Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
How do you build a DTC brand that breaks out in a noisy world?
The Uncommon Brands podcast interviews founders of fast-growing DTC, e-commerce, and consumer product brands with unique products and marketing strategies. In each episode, we dive into how these stand out brands built their business by going against the grain.
This podcast is for any DTC brand founder, entrepreneur, and executive looking to build a stand out brand.
Host Parker Nash spent more than a decade working at Nike where he learned first-hand how one of the greatest brands in the world develops product and marketing that turns customers into raving fans.
Welcome to the Uncommon Brands podcast. I'm your host, Parker Nash. If you wanna know the product and marketing strategies the next wave of up and coming consumer brands are using to achieve uncommon success, you're in the right place. In each episode, we interview founders of fast growing consumer brands that are breaking out by not being afraid to be different. So if you're a DTC founder, entrepreneur, or leader that thinks differently, and you're trying to build an uncommon brand, this podcast is for you.
Parker Nash:Okay. Onto the show. Welcome, everybody. Today, I'm excited to have the one and only Mike Burns with us. He is the founder and CEO of Valvamax, But even more importantly, he's a product innovator.
Parker Nash:I would call him a mad scientist and product genius. He's an Air Force veteran, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, and he's also the, award winner of the prestigious CEMA Auto Gen 3 award winner for the product he's developed with Valma Max. Mike, thanks for joining.
Mike Burns:Thanks, Parker. I I believe I've appreciated all of your help over the years, and I'm excited to be part of this podcast.
Parker Nash:Yeah. Thanks. So give us the quick background on a little bit about Valma Max, how it started, what you led you to. Just because you were in the Air Force for beginning your start of your career or for a portion of your career. You got into corporate finance, but then suddenly started tinkering at something.
Parker Nash:You developed a product that has now taken off and you've gone and really made this own successful business. So, give us a little bit of the background story there for us.
Mike Burns:Yeah. Well, I grew up in a household where my dad always changed the oil in our cars, always serviced our cars. And, you know, I always saw how messy of a process that was to change oil. And then when I, had a family of my own several years ago while I was out, I think this was back in 2013. I was changing oil in the driveway And just like my dad did, you you take the bolt out of the oil pan and the oil just all of a sudden flows out.
Mike Burns:And if you're lucky, you can catch most of it in the oil pan. But more often than not, oil splashes out. It ends up on your arms and it glants on the driveway or the garage, and it's just such a big mess. And so, on this particular day, I was changing oil and, you know, I had splatters all over the driveway. And I took what was the oil in the pan and I moved it out to the front of the car, and I finished up what I was doing.
Mike Burns:And then as I got myself out from under the car, I actually didn't know where the oil pan was, and so I stepped in it. It got oil all the way to my ankles. I was just so frustrated. I was so mad. I was so angry.
Mike Burns:And I thought, there has got there's got to be a better way to do this. I I just can't imagine that in today's world that we're still changing oil by pulling in a bolt and just letting it spill out. It's just it was so odd to me. And I've heard stories from others as well that's just said And people have kind of just came to the point where they were like accepting it. You know, they're like, Well, yeah.
Mike Burns:I mean, what do you expect? It's messy, it's dirty, It's a hassle. And so, you know, I went to every auto parts store in my hometown and I asked them if they had any better way to change oil. And oftentimes, what they did was they pointed to these bags of this substance that soaks up the oil after it has already been spilled on the driveway. It's like little rocks.
Mike Burns:You know, you can probably see them like an aggregate mixer.
Parker Nash:Yeah.\
Mike Burns:And so, like, the idea is that you would just cover your driveway with the stuff after it's all been filled. Right. Right. That was the solution to the problem. And so, I thought, my goodness.
Parker Nash:The solution was a clean up product.
Mike Burns:Yeah. You know, like, how
Parker Nash:do we just avoid the whole clean up process?
Mike Burns:Right. And so, I thought, gosh, well, this seems like an opportunity. You think of how many cars there are not only in America but just around the world and every car has oil and every car's oil has to be changed. And so, this could be a massive opportunity if we figure out a way to make it cleaner. And so, I hired an automotive engineer who was a product developer And we came up with a product that replaces the drain bolt in the oil pan and it makes for draining the oil a lot faster.
Mike Burns:And so, essentially, what it is is that, it's a valve that when you're ready to change the oil, you just take the cap off and you insert a drain tube. And then that drain tube pushes upward on the check ball and that releases the oil out of the pan, and then it goes into our bag system. And so, now, you can change oil without any tools, without any mess, without any hassle, and it really reduces the number of steps that are involved in the process as well, making it a lot easier and cleaner.
Parker Nash:Yeah. And I remember from working with you all this too, a couple of other things that are great about it is that because you haven't touched the oil, you can drain it hot so it drains faster, Drains cleaner. It's just what I think is so novel about it is just that it's a fully encapsulated oil capture product that you've developed, which is just so dang neat and cool. I mean, once you see, you know, the quick little video of this thing, how it works, you just go, man. How did someone not come up with this way before this?
Parker Nash:Right? You're like, that is so dang smart. Like, how did this not happen sooner? But question for you on the actual design process. So, first off, did you know an auto engineer?
Parker Nash:Or how did you find that that guy that helped you design it?
Mike Burns:I didn't. So I, you know, I was a big fan of, Shark Tank. Okay. And so, what I would do is I'd watch Shark Tank at night, and then I would find products that I like. And then I would back into it to see who they've used as engineers and designers, do Google searches and things like that.
Mike Burns:And so, I found an engineer that was a Shark Tank, product designer and we peed to him first and he had some automotive background. And I used a few more engineers as well as I found them. I used websites like upwork.com.\ Yeah.\ it's a freelancer website to identify in the LinkedIn people who are in this industry and reached out to them and said, I may have them sign an NDA. Sure. And then we began the work together.
Parker Nash:That is cool. Okay. Now, when you approached them first, did you have some initial ideas or, like, a concept of how this product that you ended up creating, how it potentially work? Or did you just come to them with more like a blank slate? I wanna solve this problem.
Parker Nash:Help me design something.
Mike Burns:Well, I at the time, I was working in a corporate job, which, you know, a lot of us founders, you know, we started in corporate jobs, right? And so, during the day, I would come up with these ideas like as I was driving to work for what a product could look like. And then, I would draw sketches like as I had time throughout the day and in the evenings. And I would explain it, like, in a set of PowerPoint slides with the vision I had, an all in one system that, you know, contained the oil. Mhmm.
Mike Burns:And then, I provided those sketches and drawings and very rudimentary drawings, by the way. Yeah. And, PowerPoint, slides to these people that I was working with.
Parker Nash:Okay. Yeah. That's great. And so then alright. So you find you hire a couple engineers, a couple designers to get this thing going.
Parker Nash:I assume then you get some prototypes and then did you start what was next? Did you start testing it? How did you what was the process there?
Mike Burns:Yeah. So, the engineers I was working with had, SolidWorks software which is a CAD design software. They would take my sketches and draft it in SOLIDWORKS, and then they would send me the 3 d files that I could look at on my computer and kind of move the object around and then just kinda get a feel for how it would look. And then once we landed on a good design, I had several I had several, 3 d prints made where I could actually hold the valve on my hand with the cap and I could see how it would look and what size it would look like and and and that. And then but that's where really where it came into being is through the SOLIDWORKS designs and then the 3 d printing.
Mike Burns:Got it. Were you able to
Parker Nash:with the 3 d printer, were you actually able to test it and use it? Or did you have to actually go to, like, a small batch run of first initial products to to try it out?
Mike Burns:Yeah. I wasn't actually able to use it in a real world application because of being plastic and with the hot oil. Yeah. And so, I got an oil pan off of a vehicle and I attached the the 3 d print to that oil pan so that I could see, kinda, play around with it and test the flow rate and make sure it wasn't going to leak and things like that.
Parker Nash:Okay. So you tested in terms of that, then I'm assuming you had to have at least, at some point, you had to have some kind of alright. I'm gonna do a did you have, like, a minimum kinda I'm just gonna do a first small batch run of actually creating the product here or I assume you got to that point, but what did you need validation before that to see if there's actually a market here, or did you just go, I gotta take a little chance here and then try this out?
Mike Burns:Yeah. Absolutely. I I started with a very small run. I think I made, like, 10 of them to begin with. Okay.\ And I found a factory on Alibaba that could make these for me at a low cost.
Mike Burns:And then I made I had 10 of them. And then I put them together and I gave them away to family and friends for them to test and put them on their cars and see what they liked about them, what they didn't like about them. I ran some tests in my garage to see, you know, I I actually filled the oil pan up with oil, and then I drained it using these prototypes to see how it would how it would work. And we did several iterations of these valves in the early days, changing out springs, changing out check ball sizes, you know, all the internal components to get us So we wanted to have the the safest valve to use that offered the fastest flow rate and that didn't require any tools for operation. Yeah.
Parker Nash:Yeah. So when did you actually so you start so you get a little bit of validation from some friends and family. And I'm assuming that you got some pretty good feedback from them. Right? Mhmm.
Parker Nash:And then what did you do to first start getting some sales coming in in the door?
Mike Burns:Yeah. So, I had a website, so valvamax.com. I got to Amazon as well. And I was kind of experimenting around with Google Ads. This was back in slight 2018 and, you know, trying different things.
Mike Burns:And what what I found was that, you know, any sales that I got during the week were offset by the ad cost. And so in other in other words, it was like I ended up with $0 at the end of the week. And so I may have gotten like 8 to 10 sales in a in an average week, and that was about normal. For for several months, it was just very, very slow.
Parker Nash:Yeah. And then what did you do? Like, what happened to because eventually you started to hit a little started to catch on a bit. Right? Sales started to pick up.
Parker Nash:So what led you to kinda initially getting past that just breakeven point on your on your sales?
Mike Burns:I would say that the inflection point for us was when Scottie Kilmer, who is a major YouTube personality, is actually based, in Houston. And I reached out to him and I said, hey, love the I love your channel. You know, I had over a 1000000 subscribers at the time. I said, I love what you're doing. Would you be willing to look at my new product and just give me some thoughts on it?
Mike Burns:I didn't want him to do anything on the show or anything necessarily. I just wanted to, from his experience as an automotive expert in the field, you know, hey, what do you think about this kind of thing? And so, I assumed a sample, and I never heard from him. And I thought, well, maybe he doesn't like it or maybe he's you know, I'm sure he's busy. And so, it went by, another week went by.
Mike Burns:And then all of a sudden, you know, on one particular Tuesday morning, I was getting ready for work, and my phone buzzed with a a sale. And I was like, oh, nice. We got a we got a sale, you know? And then it buzzed again. And then it buzzed again.
Mike Burns:And then it wouldn't stop buzzing from the sea from the sails. Like, it it was like it was you know, because I had my phone set up to to, to give me an to give me a you know, a notice from Shopify whenever I get an order. It was just ringing. Like, it was buzzing nonstop. And I'm like, what in the world the f?
Mike Burns:There's gotta be something wrong. And so I went to Shopify to see because you can see where traffic is coming from. And it was all coming from YouTube. And I'm like, Oh, this is on? What in the world?
Mike Burns:And so, I just went to YouTube and I Googled BattleMax to see who'swhat was going on. And I see that, you know, just a few minutes after Scottie had aired this video, it had received, like, 10,000 views.\ Wow.\ And these were all people coming over from this video. And I had a total of 750 orders from that one video. It has, I think, today, like around 1 and a half 1000000 views. Just totally unexpected.
Mike Burns:Yeah. But a huge, a huge gift from Scottie, and I'll always be grateful to him for that.
Parker Nash:When you sent it to him, did you think, oh, maybe he'll do a review of it and put something up? Or were you just like, no. I actually just wanna get this guy's an expert in the field here. I just wanna see what he thinks about the product.
Mike Burns:No. I had a zero expectation that he would put it on the show because he he's not really one that would do that product review. Like, that's not really what he does. Like, he he would explained to you how to do something on your Yeah. Right.
Mike Burns:Right. Right. Necessarily sharing a tool from someone. Yeah. And so, but I just wanted to get his honest feedback as as a DIY car, maintenance guy.
Mike Burns:Yeah. But then, you know, on this channel, on this video, he's like, BattleMax is the best thing I've ever seen. This is gonna change in the automotive world and all this stuff.
Parker Nash:I've seen that video a 1000000 times now, and it makes me laugh. And I love it every single time. If you haven't seen it, I mean, just check it out. Go to YouTube. Scotty Kilmer.
Parker Nash:Put his name in, and you can just see the videos he makes. This guy is an absolute. He's just kinda like a zany car guy. He's just a total kook, but he's just a great guy. Right?
Parker Nash:Yeah. His videos are hilarious. Super informative, 1st and foremost, with just he's just a great trusted resource, and he makes really good videos. But, I mean, you could not have scripted a better video for your product. Like, if you had tried yourself a 1000000 times to, I'm gonna create a fantastic ad or something for this, like, and script it, I mean, he did it for you.
Parker Nash:He did it for Right. Both from beginning to end. But it wasn't able to assist. It was really just a product review.
Mike Burns:Yes. Absolutely. And it really I
Parker Nash:mean, to me, like, that whole thing, it just goes the same that, like, just the thought of, man, like, the more you just gotta shoot your shot and just get it out there, get it into people's hands. And the more you do that, the more, quote, unquote, luck will will come your way on these kinds of things. Right? That's right. Absolutely.
Parker Nash:And, also, too, boy, talk about getting how important it is to get your product in the into the right hands of people like that. I mean and that's what's so great about this kind of stuff, whether it's placements or if it's product reviews or influencers, affiliates, or that kind of stuff. If it's coming from a trusted resource that's giving an honest review or their thoughts on a product, man, that sales cycle is absolutely cut down from weeks or days or whatever that consideration period is, depending on what your product is, to seconds because they don't need to do all the research themselves. It's coming from somebody that they really trust, and it's a it's as good as a direct referral of you should get this product. And it was obviously proven by how quickly you you post the video and you start getting sales on in Shopify from your website.
Mike Burns:Right. No. You're absolutely right. It's all all about finding that influencer. You know, and for your audience, no matter what industry they're in, there's an influencer in that industry.
Mike Burns:And it's about finding that person, getting your product to the hands of that person Yeah. And then letting them use their megaphone into the audience. And like you said, it's a trusted source. Yeah. But Scottie really put us on the map.
Parker Nash:And that's so dang cool. And, you know, I think what's so great about that too is it was, you know, it was just a totally honest, hey. Will you check out and review? Like, give me some feedback on my product. It wasn't a, I'll pay you a ton of money.
Parker Nash:I'm gonna sponsor you. This it was just such a authentic, just true I would love your thoughts on this. And, man, that was just awesome that he actually did that because I'm sure I gotta imagine with the size of his YouTube channel, he gets hit up by companies and brands all the time. But he's like,
Mike Burns:I would think so. Yes. I mean, it's it's a very hotly watched channel. Anyone from DIY Motor Space knows Scottie's name. Yeah.
Mike Burns:That he has a big following.
Parker Nash:Yeah. For sure. So okay. So Scottie really kinda some launches you forward with some sales and traction. Were you you were maybe doing some Google Ads yourself at that point.
Parker Nash:What were you doing in terms of other strategies, tactics to generate sales? What else did your marketing look like at that point? And after, Scottie, what else did you start to do?
Mike Burns:Yeah. Well, I think after Scottie's, feature of our product, it really proved it out that what we were doing could potentially work here, that it really proved out the product, and it gave us that confidence going forward. And so, I really started leaning heavily into SEMA at that time. I was part of a program called SEMA Launchpad for the recognized and SEMA is, by the way, the world's largest automotive trade show that they have every year in Vegas. And they were running a Launchpad program and it was a competitive entry sort of thing and I got accepted into that program.
Mike Burns:And I was able to get up on the stage in in front of SEMA and and, you know, thousands of automotive influencers and be able to speak about our product and what we were doing there. But then after Scottie had reached out to us, you know, with several other YouTube channels, people who were running automotive maintenance, type channels had reached out to me. And so we were on a lot of different folks' YouTube channels out there. But, yeah, it's just been growing ever since.
Parker Nash:Yeah. Has that With the YouTube channels, has that just been through are they looking for affiliate commissions? Is that just purely a, hey, we'll we'll give you some product and maybe they're running affiliate links to Amazon themselves or something like that? Or is it just, these guys are just looking for to do some reviews and make some content?
Mike Burns:You know, it's really just I think they're looking to make some content and for their audience. Yeah. But oftentimes, we'll provide them a free sample Yeah. In exchange for them doing a video and it that's worked out pretty well for us.
Parker Nash:Has that been one of the best channels for you or at least strategies for growing Valvonaxes through that YouTube?
Mike Burns:I think so. Because our product is not, it's not like there's 20 other providers of this product. People really, everyone knows what it is. And so, the nature of our product is one that requires a little bit of education.
Parker Nash:Yep. And so, YouTube is
Mike Burns:a great platform for that because it describes how to use it. And that's been really good for us to be able to show people how it works.
Parker Nash:Yeah. Right. Because it's such a if you haven't seen any of this before, it's such a novel product and concept that it's entirely new solution for something that you're you're looking for. You just it's not a it requires a bit of how does this work? How do explanation and education before okay.
Parker Nash:I think this makes sense. And, man, what a yeah. Like, YouTube, the little YouTube reviews and product videos for that kind of stuff are just a perfect platform for that.
Mike Burns:Yeah. That's right. And as we've gotten into some stores and I'll say probably the next big break was getting into Canadian Tire. We're in 250, 300 stores in Canadian Tire. And we had to really think about our product packaging because it's not a product that's immediately recognizable on aisle or that would lend itself to someone easily understanding it.
Mike Burns:And so, we had to think about how we design our product packaging in a way that gets our point across very quickly without putting too much on the front page or the front on the package. And so, we have a QR code where people can scan that takes them to a video that shows them how it works and things like that.
Parker Nash:CB: How did you get into Canadian? Is it Canadian Tire?
Mike Burns:Is that the retail? Yeah. So, Canadian Tire actually just reached out to us. So, we're part of a platform called RangeMe, which is a website for manufacturers, distributors. And it's a way for you to get noticed by major brands like Canadian Tire and Lowe's and other big companies.
Mike Burns:And so we had a profile on RangeMe that they found us on, and they wanted to expand their offerings in this category. And so they reached out to us. And, we've been working with them for, I guess, going on 3 or
Parker Nash:4 years now. Okay. With them, what have you found? I mean, breaking into retail, I mean, it's a whole that's a whole another ballgame. And, especially, again, like you're saying, you've already learned and adapted and and applied some of these things, but, gosh, you know, especially with your product, where it requires some education, some explanation.
Parker Nash:But what have you found that has been helpful in driving success within the retail channel, for example, with our partners like Canadian Tire? I mean, so much of retail I know is placement, who's how well knowledgeable is the staff, like are people explaining the stuff to them, are people coming to the store for the product? I mean, gosh, there's so many different variables, but what have you seen that's worked well in helping, Canadian Tires drive sales for Valvamax? Yeah. Well, you know, Canadian Tire or for that matter, any other retailer, they wanna see you succeed.
Parker Nash:And so they want
Mike Burns:to put the product in the best light that they possibly can. And, you know, shelf space is very critical. And so if it's not your product that's gonna be there, it's someone else's product that's gonna be there. And so you've gotta be able to show how your product is going to move to the stores in order to command that shelf space, you know, month after month. The biggest challenge I think that we've had going into retail is the payment cycle.
Mike Burns:So retailers usually pay them like a net. Sometimes it's 90, sometimes it's that 120. And so that means that after we have shipped our products to the retailer, they have another 3 or 4 months before they pay us. And so what that has meant for us is trying to find those trying to find financing because we gotta pay our suppliers as soon as the product leaves the supplier and we put it together, but then we don't get paid for another 90 days. And so, finding that financing is sometimes difficult.
Parker Nash:Yeah. Because you've gotten into some pretty big spaces like Lowe's has taken your your disposable funnel And, yeah, when these guys put in orders, they're not it's not like an order here or there. Right? It's pretty big time for, big time orders because it's so nationwide coverage.
Mike Burns:Right. Yeah. We just got into, we're in every Lowe's store across America, got into Lowe's last year. I was part of the Lowe's Into the Blue program, and so Lowe's actually slew me out to their corporate headquarters in Charlotte. And it was really cool.
Mike Burns:It was like a Shark Tank style presentation where there were several levels and you had to present your products before the buyers, And, you only had 60 seconds to do it. And so, you know, I competed pretty well and it came down to, like, 1 or 2 of us that gotta move on. They ultimately chose Valvamax to to put into their stores. So it's also, you know, been great working with Lowe's as well. But yeah, like you're saying, you know, if you're used to selling single orders on a retail basis and then you get a massive purchase order from a company like Lowe's, it does require a lot of different there's a lot of things that have to happen to be successful.
Mike Burns:Financing is only part of it. But, you know, there's all of this stuff like palletizing and barcoding, special barcodes, getting shipments out on time and trying to avoid penalties and fees. There's just so many different things involved with selling in a retail store that we had to learn Yeah.
Parker Nash:Quickly. Yeah. And I suppose when you're designing your Valvamax products on a piece of paper and ideating you were thinking down the road of barcodes and all that kind of stuff with retailers, right? That was probably a 1000000 miles. If I wasn't even the thought of even in the ballpark, right?
Mike Burns:Right. I mean, then, you know, the individual product, of course, is barcoded and that goes out. Yeah. But then when you're selling to a retailer, then the box has to have a bar has a different barcode. And then the carton has a different barcode.
Mike Burns:And then the pallet has a different barcode. And so it's just, like, keeping all of this straight. It does require a lot of coordination and stuff.
Parker Nash:What do you got when starting conversations with Lowe's? Was that also did you get into them through RangeMe, or how did you come across them? And what was that process like?
Mike Burns:So Lowe's noticed us on RangeMe. And, actually, on RangeMe, you can tell who's looked at your profile. And so I think what I did was I found that Lowe's had been looking at our profile very consistently over the last couple of weeks. Like, every day, they were looking at it. I miss.
Mike Burns:And I thought, gosh, that's interesting. So I emailed them, and I said, we'd love the opportunity to be with you all to, you know, to explain our products. I understand you have an interest in it. And they said, Well, actually, there's end of the blue this Lowe's end of the blue program, which is a program that's designed for companies that are based in the US that are small companies that are looking to get exposure into into retail stores that they have a product that would resonate with their audience. And so, getting to be part of that program was really, really helpful for me.
Parker Nash:Did you email them directly through the RangeMe platform? Or did you go on LinkedIn and find some folks or something something like that to come?
Mike Burns:So I messaged them from the, the RangeMe platform. Okay. Gotcha.
Parker Nash:And then and so for Lowe's so you have an assortment of products now. You started with the one main valve, which drains your oil, but Lowe's, correct me if I'm wrong, they've really latched on to your disposable funnel that you fill, an additional product they add to the assortment. Right? Yes. That's right.
Parker Nash:Mhmm. So it's this really cool little product you've done where it's you know, forget the funnels where it's gets dirty and nasty. You're pouring oil into the car. You create this great little paper product that's disposable so you can just toss it and pitch it when you're done with it. Keeps your making sure you're not getting any little dirt and stuff into your your engine as you add oil.
Parker Nash:But talk me through that process of what were some of the questions that Lowe's was looking for, what they wanna know about your product, how did you craft, Did you actually give, like, a full kind of pitch, like a sales deck kind of thing? Like, how did you craft this to make it as appealing as possible for a Lowe's to place into their stores?
Mike Burns:Yeah. So a couple of things with that. One is that our disposable funnels are a consumable product. And so, for a company like Lowe's who's wanting to move inventory through the stores, they sell a plastic funnel to a customer. They're probably not going to sell another one to that customer for years.
Mike Burns:But with our product, because it's a consumable, they were interested in it from the repeat sales perspective as you can imagine. And that's been really good for us as well to have those repeat sales. But it also does offer, you know, a lot of advantages, like you said, to a DIY customer that doesn't have to clean the inside of the funnel and so forth. But really, the whole idea behind, you know, we started off with the quick twist valve and then we've been able to expand our product offerings into a whole bunch of other different products. And so the aim of Valvamax really is to be a one stop shop for all things oil change related and to be that one place where people can go to to get the tools that they need to do their oil change, you know, quickly, safely, and easily.
Parker Nash:Yeah. You're back in the in the lab hooking up good ideas for the next idea for the next product drop. Right? That's right. Yes.
Parker Nash:The CEO slash chief mad scientist innovator product design. That's right.\
Mike Burns:Yeah. And a lot of these products, you know, by the way, like a disposable funnel, it's such an easy product, right? It's a cardboard card stock funnel, but it's very easy. But we almost sell more of those than we do the valve. Yeah.
Mike Burns:Right. It works across so many different industries and equipment and so forth that people have really latched onto it.
Parker Nash:And, also, I mean, this is the good and the bad of your main you know, the original product, the valve is it's built so well. It's not like it's certainly not a consumable product. Right? And assuming that most people are switching their car out every single year, they don't need another valve. They're gonna have it for a while.
Parker Nash:But you built it so well that it's not like it's something that has a a planned obsolescence in it where people gotta keep coming back to buy it. So it's nice to have that recurring that consumable product in terms in addition to that. How do you so on that, you've actually developed a assortment of products, but, like, how do you what's your process for do you have processes for adding new ideas, new products to align? What do you look for in terms of of, like you say, you're building out that full one stop shop for oil changes?
Mike Burns:So one of the things we started experimenting with recently was taking tools that are already existing within our space. So, for example, oil filter wrenches have been used for decades decades, right? But then taking that wrench, which is a commodity and branding it under the Valvamax name because we think that there's a value to a branded product that branded products can carry higher prices in general. Mhmm. And, people recognize now the Valvo Max name from their experience with the Quick Twist valve.
Mike Burns:And so it's all about what other products can we bring to the marketplace Yeah. That are reflective of who we are as a company in terms of providing, you know, the highest quality products to people and can command that higher price.
Parker Nash:Yeah. Gotcha. Hey. What is I'm wondering, you know, there's because you've been doing this when did you initially launch Valemax? I forget.
Mike Burns:We officially launched in 2018.
Parker Nash:Okay. 2018. So we got 6 years under the belt. Right? You've you've grown it to a point.
Parker Nash:You're in you've gotten into major retailers like Lowe's. Kinda looking back over those 6 or so years, what would you not do again if you had to do it again? Looking back, I'm like, boy, I did that, whether it's strategy, whether it's sales or marketing or or product that you're like, man, I put a lot of time and money into that. If I could grab a little time machine, what would I not do again to avoid avoid wasting time, money, or resources on that idea?
Mike Burns:Oh, man. That's such a good question. I would say just focus. You know, follow one course until success. Right?
Mike Burns:Mhmm. And so early on, I think I tried to do too much at once. And I think what I should have done was just made the quick twist valve into the very best product that I possibly could have and only focus on that valve rather than trying to expand too quickly. And so, I would say just whatever product that you have started and people are familiar with and it's selling, offer the very best version of that product that you can then you can always expand the line down the road. But provide the very best product that you can initially because I tried to venture off into too many other areas too quickly, I think.
Mike Burns:So if if I could do it over again, I would say I would just probably try to focus a little bit more.
Parker Nash:Yeah. I think that's that's a great advice. I mean, that's small and businesses make that mistake all the time. I mean, and that was when I was at Nike managing product lines, that was half my job that we decided was actually cutting products eliminating products because, like, this is making it so much harder for people to find the actual products we know that they're coming for and that they love. And, so many years, we haven't even scratched the surface yet in terms of actually getting the main product out there to our consumers.
Parker Nash:Why are we distracting with the other stuff that is just we should be focusing on that one big thing right now.
Mike Burns:Yeah. Absolutely.
Parker Nash:Well, Mike, this has been awesome, but tell us a little bit about where Valemax is heading and where can we find you.
Mike Burns:Yeah. So we just got into tractor supply stores. They're gonna put us, you know, hopefully all across the country and so get continued exposure there with retail and hopefully get into, you know, some government contracts and some things like that. You can find us at, on our website atvalhelmax.com. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or through any other social media channels.
Mike Burns:Awesome. Thanks, Greg. All right. Thanks, Bart.
Parker Nash:Thanks for listening to the Uncommon Brands podcast. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, gained new insights, and are inspired to take one idea you heard from the episode and implement it into your business. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review, and join us next time as we uncover how the next wave of up and coming consumer brands
Mike Burns:are building an uncommon brand.