you know, I'm always
you know, amazed. Now. I love seeing dogs who like
really are into the bubbles and and you know, seeing
that dog that gets.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Up in the air, you know, all all for pause
or in the air and they're just going nuts over
these things. Those have been the coolest and I and
I've seen some in my day, you know, and sometimes
when I be stickpect that, you know, you'll see a
little dog that just crazy over them. But yeah, I think, yeah,
(48:04):
I think, you know, having a dog or it's not
just you know, the ones that are really into the
bubbles that that's that's what really makes me smile, you know,
and it's like wow, okay, it's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
So you did mention that you are working on a
couple of new scents. So I was going to ask
if you have any exciting new inventions on the horizon.
Do you have anything besides the new sense that you're
working on that you can talk about or anything that's
kind of coming up for you in the Bubble business.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
I do.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I would like you to also mention because you do
have the Bubble vand correct that goes and does different
events and stuff. So let's go ahead and talk a
little bit about that stuff and anything you might have
coming up.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, so you know, on the events side of the business.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
So you know, bubble bus is a name another entity
that we have, uh you know within our uh you know,
within our network of businesses, and that's a that's an
event company that goes out and uh you know, does
bubble events for people with humans.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
This year, we have started doing something it's called Party
in a Box where we have uh it's kind of
a do it yourself model where uh people will come
and they'll rent the equipment and and you know, we
give them enough uh you know, you know, bubble fluids
and liquids for one, two, three, four hours whatever.
Speaker 3 (49:31):
You know, their timeline is going to be uh and
they do it.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
They're you know themselves and that's and that's really been
uh and that's really been fun this year. We we
haven't had to worry about running so many crews, which
in the past sometimes has you know, it has been tough
trying to find young people to work for.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Us and and.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
Uh uh you know, get good crews together. So this
year we've kind of started to do less in person
events uh and started this Party in a Box, which
is a do it or sell for people rent it
and do it themselves.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
And that's really been a big hit.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
I mean, we we've been reading those things, you know,
starting uh uh you know, right after the stone melted,
right after February, we start reading those and you know,
we'll have we'll have you know, up to what does
it going out a weekend and and it's uh and
that's been pretty cool. But that's and that's been a
new adventure for us. We're finding people are doing it
uh uh you know for dog birthday parties and things
(50:25):
like that. So that's been that's been pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Nice. Nice, I was gonna say, I was just thinking about,
you know, with your colored bubbles, people could do gender
reveal parties and stuff with those two for the blue
or pink for the bubbles. That would be kind of
cool to have a gender reveal party with the bubbles too.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
That would be cool, you know what.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
You're absolutely right, Yeah, we uh uh one of our
other bubble bus franchisees here in in uh In Town.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
They're just across the river for most here in.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Saint Louis and they and they've done several overtime and that, yeah,
it's really fun. And every boot everybody's on white T
shirts and you really can't tell the color until the
bubble like kind of pops on your T shirt and
it'll either leave like a light blue, you know, residue
or a pink residue.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
And those have been fun parties.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Oh, that'd be cool. People could even do them for
their pets, if they have a pregnant dog. I mean,
it could even well, I guess that wouldn't really work
because you're gonna have both genders in there, so I
guess that one wouldn't work.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
You know, you could have a Yeah, you can have
a purple Yeah, you could have a purple bubble button.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, you could. You could do like different different colors
there that for different to different ones, you know, like
neutral colors or something like that, because you're gonna have
both genders. Yeah, people could do.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
It sure more.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yeah, absolutely, Man, those are using bubbles, we don't care glory.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, Jen, I really appreciate you coming
on the podcast tonight and talking about your wonderful bubbles
and all the great things that you are putting out
there for our pets and letting everybody know that you
are taking care of that safety end of it as
(52:13):
well to make your products as safe for pets and
humans as you possibly can, getting everything certified. So that's
pretty cool, and I'm glad that we were able to
get the word out about you guys a little bit
more so hopefully you know, some of the listeners out
there might get some of your products and stuff like
that and and have bubbles for their dogs and cats.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
Well, we shall appreciate being on with you tonight and
for your listeners and appreciate the opportunity you gave us.
And yeah, I hope if no one has heard of
puppy Love or kittie Love bubbles or pet bubbles in general.
We would hopefully they learned something and we'd.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Love it if they would go out and give us
a try. We sure we'd appreciated yep.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
And again, you can check out John's website more information
about the company, and take a look at the shop
and see all the different bubbles that they have out
there for the cats and the dogs. And if you're
a human, you can check out the human bubbles for yourselves.
I mean, maybe you've got a wedding coming up, you
might want to get some of those wedding bubbles. All
sound like they'd be pretty cool for a wedding with
(53:17):
a different sense and stuff. So go check out John's page,
and like I said, I'll put a link to it
on my Facebook page as well. And again, John, I
really appreciate you being on tonight or and I'm just
good at I'm getting tongue tied. I'm just going to
go ahead and announce the next couple podcasts that I
have coming up this next month, So you're welcome to
(53:40):
stick around and listen to those if you want, but
you're also welcome to jump off because I know, you know,
it gets kind of late and you might have some
things you'd like to get done before bed tonight, So
you're perfectly welcome to jump off as well.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
Lourie, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
On a you Okay, all right, thanks again for being on. John,
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
Okay, have a good night.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
Bye. All right, everybody. John is gone for the night.
That was pretty cool hearing about all the bubbles and stuff,
wasn't it in a different sense. I thought that's pretty
interesting that he was able to come up with the
sense for the bubbles to you know, the peanut butter
(54:22):
and the bacon and stuff like that. So he's got
some interesting bubbles out there. And if you're in the Neon,
he does have those neon colored bubbles. So go check
out the website over there and his shot see if
there's anything you like. And for the next podcast that
I have coming up on June twelfth, I'm going to
(54:45):
have author and philosopher Mark Rowlands on with me and
we are going to be talking about his book, which
is called The Word of Dog. It's got a much
longer title, but I'm just going to say the Word
of dog for this, So now it's meant and Mark
is kind of talking about the philosophical aspects of how humans,
(55:14):
you know, think of dogs and view them as to
their morals and stuff like that. Do they have morals,
do they have the compassion you know, feelings and things
like that that people say that dogs have. We do know,
I'm pretty sure we can all say that dogs have feelings.
But Mark kind of touches on that whole philosophy end
(55:38):
of dogs and how we humans, you know, kind of
view them, and you know how he views that dogs
you know, kind of lived that good life and how
we can learn more about living that good life from
them because they just have that joy of being in
the moment, whereas humans tend to think about things that
(56:02):
you know, they're actually doing, or about how they're living
and about themselves and stuff like that. So we don't
tend to live in that moment like a dog does.
So there's a lot of things that dogs could teach us.
But he's kind of addressing those aspects in the philosophy
end of it. And again, like I said, whether you know,
we think dogs really do have morals and compassion and
(56:28):
think like that, you know, those kinds of things. So
that'll be June twelfth, and then I am going to
have Julie McLaughlin from the Indiana Skunk Rescue on with
me on June twenty sixth, and we are gonna be
talking about well gee, skunks. Since she's with the Indiana
(56:51):
Skunk Rescue, I thought it'd be really cool to actually
have a podcast about skunks and get some facts and
stuff out there about them and maybe, you know, abolish
some of the myths and stuff that are out there
about them as well. I mean, obviously not a lot
(57:11):
of people like skunks because they are a little smelly,
but you know, that's just the way they are and
it's their defense mechanism. So yeah, nothing wrong with skunks
for the most part. You just gotta be careful around them.
So anyway, so Julie will be on on June twenty sixth,
(57:31):
and we're gonna talk skunks. So hopefully you guys will
be able to come back and listen in to the
next coming up podcasts and learn a little bit more
from Mark about dog's philosophy and living a better life,
learning from them to live in the moment. And then
on June twenty sixth, with Julie to talk about skunks.
(57:55):
So hopefully you guys will come back and enjoy those
podcasts as well. Hope you guys like the one tonight
talking with John about the bubbles. And I hope you
guys all have a great weekend. I hope you all
had a wonderful Memorial Weekend over this last weekend. And
I hope you guys all stay safe out there, don't
get into too much trouble, and don't forget to come
(58:17):
back in a couple weeks and listen to the next podcast. Bye, everybody,
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