Product Startup Podcast Episode 028: How to Prepare a Product for HSN

00:00:00 Filip Valica: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Product Startup Podcast, a podcast that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors, product designers, and other industry professionals. This podcast is run by Mako

00:00:11 Filip Valica: Design + Invent and hosted by Filip Valica. Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful. From initial idea to putting your product on the shelf, we're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business. Now onto the show.

00:00:26 Filip Valica: I was sitting at the board table and I'm just looking at the buyer and of course, and right, I'm, I see, police officer. I'm a grown-up. I've been there. I've seen the worst of the worst, right? But I was

00:00:36 Filip Valica: scared probably more than at that boardroom table than I was in the rest of my life. And from, you know, any, any experience, whether someone had a gunpointed at me, that wasn't a scary. The Product Startup, Episode 28.

00:00:50 Filip Valica: Welcome to the Product Startup Podcast, helping you turn ideas into successful products step by step with your host,

00:00:59 Filip Valica: Philaeza.

00:01:01 Filip Valica: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show. In the last episode, we talked with Brandon Adams, who invented the Arctic Stick during his college years. He pushed that product through concept, design, manufacturing, and funding.

00:01:14 Filip Valica: So make sure to check out episode 27 if you want to hear more about that. And we also got into some crowdfunding tips. Brandon runs keys to the crowd and consults with clients launching products and services on crowdfunding platforms.

00:01:27 Filip Valica: Before we get started, I wanted to highlight one listener on iTunes, who left me a review that said, I found Philip's podcast a couple months ago and have been binge listening since. As a novice product developer, I've gotten some great tips as well as encouragement.

00:01:41 Filip Valica: Keep up the great work, Philip. Thank you, Jay Hamm, Zero One, for leaving me a comment. And thank you to everybody else that writes in and tells me what you think of the content. I'm always looking to improve on the podcast and I incorporate all the feedback that you guys send me into future shows.

00:01:55 Filip Valica: So I definitely want to make it a resource that's helpful for everybody. And now on to today's show. Today, I'm joined by Lisa Ruiz. She's the founder of credible products, and she's been featured on the home shopping network.

00:02:07 Filip Valica: She was a former police officer and decided to take over the family janitorial cleaning supplies business. She saw an opportunity in the consumer market to create cleaning products for home users that would give the same results that her professional customers enjoyed.

00:02:22 Filip Valica: So let's get started. Hi, Lisa, thanks for coming on the show today. Hey, how are you? Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. So I'm doing really good, and I'm excited to have you. you on because we haven't had a similar product on the show before and having a product that's

00:02:35 Filip Valica: formulated that has agents or chemicals in it and we can kind of get into some of that and then also

00:02:40 Lisa Ruiz: being on HSN. So maybe you can talk a little bit about how you got into the company and how you grew it to be where it is today. Sure. Well, it's a chemical company that's been in my family

00:02:53 Lisa Ruiz: actually for the last 30 years and I actually came on board about five years ago and I took it over because my dad was retiring and he really didn't want to close the business so he left it to me and my siblings. So

00:03:07 Lisa Ruiz: what I decided to do was to fully automate everything and rebrand some of our products that we had that were we knew a rock star product and we basically what I did is I actually contacted a marketing rep from Home Shopping Network

00:03:22 Lisa Ruiz: and I sent over some of my samples and they loved it so much that they invited me over to

00:03:27 Filip Valica: St. Petersburg, Florida to do a live demonstration and when they saw how everything worked, they were truly amazed and they signed me up right on the spot. You were an ex-police officer and that's super interesting to me because I worked for

00:03:40 Filip Valica: a small business owner that was also an ex-police officer and I remember him negotiating deals just based on reading the other person in the room because he could spot a liar

00:03:52 Filip Valica: and he kind of was able to get the best deal just by seeing when the other person was uncomfortable.

00:03:58 Lisa Ruiz: Can you maybe talk a little bit about your skill set and to see how that kind of played into being successful? Sure. It's funny you should say that because it's really just like one facet of who I am. I actually started as a, well, I was a science major in chemistry and what I

00:04:13 Lisa Ruiz: did was I wound up working for my family business. Then I just had other interests and I decided that I was going to work for the New York Stock Exchange as a computer programmer because a lot of my scientific research was quantitative and I took a liking to program.

00:04:27 Lisa Ruiz: And so I became a programmer for the New York Stock Exchange for like three or four years. And then after that, I actually went into banking. And I was an assistant vice president at HFBC Bank for 11 years.

00:04:37 Lisa Ruiz: After that, when the banking industry had gone down, I just decided that I was more of a helper. I'm more of a problem solver. So I had some friends that were police officers, and they pretty much coerced me.

00:04:48 Lisa Ruiz: And I took the test, and they were only hiring two at people, at a 300 people. And I was chosen. So I decided maybe I was supposed to do this. and I became an officer. So after that, my dad called me up one day, and he's like, hey, I'm retiring.

00:05:03 Lisa Ruiz: I really would like you to come on board again, come full circle, you know, as you were when you got out of college. And I was like, well, what do I get? And he's like, well, you get not to work weekends, holidays, and you get to be safe. And, you know, you get to possibly make more money. So I was like, let me think about it.

00:05:17 Lisa Ruiz: So right away, I said, okay. And so really, like, all of the things, like my problem, like my science, my problem solving,

00:05:24 Lisa Ruiz: my financial background, and of course, you know, being a police officer and being able to make, you know, split decisions and being able to, you know, read people and do business with honest

00:05:34 Lisa Ruiz: people because that's part of who I am, really was like a, you know, a culmination of sorts to bring me to this part of my life, which is, I'm hoping anyway, it's the

00:05:45 Lisa Ruiz: end of my professional career because this is, you know, my passion and it's been for the past for a few years, and I've really like gone full force with it. So I always encourage people to, you know, don't worry about like what you're doing now.

00:05:58 Filip Valica: Just think about it kind of as your journey and to, you know, take whatever it is that you're doing to get to a place, you know, that you want to be. So anything that you do in your life isn't really a waste.

00:06:08 Lisa Ruiz: It's more just like, you know, adding, adding to your, to your quality. A really fascinating path. That's something that I think, you know, looking at you and talking to you, someone wouldn't have ever guessed. It basically took the long way to get to where you are now.

00:06:22 Lisa Ruiz: And I'm actually a realtor. So it's like I'm always doing things like simultaneously.

00:06:28 Lisa Ruiz: I never really, you really can't stop in life. You have to keep going. Like I said, you can always become anything that you want as long as you have the drive and you know, you get inspiration to just make something of the few years that you have on earth.

00:06:42 Lisa Ruiz: That's how what I always say to people, you know, it's not really about like what you do.

00:06:46 Filip Valica: It's kind of like your journey and what you're doing and what makes you happy in life.

00:06:51 Lisa Ruiz: So whether it's chemicals or it's, you know, some other, you know, product that you invent, you have to really believe in it because that's the only way you're really going to succeed is you really have to just go for it. So tell me a bit about that.

00:07:03 Lisa Ruiz: Why do you believe so strongly in your family's business? Well, you know, it was funny when I always knew that we had certain products that were really rock-star products, I call them, and I started noticing a trend because we have like

00:07:15 Lisa Ruiz: our own janitorial supply company, so we have like a few thousand customers, and I started noticing trends in what people were buying all the time. So I said, you know what?

00:07:25 Lisa Ruiz: I figure this. I know a lot of the times I went like I go to stores and buy like cleaning products and they were always kind of substander. They really weren't cleaning products that worked like instantaneously or

00:07:35 Lisa Ruiz: gave you the same result as like maybe a professional janitor in a commercial in a commercial use. So I said maybe I should make chemicals or products that are non-toxic, pet friendly, child safe,

00:07:49 Lisa Ruiz: actually do an extraordinarily job, extraordinary job in that are not watered down like a lot of the brands that are on these shelves nowadays. So I decided to take like a few of these. And like I said, I rebranded them, relabeled them, make them, because a lot of the janitorial products look

00:08:04 Lisa Ruiz: very boring and even a lot of products out there look very like, you know, antithetic and

00:08:09 Filip Valica: too scientific and too serious. So I thought, you know what, it's bad enough you have to clean, may as well make it fun. So I took a lot of my products and I just kind of made them pokey, pokey, because that's what I really wanted. I wanted people to accept my products and

00:08:23 Lisa Ruiz: have fun with them and not be afraid. Yeah, and you can see that with the branding and we'll certainly get into that. So is there a technological advantage that your products have that you think

00:08:34 Lisa Ruiz: that other products don't have on the market? And can you talk a little bit about how that came to be? Yeah, sure. Well, especially, I have like this one, one of my main products is called Pink credible. It's actually a glass and multi-surface cleaner. What we do is use a process.

00:08:47 Lisa Ruiz: called nanotechnology, and it's a very new process out there, and it's basically working with elements on the molecular level. So basically what we do is we manipulate the molecules, you know, in our lab, you know, so it can give us the result that we're looking for.

00:09:02 Lisa Ruiz: So for instance, I give an example. To use like blue cleaner, okay, what happens is dirt attract dirt, and a lot of the blue cleaner, you know, leave streaks or haze. A lot of the times you'll clean, and you'll say, oh, like, and it looked great. And then a few minutes later,

00:09:14 Lisa Ruiz: an hour later, you go back, and it's like, well, what's that haze? you know, why is there dust particles sticking to my window already? So, like, dirt attracts dirt. And so there's a lot of, like, harsh chemicals and different products in these, well, different

00:09:27 Lisa Ruiz: chemicals in these products that are making the user reuse and reuse. And that's how they make their money because they constantly have to reuse it. And so it's not really, you know, great for the consumer. It's great for the, you know, for their company. Let's say the blue glass cleaner company.

00:09:41 Lisa Ruiz: Well, with my glass cleaner, the reason why we use nanotechnology is what we do is when you spray like our particular products to the glass, especially the Pink Cradle. It leaves like a super

00:09:51 Lisa Ruiz: clean surface and it actually leaves a polished surface and a slick surface. You have to almost imagine like toy soldiers or the soldiers like lining up together to protect the glass. And so it leaves

00:10:03 Lisa Ruiz: on the force field so it repels dirt. So you don't have to clean as often. So it's pretty cool that it has this element. You can actually feel it when you're cleaning. You'll feel the smoothness.

00:10:13 Lisa Ruiz: So So what we do is we do like a demonstration where we throw kind of two fabrics on each side of a glass, and one with blue cleaner, one with pink cleaner, and then you can see that on the pink side,

00:10:24 Lisa Ruiz: the fabric just slides right down because we have this repelling action. It's pretty cool. Sometimes you don't have to actually go back to your glass for like three months. It really is amazing, and you only need a little bit. You don't have to spray it all over the place like Windex or Blue Glass cleaner,

00:10:39 Lisa Ruiz: and it smells great. It smells like cherry almond. It's non-toxic.

00:10:43 Lisa Ruiz: for tests and children, you don't need gloves, you can use it, you know, it's great. You can spray it in your hand. It's been pretty amazing. So when we, when we developed this, we realized that, you know,

00:10:55 Lisa Ruiz: we had to be very, you know, objective. And of course, it was, it was our formula. And I said, you know, I really have to be objective about this. So I bought, like, every single glass cleaner, like, out there on the market, you should imagine. And I tested it against mine.

00:11:07 Filip Valica: Because I knew before I unleashed this, I had to, like, really have something amazing. I couldn't be substandard because I'm a small company, and I had to be better than, you know, the big conglomerates out there. So it was pretty cool.

00:11:19 Filip Valica: And then when I brought it to HSN, they realized and saw, you know, actually the third-party testers who tested it, they called me and said, we've never seen anything like this before.

00:11:27 Lisa Ruiz: So when the, I guess when the scientists are asking me, it really, it really makes me feel good. You've said definitely a lot there. And I want to get back to a little bit of that. A lot of people don't realize that if you look at glass at the microscopic level, there's,

00:11:41 Lisa Ruiz: actually a little tiny voids in it, right? And I think that's what you're talking about where dirt just kind of clings to it. And so if you've got an hydrophobic compound or something to kind of fill those voids, then it helps keep the glass clean. That's right. So that's very

00:11:54 Lisa Ruiz: fascinating. That's right. Actually, you can not only use it on glass, but I actually use it on the body of my car. I use it on chrome, stainless steel, wood, wood, granite, marble. How

00:12:05 Lisa Ruiz: many times? How many products do you have to have? A wood cleaner? A stainless steel cleaner, a granite cleaner, a glass cleaner. I eliminate so many products underneath your sink. You can use one and you can just go all around the house of it. It really truly is amazing and you can use it

00:12:18 Lisa Ruiz: outside. So it's pretty cool. And that's just one of my products. I have, you know, like a

00:12:24 Lisa Ruiz: line. I have this pink credible, you know, pink cherry almond glass and multi-surface cleaner. I have a carpet and stain remover, but you can use it on carpet, clothes. There's no

00:12:37 Lisa Ruiz: bleach in it. You can use it on, you know, fabric like, you know, upholstery. And that's called Spot Credible, because it takes out spots. And then I have Blast Credible, which is actually a degreaser, heavy-duty degreaser. You can use it on barbecues, ovens, you know, just

00:12:51 Lisa Ruiz: toolboxes, just kind of your refrigerator, wherever there's, like, grease. And then I have scrub credible, which is a hard water, spot remover, and a metal polish. So it's great on stainless steel, copper. I actually call it a facial scrub for your glass because you can use it on

00:13:06 Lisa Ruiz: to shower glass doors if you have that really hard water that you can't get off. And then I have scent credible, which is just like a deodorizer, neutralizer. It's a fresh linen scent.

00:13:16 Filip Valica: And then lastly, I have bath credible, which is a porcelain tile, grout, and a grout tile is cleaner of porcelains.

00:13:24 Lisa Ruiz: You can do everything in your bathroom. You can do all the porcelain, the sinks, the toilet, the tub, even the metal tracks. Everything is pretty cool.

00:13:36 Lisa Ruiz: so tile gets all the grout makes grout white pretty cool so everyone loves it it's been really it's been a trip because it's really selling out really fast so we're just really fortunate

00:13:46 Lisa Ruiz: wow that sounds like a lot of products were all of these products a part of the line when you took over or what did you help develop some of them yeah well it helps develop the paint credible and the blast crowd but we i only offer right now like six the home shopping network but i create

00:14:01 Filip Valica: about 50 different products um that aren't on the home shopping network line but We are going to expand our line next year.

00:14:08 Lisa Ruiz: We make everything from neutral floor cleaners to, you know, wax and stripper. And, you know, we make everything for, you know, we make a hand soap, different flavors,

00:14:20 Lisa Ruiz: you know, or different scents. We make a lot of things, but we just don't, you know, a lot of times, like, home shopping network, they really don't sell, like, floor stripper and, like, wax because, you know, people normally don't do them in their own. But, you know, we try to offer them everything that the home user would use.

00:14:34 Filip Valica: Right, or what a janitorial supply company would need to offer, I guess, for any business customers. Yeah, sure. I mean, like I said, we make a lot of things that, you know, drain opener,

00:14:45 Filip Valica: you know, de-scale or just stainless steel brightener. We have a lot of like heavy-duty stuff, you know, non-masted bowl cleaner. So we do a lot of things.

00:14:54 Lisa Ruiz: But like I said, right now, we're just basically have the six products, which is, you know, a lot. And we also have a microfiber towel pack that we sell to because we, with the kits come microfiber,

00:15:04 Lisa Ruiz: or scrubby pads with HFN, so people tend to like those, and they're rewashable and reusable. So those are pretty cool. Yeah, it makes sense to sell a complementary product with that. So maybe we can get into a little bit of the design and manufacturing.

00:15:19 Lisa Ruiz: Have you had to protect the IP at all of any of your products? Do you have any patents on anything, or are they trade secrets? Yeah, well, the trade secrets, you know, but I have everything like trademarks and have some patents on some of them.

00:15:33 Lisa Ruiz: But they're fully protected, and we made sure we did that, obviously, before we unleashed them into the public. And, you know, that was a lot of work, the design. I actually designed all of the labels myself, all of the artwork myself. It was my vision.

00:15:46 Lisa Ruiz: And it's something that I really, you know, believe that it should be a lot of people like, no, you should do this. I'm like, no, you know, this is how it's going to be. And it's pretty cool because people always like it because it's fun and it's not so intimidating. A lot of times people look at chemicals and they're like, oh,

00:16:02 Lisa Ruiz: I don't know if I could, you know, how I could use.

00:16:03 Filip Valica: this or if I should use it, is this toxic? Is it so, you know, a lot of the times people get scared of cleaning products because it's just the chemicals and people are afraid of those. But we, you know, we tell everybody what's inside of them. We have a couple of treats, secret things.

00:16:18 Filip Valica: Like I said, it's not toxic, pet-friendly, child-friendly.

00:16:22 Lisa Ruiz: They're all third-party tested for all of that, too, all of our claims. So, you know, we have to, especially for HSN, if you sell anything on there, you have to have to go run for a third-party testing center to make sure all of that. your claims are what they are.

00:16:36 Lisa Ruiz: So they want to make sure they're selling something and everything is correct and right about what it does. You covered a lot of material there. So you ended up designing a lot of the labels for your products yourself. And like you said, people usually end up outsourcing that because they feel that their strength isn't in design.

00:16:51 Lisa Ruiz: But because you went out to the market and saw what was out there, you felt like you had this insight into how do we make sure that your product stand out? Exactly. One day I was actually sitting at my desk and I have kind of like a store fund. And I was sitting there looking at my shelf. And I was, you know,

00:17:05 Lisa Ruiz: all of these products are so boring, you know. It's like, oh, you know, they're just same label, same, you know, it's just like, wow. And so I looked at the glass cleaner. I'm like, you know what, if glass cleaner is blue, I'm going to make my pink.

00:17:17 Filip Valica: Glass cleaner smells like ammonia, I'm going to make mine smell like cherry on it. You know, if this, you know, if this is toxic, I'm going to make mine non-toxic. So I did everything equal and opposite of what I saw in the show. I just needed to stand out, especially pink, you know, it stands out.

00:17:32 Lisa Ruiz: and my whole line together, it looks very appealing because it is very, you know, kind of like hokey, and it's different than what you see out there. So that was my goal because I knew, like I said, if I had to go out there, it was going

00:17:45 Lisa Ruiz: to have to be, like, totally, like, off the wall, like, you know, sure.

00:17:51 Lisa Ruiz: You know, polar opposite of what I see out there and what everybody else see. So it's very recognizable. In a way, people, I guess, don't really consider what their product is going to look like on a store shelf and are you at the point where your products are on in retail shelves or are you

00:18:05 Lisa Ruiz: just having to compete for online and HSN eyeball so to speak? Well, right now, I mean, like I said, I have my own store so I keep it on my shelves and that's okay. Right now I'm exclusive with HSN and I don't have to be.

00:18:16 Lisa Ruiz: I didn't like really sign the contract saying I had to be, but I am just because they kind of like to be the one and I decided that if I was going to do work with them, I was just going to be exclusive with them.

00:18:27 Lisa Ruiz: Of course, down the line, you know, if HSN becomes exhausted or something happens, then of course I'm not a post. I've actually had QVC contact me. I've had, you know, other vendors contact me, that's Beth and Beyond.

00:18:39 Lisa Ruiz: But the thing is, is that I have to, you know, kind of wait because I've been with HSN now almost a year and it's still young. So, but it's really good to know that other people are looking out and they know my product and they see, you know, you know, you can go on HSN.com and look at my reviews.

00:18:53 Lisa Ruiz: I have, like, you know, five-star reviews on almost all the product.

00:18:56 Filip Valica: So I think that, you know, other companies will research other companies and say, oh, wow, where are the products, the hot products now, like, you know, that everyone's like. So, you know, it's pretty neat to know that I have, like, you know, something in my back pocket or a plan B.

00:19:09 Filip Valica: And that's always important in your business to always, you know, kind of keep all the pots on the stove and not just, you know, and just like investing when I was a banker. You know what?

00:19:17 Lisa Ruiz: You don't keep all your eggs in one basket. You diversify. So that's what you kind of have to do is have to kind of have like that look out in that plan B if I can kind of help anybody out there who, you know, is thinking about, you know, running a business or making your product, just to always kind of

00:19:31 Lisa Ruiz: be able to get your stuff elsewhere, like don't always have just one vendor, you always need to back up, that's your everything. Sure, absolutely. I totally agree with that, especially when it comes to manufacturing, where people sole source, a lot of items, and then something happens with their manufacturer, and now everything

00:19:46 Lisa Ruiz: stops for their line. Speaking of manufacturing, can you talk a little bit about your product and where it's manufactured and if you chose to make it in the U.S. or abroad? Sure, it's made right in the U.S. right in my warehouse. I do it all. I mix it in the tank, throw it for the fillers,

00:20:00 Lisa Ruiz: and then bottle it, label it. We have a whole assembly line. My crew, you know, whatever we get in order, and that's what we do. So I have a full control over it. I actually personally oversee all the manufacturing.

00:20:12 Lisa Ruiz: And I like that because, you know, I kind of, you know, I was a cop, right? So I have like a little control. It's saying I want to always be in control. I want to know that everything is right. And a lot of people,

00:20:23 Lisa Ruiz: when they start getting bigger, like, you know, CEOs or owners of companies, they'll start, you know, kind of slacking on that. But for me,

00:20:32 Lisa Ruiz: this is my product. This is my name.

00:20:35 Lisa Ruiz: Basically, this is what I

00:20:37 Filip Valica: represent and what represents me. So I want to make sure that every single bottle that my customer gets is exactly right, that the labels are on straight, that the foil seal is on correctly, that they're getting, you know, the trigger in the box or making sure they got the right number of microfiber

00:20:51 Lisa Ruiz: towels in their box. So making sure that the box is sealed correctly, making sure that the bar codes are on there correctly, I actually go and do my, I actually participate some time with my crew because I want them to remember, you know, and I always remember, hey, do this

00:21:05 Lisa Ruiz: box? This is going to go to your mother, to your brother, to your aunt, to somebody, you know, a friend. So do you want them to get a box that's messed up or maybe something missing? So I really try to kind of let them know so they can kind of own it and, you know, keep that in their

00:21:19 Lisa Ruiz: mind when they're doing their work. Right. And still that sense of ownership. Yeah, exactly, exactly. A lot of people, whenever they start getting larger, they have to let go of some of those things because it's just not possible to keep up with it all.

00:21:32 Lisa Ruiz: How are you able to even keep tabs on everything that's going on in your company? This isn't my hobby. This is what I do every day for my job. So even when I didn't have EHSN, just doing this, I do this every day, even for other companies, you know, for my other customers.

00:21:46 Lisa Ruiz: So, you know, it's something that I've had to. learn and I've had to really like streamline and you know it's a challenge you know things go

00:21:57 Filip Valica: wrong sometimes but you know what you have to troubleshoot and you have to get around it you know and HSN too is very forgiving they're really great to work with and that's another reason why I like to stay with them because you know if there's a problem whatever I need more time you know they're like

00:22:12 Lisa Ruiz: yeah no problem okay you know we'll just reschedule the show so you know a lot of the times it's not really as stressful.

00:22:19 Lisa Ruiz: Sometimes it is, but it's kind of a different kind of a stress. But otherwise, I mean, we pretty much have been doing this for a year and we've been running very no fluidly. So, you know, it's really not a problem for me considering this is what I do. I'm not

00:22:32 Filip Valica: doing it out of my garage. I'm not doing it in, you know, one of the rooms in my house. Like, this is what I do. So, you know, it's pretty much, you know, and we've had this for 30 years.

00:22:41 Lisa Ruiz: So we know how to, you know, streamline everything. Since you were brought into the company, Did you hire any additional people, or can you talk about that type of growth in terms of hiring new people or purchasing tools, things like that? Yeah,

00:22:56 Lisa Ruiz: definitely more people sent to the HSN account. And it's great. You know, we get orders, you know, every, like, maybe month or a month and a half. It depends on how much they order and how much it's sold. But, yeah, I mean, you know, so it's increased, you know, the productivity.

00:23:09 Lisa Ruiz: It's increased our, you know, workforce. And it's, you know, it's good. And employs people. It just all around helps everybody. Right. And you're keeping tabs on the product. It's right underneath your nose, so to speak, so you're able to spot if there's any issues right away.

00:23:24 Lisa Ruiz: Right away. Well, once everything is mixed, especially,

00:23:28 Lisa Ruiz: we test everything, just to make sure the factors are the same. Obviously, we have our formula that we follow, and we do the same exact thing every time. We also use, which is interesting, we use a deionized water, like it's just a pure water.

00:23:42 Lisa Ruiz: in all of our formulas and that's also because

00:23:46 Filip Valica: we don't sell concentrates we have like a to HSN we have a ready to use

00:23:51 Lisa Ruiz: bottle because a lot of the times California, Florida, New York where have you, there's different types of water. Maybe some people have hard water, some people have soft water and hard water is like, you know, build up of sodium and calcium ions and you don't want

00:24:05 Filip Valica: that in a glass cleaner because then when you spray it on the glass, it'll dry and then you'll see all the everything that's left behind. And that's a lot of the times it gives you the haze and streaks because a lot of these companies,

00:24:14 Lisa Ruiz: they don't pay attention to the water they use. So we use this the ionized water, which, you know, so, you know, basically we measure everything and everything's pure in our, in our mixture.

00:24:25 Lisa Ruiz: So then we test it, and then once it's tested, it's ready to fill, and then we go about our business just doing the production line. So what present of your business, would you say, is HSN versus maybe direct wholesale or other types of accounts?

00:24:38 Lisa Ruiz: Oh, well, I mean, we have such a huge company. We've had it for 30 years. I would say HSN is probably like maybe 15%, maybe, maybe 10. I mean, it's really small in comparison to the volume of the customers that, you know, we service in a regular business.

00:24:52 Lisa Ruiz: So you have to have people in your business to take orders and fulfill them and manage customer relationships and that type of thing. Yeah, so we have sales people that are out there, you know, getting more accounts. And then, of course, they're also servicing the accounts.

00:25:08 Lisa Ruiz: I mean, you know, you really have to pay attention to your business because it's very hard to get a customer, but it's very easy to lose that. And we made products that are really special and that really make us stand out. But a lot of the time, we have our own toilet paper line. We have our own, you know, multifold line.

00:25:23 Lisa Ruiz: So, you know, sometimes it's not even about the price and about, you know, the quality.

00:25:28 Filip Valica: Sometimes it's really about the service, too, because you really have to, when someone runs out of toilet paper, you know what? They have to need it, right? They can't go without it. So, you know, you really have to have, you know, a business that flows where it's, you know,

00:25:40 Filip Valica: really based on our customer service. We always have like next day free delivery and people know that they can count on us.

00:25:46 Lisa Ruiz: And so, you know, it's definitely a lot of work. You know, we have the warehouse people. We have, you know, the sales people. You know, we have the order takers. So, you know, it's, you know, everybody wears, you know, their hats. But then in the end, you know,

00:25:59 Lisa Ruiz: sometimes we come together because we have to like have a rush on something. And then everyone chips in. So, you know, I really have good workers, really reliable. I treat them really well to, you know, nothing's going on. Hey, I send them home earlier.

00:26:11 Lisa Ruiz: I give them an extra little bonus here and there because, you know, you really have to, when you're working with people, you really have to, like, show them appreciation because that really goes a long way. Definitely. I've worked for some bosses that were, did a really good job of doing that.

00:26:24 Lisa Ruiz: Like you said, just being flexible with schedules alone is huge. So let's get into HSN. You mentioned that you reached out to HSN and they really loved your product. Can you talk about the process of just getting into HSN? Oh, yeah.

00:26:39 Lisa Ruiz: Sure. It's pretty amazing. And the reason why I say that is, you know, I didn't know what I was going into when I started, right? Because everyone wants to be in HFN. Everybody

00:26:48 Lisa Ruiz: wants to be on TVC. Everybody wants to have their product out there. And wow, you know, so what it happened was when you go through HSN, you kind of have to go through

00:26:56 Lisa Ruiz: a marketing rep. So I had contacted a marketing rep, and I sent them actually my products. And what they do first is they test them and they use them because they just don't want to bring

00:27:08 Lisa Ruiz: it. They're kind of like the filters to HFN. So they won't bring anything to HFN that they don't think is viable or think that HFN could make money on or would think that

00:27:16 Lisa Ruiz: is a good product. So they pretty much put it to the test. So that's the first, like, you know, hurdle to get over. So once you get over that hurdle, then they present

00:27:24 Lisa Ruiz: it to the buyers. And then once the buyers check it out and they like it, they didn't mind, they called me down and they wanted me to give it like a demonstration on how everything works. So I said, sure. So I flew down to home shopping network. And mind you, so I

00:27:38 Lisa Ruiz: So I found that later,

00:27:40 Lisa Ruiz: that Home Shopping Network gets like, I don't know, 10,000 submissions a year for, you know, products, HSN. And they only accept, like, five – they only look at 5 percent of those. And out of the 5 percent, they only accept, like, maybe a half a percent or 1 percent of them.

00:27:55 Lisa Ruiz: I mean, it's very slim because they have a lot of products, and they can't just take anything. They have to make sure the products that they take are moneymakers, right? Because that's why they're in business. So I was sitting at the board table, and I'm just looking at the buyer.

00:28:07 Lisa Ruiz: And, of course, and right, I'm a police officer. I'm a grown-up. I've been there. I've seen the worst of the worst, right? But I was scared probably more than at that boardroom table than I was in the rest of my life.

00:28:21 Lisa Ruiz: You know, any experience, whether someone had a gun point that, I mean, that wasn't scary, okay? That's what I'm going to tell you. It was so, it was like one of the scariest parts of my life.

00:28:30 Lisa Ruiz: And I remember I was, like, sweating and, like, basically, like, didn't know if I was going to pass out, right?

00:28:37 Lisa Ruiz: And, of course, the buyer just kind of looking at me, and there was silence in the room, and she was like, oh, let me see. And, you know, I spent the money, the time, the energy, I did all the labels. I mean, I went all out, and I was like, please, she looked at me, and she was like, okay, this is what I want.

00:28:52 Lisa Ruiz: And so I thought she was just going to take, like, my pain credible, because that's the one I was really showcasing. And she wound up touching, like, all of my bottle samples right in front of around the table. She started, like,

00:29:01 Lisa Ruiz: grabbing them and, like, moving them around. And, like, she was like, okay, I want this, I want this. So she went up taking all of my products. I was like, what? And so she's like, okay, this is what I want. And then I look over at my rest because she was at the table and her, and she looked like she was going to pass out.

00:29:15 Lisa Ruiz: And I'm like, and I'm like smiling. I'm like, okay. And so when we got out of the meeting, I'm like, Judy, I'm like, you're okay. And she's like, Lisa, she goes, you don't understand. I'm at this board table every week, every day. It's always no, no, no, thank you, no. And the buyer even told me, she's like, you know what?

00:29:30 Lisa Ruiz: Usually I get 15, 20 minutes and I don't mean to be rude, but sometimes I just abruptly get up and I leave. She's like, but you've had my attention for an hour and a half. I was like, oh, wow. So I didn't know all this. So, of course, I'm like, wow. So I'm just amazed at the whole thing.

00:29:42 Lisa Ruiz: And then when I left there, I just felt like just this whole weight of the world off my shoulder. So granted, I may have been lucky, but at the same time, I also knew that I really had my product stand behind. And like I told you before, I had to test them and retest them.

00:29:57 Lisa Ruiz: And I was really trying to be objective. And, you know, because it was my own. And but I knew if I didn't have something good that I was like, forget it. I'm just going to scrap the whole project because I can't compete with other people out there that are bigger than me.

00:30:09 Lisa Ruiz: So, you know, so it's really, it was very, trust me, every time I bought, like, another cleaning product and I sprayed it and I tried it, I was always getting like nervous. He's like, is this the one? Is this the one that's going to be better than mine? But then I really never found one. And so that's why I went along with it. I was like, no, I'm like, this is it.

00:30:24 Lisa Ruiz: And then I even had friends and family. And actually, my neighbor, he's a clean freak. And he's like, you don't understand. He goes, I haven't put water on my car in like a year. So it's really cool, and what's even, like, more cool than that is when I go to hsn.com,

00:30:39 Lisa Ruiz: and you have to be a verified purchaser, buyer on HSN to leave, you know, a review. And, you know, with more than my friends and my family telling me how awesome it is, or the strangers out there telling me how awesome it is, because they don't know me.

00:30:51 Lisa Ruiz: So they have nothing, you know, no gain or no loss to tell me the truth. So that's like the most special thing is when I go on there and I see someone from the middle of, like, Missouri, you know, like Kathy 1, 2, 3 from Missouri saying it's amazing.

00:31:04 Lisa Ruiz: Like that warm with my heart makes me feel so good because I know that I made a difference in the world and people are really loving it and it just, you know, validates everything. Yeah, you're making an impact in the world in your own way. It is and it's really nice.

00:31:17 Lisa Ruiz: So if anybody out there, like, you know, has like an idea, I mean, sometimes you'll have so many ideas and they don't really bring it to life because, like, oh, you know, money and I don't have this. But you know what? Sometimes if you really have a great idea and, I mean, there's a lot of people out there

00:31:30 Lisa Ruiz: who would be willing to back you. I mean, granted, for me, I didn't really need the money so much because I already had everything I needed to get going. But still, you know, I took a jump.

00:31:41 Filip Valica: I had a job, okay, that I was making, you know, an hourly, you know, just a yearly salary and I had to work overtime. And you know what? Like, even though you can, you know, maybe move up

00:31:51 Lisa Ruiz: in the ranks and you can get a bump up in your pay, you know, it's just not yours, you know, and you're always working for somebody and you're really not making it your own. And, you know, You always have to worry about being late, and, you know, if you're going to get written up, I mean, it's just like it's the other part of work that people don't really, you

00:32:05 Lisa Ruiz: know, you always have always in the back of your mind, you know, and you really don't have the freedom to be creative because you're always on someone else's watch.

00:32:12 Lisa Ruiz: And so if you're out there and you feel like, you know, you're down and dumps and you don't like your job anymore, sometimes you just have to take the relief and just take

00:32:21 Lisa Ruiz: the chance because sometimes not taking the chance is taking the biggest chance of all, you know, is taking it. I mean, you only live once. So, like, you really need to do it. And trust me, it's scary. I mean, I didn't know it was going to happen.

00:32:33 Lisa Ruiz: I didn't know if, you know, this is going to flop or, but sometimes you just have to, you know, you just have to do it. And don't be afraid, you know. If you were just starting out and you had a product that you were trying to take to market and you wanted to get on HSN,

00:32:47 Lisa Ruiz: how would you make that connection to a product rep that will introduce you to their buyer on HSN?

00:32:53 Filip Valica: Contact me because now that I'm on HSN, I would be more than happy to help anybody out there who had a vice. viable product.

00:33:00 Filip Valica: And you know what? I got lucky and I feel very fortunate that, you know, I was helped, you know, by my reps to get in. And trust me, it took a long time because even contacting the reps, I'll be honest with you, a year and a half, it took them to get back

00:33:14 Lisa Ruiz: to me. It takes a long time. But recently, I've gotten, but recently friends of mine who've gotten to HFN through me, like in a week, like people have already gotten contracts like three days after their product is shown.

00:33:27 Lisa Ruiz: And so, you know, I'm more than willing to help people. So, I mean, given my, you know, Facebook, Lisa Pink, you can, you know, give them my contact information. I'll be more than, you know, happy to help people. Like I said, I'm Lisa Pink on Facebook.

00:33:42 Lisa Ruiz: If anyone wants to contact me, you know, add me as a friend, follow me, send me a private message. And then, you know, like I said, I'll be more than happy to see what your product is. And why not, you know? It's about helping people.

00:33:55 Lisa Ruiz: in the world and if and if I could do that I'll be more than happy to that that's awesome that's really great of you to offer your help with that absolutely so as you go through this process of getting on HSN what kind of requirements did they impose on you that you can talk

00:34:09 Lisa Ruiz: about I know that there's some things that you can't mention due to the contract and things like that but you probably had to be ready to make some concessions on things or to kind of restructure things a different way can you speak to that a little bit yeah sure and I can

00:34:24 Lisa Ruiz: speak about it because if it's public knowledge you can even find it online.

00:34:27 Lisa Ruiz: Well, EHSN requires you at least depending on what your product is. Mine is chemical. So I had a high insurance. You have to like have like insurance. You have to get like this insurance policy just to make sure if anything like happens or anything it's, you know,

00:34:40 Lisa Ruiz: you know, they need to be covered just for their own legal. So you have to pay for HSN's legal because they're taking a chance by bringing your product on. So sometimes you have a toy and like something comes loose and a kid chokes on it. I'm just saying You know, jewelry, if somebody breaks out and gets a rash, so things like that.

00:34:55 Lisa Ruiz: So they kind of have to do that. And then,

00:34:58 Lisa Ruiz: you know, basically they'll talk to you. And it's kind of great because you can pretty much start by telling them, hey, listen, I can only make, you know, 5,000 units of these to start. And they'll say, okay, you know, we'll start you slow.

00:35:12 Lisa Ruiz: I mean, you have to have some kind of mass production because if it really gets popular and it blows up, then whether you're going to do it or have to outsource it, that's upon you. Also, they give you the ability to either drop ship it yourself to customers or you can have them ship it out.

00:35:27 Lisa Ruiz: I have them ship it out because it's cheaper. They get a better rate with shipping, and it's just easier. So what they do is they pick up like all the pallets from my warehouse and then they bring it to their distribution centers.

00:35:39 Lisa Ruiz: And then when people order, then it leaves the distribution centers and it goes to the customer.

00:35:45 Lisa Ruiz: So, you know, it's not really. I just had pretty much done a contract saying, yes, I'll do business with you.

00:35:50 Filip Valica: yes, we'll get some insurance, and yes, you know, create your company and give them your text ID number, all that. And that's it, really.

00:35:56 Lisa Ruiz: I mean, there really isn't not much about it, to be honest with you. They just give you the order. You fill them, and that's it, you know. But, yeah, it's pretty simple. And that's the kind of reason why I like working with them, too, because it's very easy.

00:36:08 Lisa Ruiz: Basically, they give you an order, then you have production, and then you have a show, and then you sell. And then depending on what sells or how much, then they'll say, okay, we need more of this, we need more of this, not so much of this. we're still trying to sell it, things like that.

00:36:21 Lisa Ruiz: And then, of course, they give you access to see you can see your sale,

00:36:25 Filip Valica: like how many are left, like, you know, like the returns, like things like that. So it's pretty easy. It's really that hard. The hard part is getting on it, getting on each of them.

00:36:34 Lisa Ruiz: But once you're on there, I mean, you know, you have to really keep track of everything, too, because, like, I had to make my own props, like, and then I actually hire, like, a prop. I pay for everything. So you pay for, they give you the platform, but you have to pay for the on-air guests.

00:36:47 Lisa Ruiz: You have to pay for the prop people. So when they bring your stuff into the show and they take it out, you have to pay for the sales girl on TV. So it's all on you. Yeah, it's all on me. So all they do is give me the platform, give me their air time, which is it's waiting gold.

00:37:01 Lisa Ruiz: But I'm responsible for everything else. Wow, that's crazy, especially since they're, I mean, they're taking a chunk of your profit as well, right? 30 to 50% or something like that. Well, no, you know what it is? Like, what they do is they'll, they buy something from me.

00:37:14 Lisa Ruiz: And then let's say, let's just for argument's sake, they give me like five bucks for a bottle of my stuff, right? They sell it for whatever they want. It doesn't affect me. So if they sell it for $15, so that's them. Like, I only get my five, you know. So basically that's how it works with each I say, they don't take a percent.

00:37:29 Lisa Ruiz: They just say, okay, how much are you going to give this to me for? And I'm like, okay, two bucks. And they're like, okay, thanks. And then they sell it for whatever. And whatever they sell it for has no bearing on me. Right.

00:37:38 Lisa Ruiz: So when you're negotiating with the buyer, then you basically have to come with a pretty sharp number that you feel like you can make some profit.

00:37:44 Filip Valica: foot on, but at the same time, it's not going to be too high to kill the deal, so to speak. Yeah,

00:37:50 Lisa Ruiz: it's very tricky. And I also tell them, and I give them price breaks. I'm like, hey, you know what? If you order 10,000 more bottles of this, I'll give you a price break. Because the more I make, I kind of like with chemicals anyway, or a lot of things, it's based on quantity.

00:38:04 Lisa Ruiz: So, you know, it's more expensive for me, you know, if I just make 2,000 bottles, but it's a little cheaper for me if I make 11,000 bottles at a time. So I'll give them price breaks. Yeah, so you have to come in at a price where you're going to make some profit,

00:38:17 Lisa Ruiz: but you also don't want to go crazy because they need to make a profit, too, and you don't want to be too high. So you really have to kind of figure out what that is, and they'll tell you. You'll give them a price, and they'll be like, no, can you do better and whatnot?

00:38:28 Lisa Ruiz: So,

00:38:29 Lisa Ruiz: you know, and you have to always factor another percentages because they also charge your little percent to keep their stuff warehouse, so I have to pay for that, too. You know, you have to really know what you're getting into,

00:38:38 Filip Valica: but in the end, it really, it's worth it because, you know,

00:38:41 Lisa Ruiz: You're helping people, you're making some money, and you're really getting recognition out there. And a lot of people use, like, HSN and QVC is a stepping stone to, you know, target Walmart, bedbath and beyond.

00:38:53 Filip Valica: But some people, they stay there. There's some vendors there. They've been there for like 15, 20 years. They're still selling their things, and it's going strong. So it really depends on your longevity there. I can definitely see that.

00:39:03 Lisa Ruiz: And it seems like you were able to work out a really good deal, so congratulations. I said, everybody has to make money, so I'm very aware of what they need. And so I try to really do my best. You know, I don't really, I can't really make money overnight sometimes.

00:39:16 Lisa Ruiz: Sometimes you have to kind of bite the bullet and kind of give it to them for a much lower price because you want it to be attractive for them.

00:39:23 Lisa Ruiz: You know, you can't be greedy. You have to like, you know,

00:39:27 Lisa Ruiz: in time. So maybe in a couple years we'll start, like, making money. A lot of the money that we make now goes right back into the product. But like I said, it's been like, it's been a real trip. It's been really fun.

00:39:37 Lisa Ruiz: And I've actually had a lot of, like, celebrity friends of mine, Instagram about it, Facebook about it.

00:39:44 Lisa Ruiz: So it's pretty cool. It actually might be going on as a product placement item on a new TV show that I can't really talk about right now. But yeah, so it's pretty neat. You know, it has a lot of opportunity too. That's really exciting.

00:39:58 Lisa Ruiz: Yeah, when you're on HSN, too, it's like, you know, and if you want to go to like a store, you know, it looks better that, oh, I was running on HSN. So it kind of gives your product a little more weight. HSN probably even looked at your past business with B2B or you're working for businesses

00:40:13 Lisa Ruiz: to say, okay, well, this company's already proven that they can source X volume of product and we're not taking a gamble on somebody that's just starting out. Yeah, I mean, my capability, I told them I can make like 100,000 models a day, no problem. Wow.

00:40:26 Lisa Ruiz: You know, but they only really maybe get 10 to 20,000 at a time, but no problem. You know, I could do it in a day because I'm that equipped.

00:40:35 Lisa Ruiz: But, you know, you have to tell them what your limits are.

00:40:37 Filip Valica: And, you know what, they have a lot of huge companies, like Harry and David. I mean, they have other, like, designers, you know, out there, and they have celebrity designers. And so they have, like, a lot of other, like,

00:40:48 Lisa Ruiz: vendors that really can, you know, pump it out a lot of it. But some people, you know, they are smaller, and they totally could take that in consideration. I'll be honest. It's been really great working with them. I mean, I really would never say that. I, you know, I mean, I know, like, corporate sometimes.

00:41:02 Lisa Ruiz: There's really, you know, people, like, always say bad things about poor corporate. But I really have to say, I mean, hands down, this whole year. It's really been, like, just amazing, just how they've been with me. Actually, the buyer called me up on the day, and she's like, you know what, Lisa, you've done

00:41:15 Lisa Ruiz: everything we wanted that we've asked you to do, you know what? Like, we love working with you, you know, thank you very much. I'm like, wow, I'm like, that's really nice, you know. Usually people are calling you about problems, but you have to check the timeout to say that to me. And it was, you know, it was really nice to hear because a lot of times we're just like, you

00:41:30 Lisa Ruiz: know, in life, you know, we're doing, we're going like a million miles a minute and like we're not, you know, we're not really taking the time out to stop and be like, wow, you know, like appreciate people just for their work ethic, I mean, and, you know, how they do business.

00:41:45 Lisa Ruiz: So it's, you know, you really have to, you know, you have to be smart about your business and you have to have a great product. You also have to be a really good person and you have to be, you know, steady and reliable and all of those things. And I try.

00:41:55 Lisa Ruiz: I'm not perfect, but I definitely try my best to try to, you know, get to that point where, like, I get calls like that. So it's nice. No, that it's really nice.

00:42:03 Lisa Ruiz: Do you find that working with them that they've given you advice that maybe you wouldn't have seen or their insight into the market or anything like that? Have they helped guide you in certain directions? Oh, yeah.

00:42:14 Lisa Ruiz: I mean, they definitely gave me like pointers, ideas on like my packaging, on like my demonstrations. I mean, like I actually flew down there and I was on the set and, you know, we all kind of went through it together. Like what we're going to do. We want an impactful, you know, demonstrations.

00:42:29 Lisa Ruiz: It's hard with glass especially. All other products, not so much because, you know, you see a grease. stain or a spot on a carpet, it's easy.

00:42:35 Filip Valica: Here it is. Now you see it, now you don't. With glass, it's, you know, it's kind of invisible in a way. Like, you really can't see, you know, unless you did it on, like, a microscopic level.

00:42:45 Lisa Ruiz: So we had to come up with, like, clever and genius ways to show, you know, visibly on TV through demonstration, you know, how our product works, you know, because it's not, like, the easiest. So we actually conquer that one, which is pretty cool.

00:43:00 Lisa Ruiz: And, you know, people, like I said, really, really. really receptive to it. They get it. They get how it works. It's hard with TV because you can only see and you can hear. You can't taste. You can't feel and you can't smell. So, and nowadays, you can't

00:43:14 Lisa Ruiz: just tell people things. You have to show them. So I really only have sight to rely on. So I really visibly, visually, I had to show people like how it works. So that was definitely like a big hurdle

00:43:25 Filip Valica: that we got over. That was pretty awesome. And then, yeah, so we, you know, they definitely gave me pointers on how to do that. That came from my buyer. actually because she saw my vision because when I went there the first time I showed her on the glass

00:43:37 Filip Valica: and she felt it she's like I get it I get it oh my god I totally get this insane she but how are we going to show it you know on TV you know what's going to happen when the TV's on mute and somebody's

00:43:45 Lisa Ruiz: looking at the TV how are they going to know what the heck's going on so yeah we you know it takes a lot of work you know you really have to be clever sometimes and things so it's nice to have

00:43:55 Lisa Ruiz: teamwork and you know one you know three or four heads are better than one so well and I bet anybody that's listening to this can just tune into HSS and just watch them present a variety of different types of products

00:44:06 Lisa Ruiz: to get some cool ideas about how to market their own product. Yeah, I mean, if you go to like hsn.com, especially like where you can go to credible cleaning under mine under the search bar credible cleaning and all of my products will show up.

00:44:19 Lisa Ruiz: And then, of course, they have like a little video button. And when you see the product, there's a little video button to the left, you click on it and it actually show you a demonstration, a live demonstration of the last time of tape. So, yeah, I mean, it's pretty cool.

00:44:32 Lisa Ruiz: I mean, they have a nice website because a lot of the times people miss the shows and they want to, like, you know, they see it online and they want to, you know, see the demonstration so you can click on it to see.

00:44:42 Lisa Ruiz: So it's not, so the products are, of course, available when they're shown on TV, but they're also available online 24-7, which is nice. Right. Because years ago before Internet, you had to watch the TV or you missed it, you know. Right. And that's going to bring me to my other question.

00:44:55 Lisa Ruiz: Sometimes I talk to people that want to get on HSN and then there might be a group discussion online and people say, well, you don't really want to be. on HSN because they'll just stick you on the 2 a.m. time slot on, you know, Thursday morning. And if you

00:45:10 Lisa Ruiz: don't sell well, they won't have you on again. What are your thoughts on that? Oh, boy. Okay. So yes and no. I've been there done that. I've had, you know, 9 o'clock in the morning. I've had 2 a.m. I've

00:45:20 Filip Valica: had 3. I've had 5. I'm going to have 9 o'clock, you know,

00:45:24 Filip Valica: next month and night. Thank goodness. You know, the thing with HSN is they'll rotate you. It'll take a while. So not everybody has the same goal. So you'll have like different selling goals at two in the afternoon than

00:45:36 Lisa Ruiz: you would two in the morning because they're sensitive and they know, hey, you know, most people aren't, a lot of people aren't up at 2 a.m. More people are up at 2 a.m. More people are up at you, you know, in the afternoon. So your goals will be different. They'll give you lower goals.

00:45:49 Lisa Ruiz: But they'll also rotate you in. So sometimes they might give you like not so good hours, but then what they'll do is to compensate for the bad ones. They'll give you a really good one. So they'll kind of even out the playing field. Remember, they have thousands of products, and

00:46:02 Lisa Ruiz: everybody wants those prime time slots. So, you know, you have to work, you have to work up to it. So it's kind of like anything else, you know. When you start new, you're on the bottom of the tonal and you have to kind of work your way up little by little. But they're sensitive to that.

00:46:17 Lisa Ruiz: Obviously, I mean, you know, I have an 8 o'clock show. I'm going to sell a lot better than I would at 4 a.m. So, no, they're really, like I said, they're really good like that. They're very sensitive to that. Sometimes you have bombs, but they, you know what? They excuse you. If you keep

00:46:30 Lisa Ruiz: having bombs like six, seven in a row, then they're like, all right, we have to visit this. But if you have a bomb once in a while, they're okay, they're okay, they're okay, it's a bad day. Sometimes it's a holiday, it's a summer, people on around. So they have their widgets and they

00:46:44 Lisa Ruiz: know, like, you know, where you should be. Right, yeah, what's typical? Even when we have like bad days, we still do great, you know? It's so weird. Congratulations for that, by the way. And it all sounds like it was just a straight path to success for you, but I'm sure that's not the

00:46:59 Lisa Ruiz: case. Can you talk about some of the issues that maybe came up or the challenges that you had that maybe didn't go so well? Well, I mean,

00:47:08 Lisa Ruiz: especially in the beginning, because like I said, and that's why I'm always very, you know, eager to health. At the beginning was really hard because, you know, I sent the product to Florida, like a year and a half by. I call

00:47:21 Lisa Ruiz: the rep off. I'm like, hey, what's going on? They have so many products, you know, and they they can't handle them all at once, so you're really, like, stuck in a line.

00:47:29 Lisa Ruiz: So I didn't know anybody on the inside then. I didn't know how to fast track. I was just, I didn't even know what I was doing, you know? I mean, it was like, you know, I was going in blindly. I mean, now I have friends, and it's like, I help them because I'm like, look, you know,

00:47:41 Lisa Ruiz: you don't have to go through all of those hurdles that I had to just to get your product in there.

00:47:48 Lisa Ruiz: So, yeah, I mean, that was probably the biggest problem was in the beginning, because just trying to get started and trying to get started and trying to, get them to like it.

00:47:56 Lisa Ruiz: But honestly, ever since then, like I said, it's been pretty cool and smooth.

00:48:02 Lisa Ruiz: Like I said, the worst was when I was in that boardroom table, and I was like, oh, my goodness, I thought I was going to pass out because I'm like, this is it, you know? What am I going to do? Right. And then I started thinking, who am I going to show it to you now?

00:48:15 Lisa Ruiz: But now I have other companies like seeing and, like, calling me and saying, hey, when you're done with each, if you ever are, hey, come over to us. I'm like, wow, you know? So it's kind of like, wait, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, job, right? You don't have any experience. No one wants to hire you. And then once you get

00:48:28 Lisa Ruiz: the job and then you get experience, everybody wants to hire you. You know, it's like kind of like the same. It's crazy. It's like the chicken or the egg. It's like, you don't have experience. It's like, well, how am I supposed to get it if you don't hire me? That's how I'll get experience. It's always that first one that has to give you the chance. It's like the same thing with

00:48:42 Lisa Ruiz: this. And, you know, but like I said, if you have great products, and it's not that hard,

00:48:47 Filip Valica: and a lot of products you get whisked away. Because the thing is,

00:48:52 Filip Valica: everyone thinks they had the best product in the world, right?

00:48:55 Filip Valica: I mean, I'm a realist, right? I didn't know if I did. I had to really keep testing and testing, and I wasn't going to unleash anything

00:49:01 Lisa Ruiz: and send it to anybody until I knew for sure because I was like, I'm just wasting my time because if there's something that's better, then what am I doing? Well, they're going to say, because even when I was at the boardroom and they were asking me, well, what's so special about your product? Why should we have this? And I was like, oh, you know,

00:49:15 Lisa Ruiz: I'm not Merlin, the magician, you know? I'm just, you know,

00:49:19 Lisa Ruiz: I'm just trying to make good cleaning products and share them with the world. They really grilled me on, you know, why is it so good and why is it so different? And I had to really show them. I mean, it was like so crazy all the proof that I had a show.

00:49:33 Lisa Ruiz: And then, of course, I watched TV and I'm like, she's a two-headed owl ceramic cookie show. I'm like, what are these things in their boardroom, right? I'm like, what? So there's some products that just get by and you don't know how, but they really put it to me, you know.

00:49:46 Lisa Ruiz: But it was good because, look, they're protecting their customers. They want to make sure that the products that they're selling are good, legitimate, safe product. And I get that, you know, and of course, everybody wants that for their customer base.

00:50:00 Lisa Ruiz: So what I'm trying to say out there, if you have a product that you really, you know, that you really feel is definitely superb. I mean, better than anything out there, then you have a chance. But if it's just like everything out there, it's not really going to be that impressive.

00:50:14 Lisa Ruiz: So, you know, like I said, you have to, it's one thing to believe in it, but then you have to be realistic about what you're putting out. out there, you know.

00:50:22 Lisa Ruiz: So, I mean, that's really the advice that I can give. And then if you really feel that way, contact me, you know, and I'll try to help you out as much as I can. That's really great of you to do that. If people wanted to buy your products, even if they're

00:50:35 Filip Valica: just a consumer and then just need it for around the house, where's the best place to go? And then where can they go to find out more about you? Well, the best place right now is go to hsn.com

00:50:46 Lisa Ruiz: and in the search bar, you can type incredible cleaning and then all of my products. will pop up and then you can buy them at any time. Best way to find about me. I mean, maybe just, you know, find me on Facebook.

00:50:58 Lisa Ruiz: You can look me up on Martha Stewart's American Made. You know, I'm on your show. People can, you know, listen to you. And hopefully we can have another, you know, interview and maybe down the line to see like where I'm at again, just the progression.

00:51:12 Lisa Ruiz: But, yeah, basically, you can look up Pink Credible. You can go to Credible Products.com. It's actually a lot of funny commercials. I'm in all of them.

00:51:20 Filip Valica: I make my own commercials. A lot of the things you have to do yourself. So that's actually probably the most fun part of my job is getting into character and making really funny commercials because I wanted, like, again, my cleaner to be fun and not so serious.

00:51:33 Filip Valica: So a lot of the times you see these cleaning commercials are so serious and animated. You know, these, you know,

00:51:39 Filip Valica: different cartoon animations. I wanted to be animated. So I did it on my own. Check it out, credibleproducts.com. It's like four or five videos on there. I actually have a celebrity on there. Her name is The Pink Lady of Hollywood.

00:51:50 Filip Valica: She's like my, I'm like her protégé, you know, she's like an ethereal, like a celebrity out here in California, and everyone knows her. Her hair is pink, her house is pink, our car is pink, I mean, everything, our toaster, I've been to her house, it's like unbelievable.

00:52:02 Filip Valica: Her clothes are pink. She opens the closet, a toilet paper's pink. It's like totally insane. So she's in one of my videos. Yeah, it's like the people you meet in Nick, and I call it Holly Weird, you know, I'm in California now from New York originally, but moving

00:52:14 Filip Valica: out here is definitely worldly. A lot of characters, and it's really been. One heck of a ride, I'll tell you that. Well, Lisa, thanks again for sharing your story with us, and that's really amazing at what you were able to accomplish with it all.

00:52:28 Lisa Ruiz: We wish you all the best, and I look forward to having you on the show sometime soon.

00:52:32 Filip Valica: Yeah, thank you, and I wish everyone out there the best. And like I said, pursue your dreams and just go for it. And don't let anything or anybody get you down because you only live once and you just not address rehearsal. This is it. So you have to do it.

00:52:45 Filip Valica: And just be secure and just, you know, just be focused and driven. and you will make it. That's definitely, everybody wants the American dream, but you can't just sit in the same dead end job where you're doing because you're not going to get anywhere.

00:52:59 Filip Valica: So if you really truly believe in yourself, really just get out, get up, and do it. That's what I have to say. That's my advice.

00:53:08 Filip Valica: And that's all I've got for today. Thank you for listening. If you've got any questions or comments, I've put all the links that we've covered under the show notes posted on the product startup.com slash episode 28. So join me next time as I speak with Adam Force.

00:53:23 Filip Valica: He's the founder of change creator, a digital magazine, and a premium resource for social entrepreneurship, and learning how to build business that positively impacts the world.

00:53:33 Filip Valica: So tune in next week as we discuss some of the more deeper topics on entrepreneurship and small business. So what other shows and podcasts do you listen to? What do you like about those shows, the guests that are on those shows, or particular

00:53:48 Filip Valica: qualities that the show host has. I'm always looking to improve on the podcast, so don't hesitate to send me a note by going to the product startup.com slash ask. Again, really appreciate the

00:53:59 Filip Valica: comments that you guys have sent me so far, and I'm always looking to improve on what I put out. So thanks again for joining me today, and I will see you next week. Thank you for listening to this episode of the product startup podcast with your host, Philip

00:54:12 Filip Valica: Felizza. For more great content and to stay up today, visit the product startup.com. your guide to getting there.

00:54:26 Filip Valica: Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big success. This podcast series is brought to you by Mako Design + Invent,

00:54:39 Filip Valica: the first firm in North America to provide global caliber end-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product businesses. If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to Mako-design.com.

00:54:52 Filip Valica: That's M-A-K-O-design.com for a free consultation from one of Maca-Design for design for design studios from coast to coast. Thanks for listening and see you next time.