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I've lost so much money on this business
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no I've invested so much money into this
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business there's a difference and I
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haven't lost it until I've given up I'm
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doing boy
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[Music]
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math I knew that starting a product
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business was going to be hard but I was
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still really optimistic because I'm
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ambitious I have some home brw
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engineering skills and I also have
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access to a lot of free marketing
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because I mean you're watching this
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video aren't you but holy humbling hell
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the positive way of phrasing it is that
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I've learned some lessons and I know
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that a lot of you are curious about
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manufacturing products so I'm turning
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those lessons into a video series
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manufacturing
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simone1 sim11 you get it
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in 2015 I was thrown into internet Fame
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for building shitty robots
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then and I started a YouTube channel and
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managed to turn it into a career I
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wasn't making a huge amount of money but
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like shitty robots paid for my
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house who else can say that Simone yes
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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and as much as it was a really stressful
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time I was also having so much fun with
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it nice
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[Music]
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but I knew that I was going to get tired
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of the shitty robots joke eventually and
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I never want to beat a dead horse or
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even beat a live horse so much that it
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dies so there was a longevity issue that
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I was concerned about and then on top of
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that there's also a scaling issue
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because there are only really two ways
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to grow an influencer business one is by
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putting out more content which I don't
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want to do because I want to have a good
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life life or number two by becoming more
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famous which I don't want either I just
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really like being able to go to the gym
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looking like Fame to me just like
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money I I like to call it life Lube
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because it makes everything go easier
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and it can also give you access to
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places you wouldn't otherwise be able to
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go but to me it's just a tool like it's
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not an end goal so then the question is
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what's the end goal I started thinking
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about making making products really
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early on I remember wanting to make
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miniature versions of some of my
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machines we also had some conversations
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about making a shitty robot's card game
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or different maker kits but it just
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didn't feel right like it wasn't very
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original and it felt like I was doing
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something just for the sake of doing it
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which I reserve for things like my pasta
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maker but then I made something that
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changed everything and that was is a
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brain tumor hands down the worst thing
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to ever come out of my head Jokes Aside
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I'm fine but it made me realize that I
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really needed a secondary business
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because I can have everything hinge on
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me being well enough to be in front of a
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camera I wonder if this still
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works no I cut the power
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cable thanks past Simone I I built this
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calendar because I wanted to track how
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often I meditated so every day that I
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meditated I got to flip a switch and I
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was so surprised by how much this
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calendar helped me stay on track like I
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meditated every day for years and I
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wanted to see if I could turn it into a
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product I love the mechanical switches
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but when you have 365 of something the
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cost really adds up so I put together a
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team of Engineers and we made a version
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of this calendar with without any
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mechanical parts and then we released it
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on Kickstarter my name is Simone and I'm
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mostly known for building things that
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don't
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work I realize that might be the worst
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Kickstarter intro of all time but the
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thing is besides making useless machines
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I buil a lot of other things I love
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seeing how I was like trying to bridge
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the gap going from shitty robots to like
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really lofty products for
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self-improvement I think I managed
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pretty well I mean I raised almost
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$600,000 still lost money on the project
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though but um yeah how is that possible
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I'm going to do a more detailed
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breakdown of the everyday calendar in a
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future video so to find
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out please subscribe and while you hit
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subscribe let's take a quick
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break so I am currently in Sweden to see
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family and do you recognize the spot
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this is where I shot the wake up machine
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and 2016 but before I started Living
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that whole weird internet miracle I had
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no idea what I wanted to do in life it
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can be really hard to figure out how to
00:05:39
build a career and even harder to figure
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out how to build a fulfilling career
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880,000 hours is the sponsor of this
00:05:46
video but more importantly they can help
00:05:48
you find a career that will make a
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positive impact in this world and the
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best part is that it's all free 880,000
00:05:55
hours is a nonprofit that provides free
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support to help people have a positive
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impact with their career their advice is
00:06:01
based on evidence and really careful
00:06:03
research so if you for example join
00:06:06
their newsletter they will send you a
00:06:08
free in-depth guide that walks you
00:06:10
through making a concrete career plan or
00:06:12
you can check out their job board with
00:06:14
nearly 1,000 high impact career
00:06:17
opportunities and they even offer
00:06:19
one-on-one advice to help you switch
00:06:21
career paths so what's the catch plot
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twist there is none they just want to
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help people find careers that will make
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the world better and for you to spend
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your 880,000 working hours doing
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something that does good to get started
00:06:35
planning a career that works on one of
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the world's most pressing problems go to
00:06:39
80,000 hour.org
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Simoni okay now back to my
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career I found a list of all the
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rejected name ideas in my notes app
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where things are sold the things store
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from here like I remember wanting a name
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that was funny as a response so when
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somebody would ask like where did you
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get that from you could just respond I
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got it from
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here only catch is that a generic name
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like that is really bad for search
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engine optimization heard of
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it idea Rehabilitation Center is pretty
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funny but also making fun of myself in
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that way is something that works when
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you're building shitty robots but when
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you're trying to convince someone
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someone to buy your product you really
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have to like stand proud shooting myself
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down is a reflex that I've had to like
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actively work on getting rid of so I
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ended up naming it
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yor which is still making fun of myself
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I guess but like in a different way
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because the joke is that y is how you
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pronounce my last name because um nobody
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knows I wanted the brand to be funny but
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not silly and for it to have a premium
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feel but not be pretentious
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so we have the build dice our
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screwdriver and screw ring a white
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incomplete puzzle that weirdly enough is
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our bestselling product and some sawdust
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socks I actually designed the Yore logo
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when I was working on the packaging for
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the screwdriver ring because I wanted to
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have a laser cut hole that you could try
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the screwdriver with and I couldn't
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figure out how to fit that and the name
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of the brand in one spot until I was
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like like
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oh only downside is that it reads like y
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when it's monochrome which all of our
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packaging
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is it's on my to-do list to
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fix I launched the edge store may 2022
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with two and two half employees so we
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have an engineer a head of manufacturing
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and my producer and I who both split our
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time between the media and the product
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business on top of that my talent
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manager he came on as a business partner
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so he's not salaried but he has a share
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in the business and we are all over the
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world it is all slack and Google
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Hangouts key learning for me is that
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it's a lot better to hire smart people
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to learn than to hire stupid people to
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do something that they already know how
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to
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do hey so I have not raced any outside
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capital for the Y door it's all
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self-funded which is great because I own
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it fully and I don't have to answer to
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anyone the part that's not so great is
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that if we ever had to do like a product
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recall then I would probably have to
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take out a second mortgage on my house
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I'm not going to share numbers in the
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nude because that feels too personal but
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here's a rough overview of all the costs
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to start the yet store and for our
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current monthly overhead cost this is
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out split it is all about cash flow like
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developing a new product costs a bunch
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of money up front and then you have to
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find even more money to buy stock from
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your factory that you then hope to sell
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to slowly earn back that money plus
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profit and if you don't sell it then you
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have to pay a storage fee at your
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fulfillment center so we're currently
00:10:21
moving it like a semi snail pace and
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launching maybe one and a half new
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products a year because that is what I
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can afford
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speaking of which this video is brought
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to you by the yat door you might have
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seen our foldable coat hangers that can
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turn any Nook into a functional closet
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and I am excited to announce that we are
00:10:41
launching pre-orders for the coat
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hinders today so if you miss the
00:10:45
kickstarter campaign we are opening up
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sales for our second batch for a limited
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time only and why do we do pre-orders
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because of cash flow so if you have a
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hallway or a closet that can't fit a
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standard coat hanger the coat hinger is
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going to be a game changer for you and
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if you notice that they're a bit more
00:11:04
expensive than during the kickstarter
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campaign it's because I've realized that
00:11:08
I need to raise my
00:11:09
prices I really hate it like I hate
00:11:14
hearing people say that my products are
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expensive because I think I just have a
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lot of Shame around asking people to pay
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for something that I made but the thing
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is when you hear about a product having
00:11:24
like a 4X markup so your selling price
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is four times the manufactur cost it can
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sound really greedy but it is what you
00:11:33
need for it to be profitable and I'm not
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even selling most of my products at a 2X
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markup because I've just set prices
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according to what I think they should
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cost for the customer and not as to what
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they have to cost for my business to
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make sense so I am still losing money
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every month running the Y door no I'm
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still investing money every month and
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honestly I'm just waiting for the moment
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that we hit break even like that is
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going to be such a joyous day and I'm
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just going to let out a leld fart of
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anxiety I've been developing in
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manufacturing products for almost 6
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years now and I'm not going to lie it's
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been tough like sometimes I wake up in
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the middle of the night and I just feel
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like throwing up I'm just terrified of
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disappointing people and selling people
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products where so many things can go
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wrong it's just really scary for me and
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whenever I see someone upset even though
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we have like amazing customer service
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and we try our absolute best to make
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everyone happy I just want to close-up
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shop and go hide under my couch and what
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I keep telling myself is that handling
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uncertainty and discomfort is a skill
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that I can grow and it's a skill that
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makes me better at this job and honestly
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I think I also just really want to prove
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myself like I'm really proud of the
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shitty robot chapter of my life like I
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have no regrets about it but that can't
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be
00:13:10
it like I want to be an inventor in a
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true sense not just in a joking way
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and honestly I think I just really
00:13:19
really really want to be
00:13:21
smart and
00:13:23
hot but mostly smart
00:13:30
so with all of that in mind do I regret
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starting the atge
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door no not at all because weirdly
00:13:39
enough I love it I love coming up with
00:13:42
new ideas I love working with my
00:13:44
engineer to figure out how to
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manufacture them I love writing the
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story of the product and making it
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planed for how to Market it and nothing
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makes me as proud as seeing something
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that I made be out in the world and
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people using them and ideally loving
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them the Yore isn't just a business to
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me like it is the work life that I want
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to live I got to spend 3 years
00:14:08
developing the coat hinger and then
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release it and it getting such a great
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response except for the people that kept
00:14:15
on doing
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[Music]
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this it's not the same thing but thank
00:14:24
you for your engagement so it's tough
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but it's also so r rewarding and
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honestly I just want to make enough
00:14:31
money so that I can keep on doing this
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forever this is a horse I will gladly
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beat until it dies thank you so much for
00:14:39
watching this video if you have any
00:14:41
questions about manufacturing or about
00:14:43
starting a product business that you
00:14:44
want me to answer in future videos you
00:14:47
can leave them down below and if you
00:14:49
want to buy any of our products you can
00:14:52
do that at y. store and if you don't
00:14:54
want to buy any of our products you can
00:14:56
still follow us on Instagram okay okay
00:14:59
bye
00:15:00
[Music]
