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Design, Innovation & Product Development (with Chris Bray) · The Daily Writer

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hey friends, welcome to episode 102 of the Born to Create podcast.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Ken Sanders, and this is a show where we explore the mindset, habits, and skills to help you make a bigger impact in your life and creative work.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever looked around at the products you used in your everyday life and wondered, how did this thing get created?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's a question a lot of people ask as evidenced by TV shows such as how it's made and the many YouTube channels dedicated to showing the creative process behind the products we use.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, my guest today helps us explore this fascinating world of product development.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: His name is Chris Bray, and he is the CEO of Speed Virtual Product Development, which is a design agency that's reshaping how clients take advantage of the value of product design.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: I met Chris at a local Christian business leaders event earlier this year, and I was immediately fascinated by his world and the process of designing and manufacturing products.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And in today's conversation, we're going to learn what a virtual product development agency does, the range of disciplines required for his job, the advantages and challenges of going solo in business, and lots and lots more.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a big part of expanding our creativity is learning to explore our curiosity and simply learning about new things.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I had a blast doing this interview and I learned a ton of things, and I know that you're going to learn a lot as well.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to be really inspired by Chris's creativity and his business mind.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a very fun episode.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know I say that every single episode, but literally I love every guest on the show.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned tons and tons of things from them.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to keep on saying it because I love our guests and I think they're amazing.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you're going to learn a lot of fun things from this episode, particularly if you're interested in manufacturing, product development, and business.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, after you listen to the interview, make sure and check out the show notes at KentSanders.net slash 102.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get to the conversation with my friend, Chris Bray.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Chris, I'm excited to sit down with you and do this interview.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I've been looking forward to this for a while, so thanks for making the time to do this.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks, Kent.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited about being here and talking about uh a little bit about my business and product development and entrepreneurship today.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the big reasons why I do this show is that I get to explore things that I don't know very much about.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's definitely the case with this conversation because you're in manufacturing and design and you're doing lots of things that I don't know anything about, but that I find really fascinating.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start off with this question.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: You describe Speed, your company, as a virtual product development agency.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not an engineer.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Many people listening to this are not in that field.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Can you break down what it is exactly that you do and what all that means?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for instance, um, before the show, we were talking a few minutes about you ordering shoes off Amazon.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So those shoes, someone has to design those shoes, and then those shoes have to be manufactured.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh materials have to be chosen to make those shoes out of, and then there's a whole supply chain wrapped around just making sure that that shoe is designed, manufactured, and reaches the Amazon warehouse like it's supposed to.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So what a product development group does, a firm like mine, is we'll actually work with clients who are developing a product like a shoe.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll actually help them design that shoe to be comfortable for the consumer, uh, easy to manufacture, fits within the cost targets that you would expect for a shoe of that level.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a a very high-level branded shoe like something that competes with Nike, or maybe it's a simple flip-flop that you find in Walmart and it has to meet a certain price point for it to sell.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what my firm does.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: We'll help someone design, develop that shoe, um, the hypothetical case that we're talking about.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and actually help them get that to market and cover all those activities, you know, including not just the design, but if it needs to be prototyped, if we need to find suppliers for them, whether that be domestic here in the USA, or if that's offshore somewhere, we'll make sure that we, you know, have the shoe quoted for manufacturing.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: All the materials will be there on time for the production of that shoe, all helping the customer wrap that up into a nice package, so to speak, so it's ready for distribution through whatever channel they're going to use to sell it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So do you focus on a a certain range of products in your business, or could you basically design anything?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, within reason, I guess.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um by by within reason, I don't even know what I mean by that, but I'm meaning do you have certain parameters about things that you prefer to work on, certain kinds of products or certain industries, or can you basically design anything?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um design well, technically, I mean a designer will follow the same process to design anything.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um for my business, um, and for most design agencies, they tend to focus in certain areas where they have a lot of prior expertise.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that makes sense.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'll focus on like uh medical devices um, you know, that are that are usually smaller companies, startups that are trying to get their first or second medical device to market.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll focus in a lot of clients like that.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I also work with a lot of outdoors companies that have products that sell into um, you know, camping, backpacks of all sorts, things made out of fabrics and textiles.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I also have a tremendous amount of experience in injection molded plastics of different kinds, rigid, what they call rigid polymers.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I've worked on uh components for off-road vehicles, parts that need light weighting, for instance, and you need someone who has experience in you know, how do you take a big heavy metal object that has been fabricated in a in a fab in a fabrication plant specializing in metal and redesign that to actually be molded in a molding machine um out of polymer?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you choose the right polymers to to still maintain that same performance and strength?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and even down to details um, for instance, that plastic's gonna be out in the sun for a long time and the humidity.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: How do you make sure that plastic includes the right additives and performance packages in the plastic so that things like the color doesn't fade and that it maintains its chemical resistance over time?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's you want to tend to gravitate towards clients and projects where you have that depth of expertise because you're you're bringing them a huge amount of value when you stay within that.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Not to say you can't do new things, but I think you also to be successful have to be transparent with your clients if you really don't have in-depth experience in their particular product.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: That makes a lot of sense.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: So in in your field and your business, you have to draw from a range of disciplines.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously, again, I'm speaking kind of out of ignorance here, which is nothing new for me, but chemistry is part of this, knowing materials and their properties, knowing how to design something, then you have the tools you use, software and different other kinds of digital tools and all 3D printing, I assume, is part of this somewhere.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that to me is really fascinating.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you're drawing on all these different things, then to be able to produce the product that the client wants.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's there is a uh a host of tools and resources, and when you're when you're on your own like I am, having your own agency, you learn to build networks of resources.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So those networks can consist of individuals that might bring a bit of expertise that you need for a particular client in a particular project.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it might be a prototyping house that you've developed a good relationship with that you know can get a prototype done, you know, rather inexpensively and at a fast lead time.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or it might be a prototype house that has a specific technical expertise that you need that most other prototype houses don't.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So as a as an owner of your own design group, you're constantly you know, almost trying to to harvest these different resources and and compete for their attention and and bring them business as well as try and get them to bring you new clients as well in an attempt to all help each other, you know, make the most of your tools, because a lot of these tools are fairly expensive.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can imagine.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in my former lifetime in the corporate world, I spent a quarter of a million dollars on a 3D printer.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And most people can't afford, you know, a a budget to spend on 3D printers.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: You don't just go into Amazon and buy a quarter of a million dollar 3D printer.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You don't just order that and shows up the next day, right?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can get some tabletop ones for a little bit less money, but they're usually not suited to what most of your clients, if you're really in this business to do um, you know, more complicated projects, those smaller 3D printers can't do a lot for you.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's also software is another big expense.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So your SOLIDWORKS uh CAD platforms, which is the main platform that that most of your clients are going to expect you to use.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: One seed of that is you know between nine and ten thousand dollars, and then you usually have to pay between one and two thousand just to keep keep it current every year.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: They call that a maintenance cost.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds very similar to what Adobe does with their Adobe Suite with their Photoshop.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of, you know, in the old days you would buy the disk and install it, and you would have to buy the new version.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you would get that for less, but now it's just totally in the cloud, and you just pay to rent their software, basically.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the one one of the things that we hope for in the field that we're in is that the democratization process is gonna happen with CAD software as that's happened with you know, that was a big gear shift for Adobe to go from paying package.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's their CEO even warned their investor community, we're making this change, and there will be a gap of time where it's gonna cost us some revenue, but it's the right thing to do.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of us are hoping in the future that we'll see DeSalt Systems, who owns SOLIDWORKS and many of these other tools, will switch to the subscription, you know, type business model, because if you're an inventor, for instance, you might pay for you might pay$200 a month for the next three months to use SOLIDWORKS for that time, but then have no need for it after that.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it'll broaden their audience, but but there are just so many tools and so many costs behind those.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely something you have to keep in mind when you're in this field.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and some are absolutely indispensable to what you do.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, how is what you do now?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: You have your own firm.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: How would you say that that is different than working for a company?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I know you used to be in corporate.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: What are the advantages to being on your own versus being with a company?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or and are there any disadvantages, things that maybe you miss or things that you have to find other ways of making up for when you're on your own as opposed to being with a company?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think you know, when you work in corporate America, I I think you miss the relationships that you have.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: You go to an office every day.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are also good opportunities, you know, training opportunities, leadership programs, things like that you could participate on uh or participate in in corporate America.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: None of that to me replaces the satisfaction and the excitement um that you get out of being an entrepreneur and owning your own business.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So on the whole, you would say there's no there's not even any comparison?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not even close.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, all of your the strategy is yours that you create for your business.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um the clients are handpicked by you.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you are you're picking clients that that you like that make sense for your business.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: You get to set your own message for how people understand your business.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Makes sense.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you you get there's just so many skills that you learn and get better at as you go along.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you own your own business, you're the you're the CEO, accountant, you're everything, sales, customer service, technical service guy.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're you're doing it all yourself, and um that's very rewarding for some people.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It it might be stressful for people, but I have theories on why that's stressful for some people, because I think we were talking earlier before the show, I think corporate America trains people to think a certain way over time.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so does the academic world.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I resonate with that a lot.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so the the gap to go from working for a company uh it and striking out on your own and doing the entrepreneurial gig seems like this massive amount of risk.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: But and and maybe 10, 20 years ago, that might have been true.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Today I think it's actually becoming more risky not to diversify how you receive your incomes.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we're gonna see a time coming up, probably in in you and I's lifetime, where if you don't have two or three different ways of generating income for yourself, yeah, you're putting yourself at substantial risk.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think people need to be learning those skills now, and I think if people would just give it a try, they would really find parts of themselves that they never knew existed.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just the passion, the excitement, um, the control you have over your own time, um, the things you can teach, even pass on to your kids from the things that you've learned, and and just that well-roundedness and the connections you make and and just having that really kind of that autonomy.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think is just incredibly awesome.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and I and I hope to inspire other people to try and take that journey.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I know it's a tough decision.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: The the question I always get from people, oh, what do you do for health insurance?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I pay for it.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have to pay for it monthly like you pay for it out of your pay channel.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can just go buy it.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's expensive, but if you can't afford to pay that amount every month, your business is a failure anyway.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't ever start out planning your business to fail.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you just kinda you have to to kind of plan for that just like you would actually if you're working for a company, if you're launching a new product, it's got expenses, and but you plan to profit.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So talk a little bit about the mindset that's required to go out on your own as opposed to working for a company.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people listening to this in different fields.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: They they have different creative things that they're doing.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them want to develop a side gig or a side hustle, whatever modern term you want to put on it, you know, a side business.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a mindset shift that's required for that.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk a little bit about how your thinking had to change, um maybe how how you had to deal with any fears that you had in launching your own thing as opposed to staying with a company?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think the first thing is confidence.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I you have to become that person that says, why not?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, why not me?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think you have to um you have to get used to operating at a level of energy that you probably didn't before.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I know from having worked a majority of my career in corporate America, and I think most people would agree, if you think about all the meetings you go to at the dead time, there's so much waste of time every day.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're kind of phoning it in sometimes.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you're on your own, you can peel away all of that and be so much more efficient at what you do every day.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that makes a lot of sense.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can make you can really turn amazing results.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you have to have the mindset of being confident, you also have the mindset of being responsible with your business, you have to put time into it, you have to treat it like it's a you know, it's the real deal.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is the real deal.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, things don't just magically happen, you have to make them happen.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't want to make that sound super challenging or or very difficult to overcome.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are tools today available that I didn't have.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is my second company I've started when I was in the past, yeah.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in the past, I didn't have LinkedIn and I didn't have all the social media that we do today.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: It it's incredibly um I don't want to say easy, but the opportunity is there like it's never been before to make connections with people and to earn the right to do business with them.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not a social media expert.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's people out there that are.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm even reaching out to some of those to kind of help me a little bit.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I've been amazed at even someone who's a novice like myself has been able to establish contacts and has been able to generate projects out of that for my business.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think in in today's world people are looking for technical experts that can help them solve their problems.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think my business is basically a consultancy and I think the world consultants are doing a lot of good right now in the world for for clients.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a really good time if you have an expertise.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and everyone can specialize in something to try their hand at being, you know, being a consultant.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it all starts with that confidence to take that step and that that energy of getting up every day and and going after it.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I talk to a lot of people who are unhappy with a job that they have.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and sometimes people say things like that, they're really talking about themselves.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like this coded thing.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: In my case, it's not a coded thing, you know, and we're actually sitting in my college office right now recording this interview.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my school has been very supportive in me doing the podcast.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I'm now producing a new show strictly for the college.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, so I love where I work, I love that the school and everything.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I do talk to people who are are unhappy with where they are.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing that I think is so fascinating is that you don't have to make a complete pivot in starting something on the side, is you have skills already.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever job you're doing, you have skills that are transferable to doing your own thing.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So can you talk a little bit about that, about the mindset of using what skills you have?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the idea that you have an expertise, you have skills, you have gifts that you can then use to start your own company or a firm or be a consultant or or something along those lines.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, making use of what you have and then taking that and transferring it to something different.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, sure.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, marketing people are are a good example.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I know quite a few people that are still employed in their corporate jobs, um, in different capacities within marketing.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to lump everything into just one bucket, but there's a whole yeah, some people are more in the corporate communications end of marketing, some people are more in the product management end of it, and all those are very specialized skills.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're either learning how to write great content.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any idea how many people are looking in a world of social media are looking for people that know how to write good content?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's hard.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for them to put it on their blogs, um, people writing books.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you're in product management, most companies train uh people very well uh to manage uh product life cycles, uh and to do that in more of a scientific way than than it used to be done.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a skill.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's a marketable skill that you can do on a on a freelance basis because a lot of that job is doing research.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Research in the market, research in the consumers.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Tons of people out there looking for people that know how to do that because they either don't have the expertise or they're running their own business and and don't have the time to do everything.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So they're looking for people that can do that for them at a reasonable price.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So people should never think they don't have skills to bring to the table.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And with a little bit of time, because you do have a full-time job, but with a little bit of time starting up your own side gig, it only takes a couple of good projects to convince you that I can do this full time.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I need to build towards, you know, a little bit of success breeds a lot of success.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you get that little taste of, you know, I found a client, you know, my gosh, I asked them for five thousand dollars for this, and they didn't even argue.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I should ask for ten.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: You have that kind of experience, and then all of a sudden you're off and running and you see the possibilities.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get that confidence, you get that energy behind it, and then it starts to snowball from there.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Just getting, I think, a quick win, just getting paid for something.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: That is a real psychological.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think once you get paid by someone for something that you did, that is your own thing, it's not like something for a company or business.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is a real shot in the arm and it gives you that confidence.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So and I would encourage anybody listening to do something and get paid for it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't even matter how much, just get that first win.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, get that first win.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one word of caution it's your it's your side gig, but don't treat it as a second priority.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you commit to if someone's gonna make the transaction of giving you money to do something, make sure you have it done on time.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you've done, you know, you've delivered on the promise that you made and trade for that money.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have had people share experiences with me where you know they they found someone on on a site like Fiverr.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they they agreed, went through the process, agreed to pay them money to do something, and the deliverable they got back was was nine days from what they expected.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've had that experience myself.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it proved to be a bad experience, one they don't want to repeat.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are going to take steps to start your own side gig, you know, treat it like it's your primary gig.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, along with your job, uh make sure you're prepared and ready to do it and to commit and then follow through, or it'll be it'll be a very negative experience for you and short term.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And over-deliver, too.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's really important.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Add value to people beyond what they expect.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's interesting that you mentioned relationships.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're in a very technical industry, but you would say that relationships to most people in technical fields, relationships don't come natural to them.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: So if someone listening is in a field that is that is technical in nature, they or they would consider themselves an introvert.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any tips for being more social, for getting out there and meeting people, for overcoming that introverted nature so you can begin to network and build relationships more?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're really good at this.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I see you doing this a lot.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I think you need to put some time into developing some skills that might not be comfortable for you.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I think doing Toastmasters, for instance, which is a organization that teaches you how to be a good presenter, um, and I also think it plays into you being a good conversationalist, is very helpful because being able to present information to an audience and kind of read their facial cues that is so important.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, am I putting you to sleep or am I hitting on a pain point that's gonna get your business, you know, for me, those things are important.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I think building some skills like that.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's some things that just don't go away that work in the business world.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think making sure you're professional.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you would be surprised, and I don't wanna I don't want to turn people off by making it sound like I'm getting down on the younger generation, but if you're a young person out there and you seek to be an entrepreneur, business development is gonna be a big part of what you do, at least in the beginning.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: People have to trust you to handle their business.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that is that is so key.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, trust is huge, and so you have to be professional, you have to be prompt and responsive, and you have to make sure that you're that way at all times, even in different mediums like emails, uh, when you're on LinkedIn sending people messages, phone calls.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the worst things in the world when and I call suppliers a lot because I have to get quotes on things and samples.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Worst thing in the world creates a horrible impression is when you call a business and someone answers the phone and says, Hello Like, I really did not want to talk to you and I'm having the worst day ever.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it yeah, you should answer the phone or or your even your voicemail, you know.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is Chris Bray with Speed Virtual Product Development.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry I can't take your call right now.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, those kind of voice.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: That tone of voice that that is it's it shows professionalism, it shows you're gonna care about your client, and that's what your client is thinking in their mind.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is can this person be trusted to do what I'm asking them to do?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's very important.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: I had a situation, this exact thing happened.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, I had a conversation with someone this morning about something related to this.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously I'm not gonna deal with specifics right here, but it was basically friend number A got in touch with friend number B.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a mutual friend of both these people.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, friend A got in touch with friend B for a business, not a partnership, but just a small thing, you know, for person B to participate in their business.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, person B took ten days to reply over email to person A, and person A got kind of upset about that, and you know, and they were unrightfully so because they just they basically felt blown off by person B.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I was talking to person A and said, you know, you're you're right to be upset because person B just did not communicate well.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: They were unprofessional in how they dealt with their communication.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that is man, that is so important.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think people overlook that a lot about just being responsive and quick.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sets you apart immediately from so many people.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, communication can make a huge difference between whether you get the job or someone else does.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're you know, I always assume when I'm quoting a project that there's at least one other person, what even if it's a freelancer or another design agency that I'm quoting against, half the time what'll make the difference is how fast I get them a proposal and how fast I respond to their emails and questions.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a I have a policy that I respond to everybody within 24 hours.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a great policy.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's not just professional emails, that's also like personal stuff, too.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I noticed you're very you're very quick.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we all have you know phones and iPads and everything we need to do that.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: It might take prioritization and and a focus on what's important, but how you communicate is gonna be one of the more important things in the success of your business.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can be uh a PhD person in in polymer science, be a consultant, and if you can't communicate well and you're not responsive, you're not gonna survive long, right?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you'll be toast.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think especially you mentioned young people, that is even more true.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, our generation, I think there's kind of as a whole, there's an ingrained sense of professionalism and so reading social cues and you know, because we didn't grow up with the internet and all that stuff.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: But now kids are online all the time.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And people my son's age, he just turned 15, they don't have that baked into their overall consciousness, I don't think, as much as our generation does.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a young person and want to go into business or entrepreneurship, that can set you apart even more, that much faster, because so many younger people just don't do that.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, definitely.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I think it's um if you're a young person that puts the time, and entrepreneurship is becoming a very, very popular thing right now with younger people.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's fantastic.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's great for the future.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um if they are willing to put in the time, and they're willing to be humble enough to learn some of these things, you know, and another thing that can kind of set people behind a little bit, whether you're young or old, but uh I find it pretty common with younger people today, is kind of this attitude of, you know, I am who I am and I don't need to change for anybody.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that changes when you need to make money from other people.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to be authentic.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you want to be authentic, but if you own your own business, you have to go acquire your own your own business, your own revenue.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's where your paycheck comes from.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be able to adapt and to learn those skills and to put those into practice in order to get clients.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you can't adapt and change um your attitude towards that, the entrepreneurship is not an area for you.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: That reminds me of something I read on uh a recent blog post that you have on your site.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see, I don't want to misquote you.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I'll just read this.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let me find the quote.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, I guess I didn't put the quote in here, but you were talking about the need to continually adapt to the marketplace.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of mindset does that require us?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what kind of mindset does that require of us to constantly adapt?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: How do you keep from being the same person all the time and change with the times and change your style of communication according to who your client is?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: How do you keep in that constant change mindset?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: It all starts with a vision that you've set for for your business.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and you have to put a formal plan together.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, every strategy has a set of tactics behind it, and those tactics are prioritized according to what you truly feel are gonna make your business successful, and and a part of that includes habits, like these communication things that we're talking about.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the things that set you apart from your competitors, and so every every market has a life cycle to it, and eventually it gets disrupted, and we've seen that happen at an incredible pace in certain industries.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I remember when Amazon didn't exist.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: I do too.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's how old I am, and today, you know, they rule the world, right?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because they've created this experience, they disrupted a whole entire industry that no one thought could be done.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: And any industry could be disrupted.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: And part of why I started the business model I did, you know, the field of industrial design, whether people want to admit it or not, has become highly commoditized by a lot of customers out there.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's that's interesting.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many design agencies, so many freelancers.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Many companies and individuals know that they can go out and get five, six quotes from people and get a certain level of service, force those people to compete with one another and and get what they want.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's great, that's how the the free market economy works.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's ripe for innovation and disruption.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well being in the in the field of plastics and industrial design as it relates to plastics for almost 30 years, I've heard every complaint a customer's ever had about the design industry.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, paying a lot, you know, paying six figures to get design work done, um, you know, it's just not doable anymore.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, the lead times uh that it takes to get this work done.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you get the work done, a lot of times it's still not ready to be manufactured, so they have to go off and find a supplier who's willing to dig back into that design again and do a whole bunch of other things to make that design manufacturable, and that causes mistakes.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: It increases the risk, it increases the cost to get the product to market.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when I started Speed, it was with the idea in mind of creating a digital network of very experienced designers who also had a lot of experience with the engineering of products, and that was to do away with expensive studios.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Studios are great.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, having you know, foosball tables and beer fridges might sound like a great place to go to work to every day, but guess what?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's unsustainable.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Having a quarter quarter of a million dollars 3D printer in the corner that gets used three times a week, unsustainable.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: All that's contributing, that's cost you have to cover when you quote clients for projects.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: All that overhead.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I just decided to to try and attempt a business vision that would disrupt all of that.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have no I have no overhead, such as an expensive studio, 3D printing machines, expensive softwares, because my network is made up of of a group of very qualified uh freelance design individuals, and we all share in the profit for every project we take on.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's cool.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I'm the business owner, oh, it's really taken off.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the designers love it because they're making they're making a better income than they would have on their own.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because I take care of the business end of a lot of those things.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it really drives all the behavior in the right direction.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're able to deliver extremely high quality work for a very discounted price compared to other design agencies.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not prepared to adapt to what the marketplace is telling you and what clients are expressing are their biggest pain points as it relates to what you're doing in your field every day, you're gonna eventually lose.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: It might not be right away, but right now in in St.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, there there were not a lot of design agencies to begin with, and now we're down to about half as many as we were.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: So over time it just becomes more and more difficult to sustain that business model when the industry is is desperately wanting something else.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was the whole that was the reason why I wrote that blog post, and I did it when my site first went up.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was almost kind of like me putting the market on notice.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here, this is what I'm doing, this is why I'm doing it.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: Almost like a manifesto here's here's my core values, here's what I believe.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was very much a manifesto for starting the business that I was that I'm trying to be disruptive and deliver to clients what I feel they've been asking for for a while in the design industry and have not been getting.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: So in every interview, I have a what's called a lightning round of questions.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I thought I'd shoot some of these your way.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: The whole reason behind these is just to find out a little a little bit more about your creative side and uh just to inspire us and and have some fun.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if I can have fun with the podcast, then uh I'll stop doing it when I stop having fun.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I love movies.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: People who know me know that I love movies.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: So my first lightning round question is if you were stuck on a desert island with only one movie to watch, which would it be?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would the original Star Wars.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um we were talking about this.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not the special edition.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, not special edition.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking for younger kids out there.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Actual original 1977, first Star Wars movie.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um that was I I was we were sharing this earlier and we were talking about movies uh before the interview.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first movie I ever went to see.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and my oldest sister, you know, took me to go see that movie, so it holds some special uh sentimental value that so it's a movie I can watch over and over again.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if I was on a desert island, yeah, I would want I would want some of those things.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a great one.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you just can't go wrong with that choice.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, next question is uh is there any particular book that helped change the way that you think or that you see the world?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: There there is a book called Tragedy Tragedy and Hope that I read last year.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually called Tragedy and Hope.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I think it's history for history in modern times.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um and the author uh the first name is Quigley, I can't remember the last name.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a step-by-step story of the different peoples around the world, um, and the nations as we know them now, how they came into being.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds fascinating.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when you when you're you know, you talk about relationships and understanding people, and when you're in the field of design and user research and everything, I mean I'm a I'm a a people buff, you know.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: I I've gotta understand people.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I decided to read this book because I became fascinated with, you know, how did this world end up like it is?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, how did countries become the countries?
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And but this book was fascinating because it gave the history of all of that, like every everything leading up like to the world wars and then how the how the country lines were drawn afterwards and how it affected the people, how how things affected like entire countries that were agricultural in nature, yeah, became industrial, you know, the whole industrialization um part of what happened to the world.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And just to me, it was so fascinating to understand all of that because it's easy to wake up every day in a in a country where we're so blessed in so many different ways, um, and you understand that not everybody in the world has access to everything we do and are as blessed as we are, and it kind of opens your eyes to you know other other peoples and other things going on in the world, and and if you're a person of charity, which I think everybody, whether you work for a company or you own your own business, everybody should be people of charity.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think it kind of opens up your eyes to, you know, gosh, I I should look up someone who is helping build schools or you know, contributing to clean water, you know, whatever the case might be.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there's massive amounts of of unnecessary persecution that goes on in the world today.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um that I think people need to pay attention to.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I and just reading that book really changed my knowledge of a lot of what goes on in some of those nations, but also kind of changed my worldview and and I guess probably woke me up to being a little bit more generous than I had been before.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you think that's an important thing for us to develop as well?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, this is 2019, coming up on 2020.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, well, I remember when I was a kid, I always would think, I wonder what how old am I going to be when it turns the year, 2000, you know.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: And here we are tw almost 20 years after that.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you think it's important for us to develop uh the mentality that yes, we're American citizens, of course, and I'm proud to be an American at this point.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm proud to be an American you know, the song says.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: But we're also world citizens, and there we need to be really aware of multiculturalism and the fact that we're not the only country and we're we're part of a worldwide community, you know, and we're we can't just be concerned about our own little thing.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's we're we're part of a greater whole.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think I think understanding the challenges that that other people have, um, I'm I'm very proud to be, you know, an American, and I'm I'm very proud to be in this country.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: And but yeah, the world is through technology and communication and and economy.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the world is has gotten to be uh a much smaller place where things ripple through it at you know the the speed of light.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, uh a you know uh a political person makes an announcement regarding anything having to do with oil, you know, immediately it goes it goes through the country.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: So whether and what's important about that is you know, if you have investments, your 401k, things like all of that input.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Gas affects everything.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: Or I mean oil affects the price of everything in some way or another.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you don't you know, if you don't take the time to understand, you know, at least in a macro sense, the players in the world, um That are the owners of the economy and things like that.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're really just a puppet with some strings above you and you don't really have a chance at controlling your own outcomes.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, it's it's very important.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a that's a important habit everyone needs to get into, especially if you're gonna be an entrepreneur, read.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's really going back to your last presentation, you know, when we got together at the CBL group, you know, read books.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna learn new skills, you're gonna understand the world in a different way, and you're gonna be able to both react and be proactive on things that you probably weren't before that improve now not just your life, but the lives of others.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: So on my wall over there, you know, we're in my office, I've got tons of movie posters up.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's a Godfather poster over there.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised nobody, I'm at a Christian college office.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody has ever questioned the fact that I have a mobster, you know, like a mafia boss on my wall.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little surprising, honestly.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a godfather, you know, everybody loves a godfather.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: But it's funny because one of the you know famous lines or ideas from The Godfather is there's a scene where Vito Corleone, I don't know if you're a big Godfather fan.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, he has that okay.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Vito and and his son Michael, and and Vito's saying, you know, I thought one day you would be a senator or a or a politician or something, and you'd be the one holding the strings.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: So when you said that, it really made me think of that about there are major players in the world, they're holding the strings, and you don't want to be a puppet, you want to have awareness, and I love this idea of entrepreneurship where in a sense you're kind of holding your own strings to a degree.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: As much as they'll let you, yes.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but uh But i if you're if you're you know if you're ignorant of all of that, you have no chance to really kind of manage your own outcomes.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just encourage people to to understand those things.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I I think as time goes on it'll become even more important to understand those things.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: So final lightning round question here.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm skipping around a little bit, uh, and then we'll start to wrap this up.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: What are you working on this year that you're really excited about?
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have a new this is a project that came in a couple of months ago.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is a uh a startup company, and the client is a she's in the field of spine medicine, and so we are helping her launch a new uh baby care product to market that um will be good for moms that carry around their babies quite frequently.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can't get into too much more detail on that.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: But and it's it's pounded, and but just the the excitement she has for the product and getting to market, the the fact that it's it is good for the user that's gonna be using the product, um in the fact that it's in that realm of baby care, uh, which is a uh market that I like to participate in because it it's just about as regulated as as medical device products are to a degree.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a a level of technical expertise and background that you have to have to understand like the ASTM standards these things have to meet and the testing protocols and those things like that.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited because since starting my new business, that is probably the most complex project that we're working on right now, and it's exciting to see how quickly we have finished up the design, we've understood the test protocols, we've identified a possible manufacturer, um, and it really could be a record breaker for us for getting something tomorrow.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd always say I'd rather be lucky than good.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things just kind of fell into place um very conveniently, but that's that's the one that I'm really excited about for 2019.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you think to me that this comes down to the heart of this whole conversation is the idea that you can make something that's going to improve somebody's life.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the freedom to do that, it's having the tools and resources, the network, the relationships.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, no matter if you do manufacturing or you invent something or you you're a writer or you're a musician or you're a filmmaker or whatever, whatever creative thing that you're doing, you can make something that impacts somebody's life.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that's the heart of everything that we're talking about.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love this idea you can make a product that's going to improve mothers' lives as they carry around their babies.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's you know, we're both parents, so we can both appreciate I mean, we're not mothers, obviously, but we can appreciate the value of that.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there there's no um honor quite as high as to walk through a retail store and and see a product there for sale that you were instrumental in the design and getting it to production.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and having customers, you know, even after the work is is long been completed, a customer will send you that email that says, You won't believe it, first quarter we sold 10% more than we thought we were going to, you know.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for helping us do this.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's all just a part of that reward of being, you know, in business for yourself and entrepreneurship is that accomplishment, just that sense of of having helped someone do something that was so important to them and so meaningful, uh, like you said, helping other people is just tremendous.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Chris, this has been fun.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I've learned a lot.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I appreciate you sharing so much wisdom and value to our podcast listeners.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, how can our listeners get in touch with you if they want to find out more about your business or just connect with you on a personal level?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if they want to reach out to me, they can find my website at www.speedvirtual pd is in product development.com.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they can also reach out to me directly uh by uh reaching out to my email.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Chris.bray chris dot br a y at speed virtual pd.com.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go to the website, there's also ways for you to contact me there with uh phone number and things like that.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: So always happy to help give a free consultation to folks.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um if they think they have a product they want to take to market or they have material questions or just anything that they would want to connect about to ask a question, feel free to call.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: I promise I'll respond back.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much for doing this.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: This has been great.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Kent.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you for having me.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: This has been really a pleasure.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Chris Bray.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know I learned a ton of things from listening to his wisdom about product development and business and manufacturing.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: I would say my biggest takeaway from this episode is learning to look at the products I use in a brand new way.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes we don't think about the people who design and manufacture all the stuff that we use in our everyday lives.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope this gives you some insight and appreciation for all the creativity that goes into that process.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'd love to hear what you think about this episode, and you can do that by going over to Apple Podcasts and leaving a rating and a review, or you can also leave a comment on this episode at KentStanders.net slash 102, where you will also find the show notes and the links.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: What are you going to create today?