Episode 67

Ballsy Moves! From Idea to 7 Figures in 7 Months with Adam Hendle

Published on: 17th November, 2021

Has an amazing idea ever come to you in the shower? Yes of course it has - that is when all great ideas come to us. BUT! Have you ever taken that great idea and turned it into a 7 figure business. I’m betting the answer is no. And that my friends is the difference between having an idea and acting on that idea. 

Welcome to Episode 67 where I am joined by Adam Hendle the founder of Ballsy on how he turned an idea into a multimillion dollar business in just 7 months. 

Drink of the Week: The Tainted Love Shot

https://www.topshelfpours.com/tainted-love-shot/

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson, a full-service branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency with team members in Boston, LA, Miami, and NYC. https://nickersoncos.com/

Julie Brown:

Website- ​https://juliebrownbd.com/

Instagram- ​https://www.instagram.com/juliebrown_bd/

LinkedIn- ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-brown-b6942817/

Youtube- ​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIwWVdayM2mYXzR9JNLJ55Q

Facebook- ​https://www.facebook.com/juliebrownbd/

Adam Hendle

Website: https://ballwash.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamhendle/

DISCOUNT CODE: JULIE20

sound/music by www.freesound.org/people/setuniman/


Transcript
Julie:

Has an amazing idea ever come to you in the shower?

Julie:

Doug.

Julie:

Yes, of course it has.

Julie:

That's where all great ideas come to us.

Julie:

Well, Have you ever taken that great idea and then turned it

Julie:

into a seven figure business?

Julie:

And bedding.

Julie:

The answer is no.

Julie:

And that my friends is the difference between having an

Julie:

idea and acting on that idea.

Julie:

Welcome to episode 67 of this shit works.

Julie:

I'm your host, Julie Brown.

Julie:

And today I am joined by Adam handle.

Julie:

The founder of ballsy on how we turned your shower idea into a multimillion

Julie:

dollar business in just seven.

Julie:

Months.

Julie:

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

Julie:

A full service, branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency

Julie:

with team members and Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

Julie:

Visit them at Nickerson C O S.

Julie:

Dot com.

Julie:

The shower is the place we get the best ideas.

Julie:

I've already mentioned that, but those ideas aren't usually about.

Julie:

Showering.

Julie:

Let me explain.

Julie:

If you look at the shelves in your shower, how many of the products that

Julie:

line, those shelves and corners and suction cup baskets are made for women?

Julie:

99% of the products made for the shower are made for women.

Julie:

Men's products are usually relegated to two in one shampoo and conditioner

Julie:

combos, or a three in one products mean to clean you from head to toe with not

Julie:

a hint of difference between the skin on your face and the delicate skin.

Julie:

On your balls.

Julie:

I don't have my own balls.

Julie:

So I'm making an assumption that the balls are delicate with how much you guys cry

Julie:

over a mere graze to the nether region.

Julie:

For our guests today, this observation came at a time when he was actually

Julie:

looking for more high quality men's personal care products.

Julie:

Adam, an entrepreneur in e-commerce Wiz realized that there were no products

Julie:

specifically designed to tackle common below the belt issues such as sweat.

Julie:

Odor and chafing.

Julie:

His aha shower moment led not only to ballsy his first flagship product

Julie:

ball wash, but to a whole new niche in the men's grooming category.

Julie:

It's for the payer down there.

Julie:

So how did Adam take that moment of inspiration and turn it into a seven

Julie:

figure business in seven months?

Julie:

Let's find out how.

Julie:

Adam, welcome to the podcast.

Julie:

Yeah.

Adam:

Well, thank you so much, Julie.

Adam:

I really appreciate it.

Adam:

It's good to be here.

Julie:

Every great company has a founder story, a story describing how

Julie:

and why that company came to be and why it's different from other companies.

Julie:

I just hinted at your founders story, a moment of frustration and

Julie:

inspiration that you had in the shower.

Julie:

Can you elaborate?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

absolutely.

Adam:

So it was just, as you had to put it a shower moment.

Adam:

Aha.

Adam:

Idea about shower products.

Adam:

So, this was back in probably 2016.

Adam:

Now it's basically just looking around.

Adam:

So happened to notice on this day, how many different products my wife had.

Adam:

And again, it's like females, I've always had different products

Adam:

for different areas of the body.

Adam:

We're males have kind of been relegated to like value washes and just not

Adam:

very high quality, men's care items, especially, four or five years ago.

Adam:

And also around that time, I was seeking out some of these

Adam:

more high quality men's brands.

Adam:

but honestly they all felt just kind of lame to me.

Adam:

They were more like GQ, upscale, apothecary style brands and just,

Adam:

they weren't fun and inviting.

Adam:

And I.

Adam:

You know, basically we could take a bold, fun men's, brand pair that up

Adam:

with an area of a guy's body that has been overlooked for whatever reason.

Adam:

And, uh, ballsy was born.

Adam:

So in ball wash, like you said, it was, it was that kind of aha moment idea.

Adam:

The shower.

Adam:

I literally jumped out of the shot.

Adam:

Google search later to my surprise and delight, you know, no one had

Adam:

ever created a product called ball.

Adam:

And I was like, all right, I'm either onto something here or I'm absolutely insane.

Adam:

And that kind of started, the entrepreneurial journey and to figure

Adam:

it out and answering that question.

Adam:

And now, here we are four years later after launch and we've grown it

Adam:

substantially and it's been a, it's been quite the roller coaster ride.

Julie:

So, this is what sets you apart from most people, because I would

Julie:

have an idea like that in the shower.

Julie:

I'd be like, geez, there's nothing to wash my balls with.

Julie:

And then that would be it.

Julie:

I wouldn't create, a multimillion dollar company with it, but I'm

Julie:

assuming you didn't know the first thing about creating a product.

Julie:

So how do you go from, okay.

Julie:

I have zero experience creating., a product

Julie:

to actually formulating a product, like how does that happen?

Adam:

Yeah, that's a really good question.

Adam:

So honestly, my first thought was to go to YouTube and look up different,

Adam:

like how to make body washes.

Adam:

And that led me to whole foods and bite a bunch of essential

Adam:

oils and different ingredients.

Adam:

Trying to make my own wash out of the gate.

Adam:

And, uh, that was fun.

Adam:

But I quickly realized I am definitely a better writer entrepreneur than a chemist.

Adam:

And that put me on the path of finding somebody that was going to

Adam:

help me bring this idea to life.

Adam:

So I spent the next six or so months after that, finding different personal

Adam:

care manufacturers, calling them nine times out of 10, basically

Adam:

being not laughed off the phone.

Adam:

Um, I only had $5,000 set aside to launch this.

Adam:

And like that is laughable when it comes to launching an actual physical product.

Adam:

, but that's what I had set aside is like this small validation could

Adam:

I get a hundred to 500 units make and see what happens here?

Adam:

, Six months into it.

Adam:

I finally knocked on the right door and, it was a smaller, personal care brand,

Adam:

a manufacturer at the time that focused on a more natural products, family run.

Adam:

And within five minutes of the phone call, she was like, I'm

Adam:

in we absolutely love this idea.

Adam:

We talked to a lot of brands.

Adam:

We think there's something here and we'd love to be, a partner with you and

Adam:

scale it up with the budget that you.

Adam:

And that was kind of the first break and we spent the next, six months

Adam:

or so formulating that first person.

Adam:

As you kind of alluded to, I'm not Sure.

Adam:

I'd found that out firsthand.

Adam:

But I kinda knew what I wanted in the product and how I wanted to react and

Adam:

what, I don't want it to feel like smell like and those ingredients.

Adam:

And, um, we worked together, you know, uh, several rounds

Adam:

of formulation back and forth.

Adam:

And then about six months later, December of 2017, we

Adam:

launched ball wash to the world.

Julie:

So you've launched it just in time for Christmas.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

So we had 500 units.

Adam:

We actually, we launched a black Friday, and we sold out of those 500

Adam:

units that weekend and it was like,

Julie:

purely online?

Julie:

This is a online campaign that you designed.

Adam:

Yeah, exactly.

Adam:

So we launched it on a, at the time ball wash.com.

Adam:

We had two products at ball wash and then nut rub, which is a solid cologne,

Adam:

a beeswax based solid cologne, which is also great for below the belt.

Adam:

So we launched those two products, and as I mentioned, we sold out of,

Adam:

our initial batch of ball wash in the first 48 hours and was like, Okay.

Adam:

this is great.

Adam:

And this is also terrible because we have just entered into

Adam:

December here and we're sold.

Adam:

Um, So I called up our manufacturer and said, Hey, good, good and bad news.

Adam:

can you make me any more?

Adam:

And we ended up making and selling 15,000 units, in December

Adam:

of that year, uh, in 2017.

Adam:

And then we were kind of off to the races.

Julie:

So talk to me a little bit about how you're like, okay, this is the money

Julie:

I have to set aside to start a company.

Julie:

You know, my husband started his own company.

Julie:

I started my own company.

Julie:

I know how scary that is, especially when you're using your own money,

Julie:

which we did for both of our companies.

Julie:

So like $5,000 for people who don't know is just not a lot of money to start

Julie:

any business, let alone one, in which you're creating a product that has cells.

Julie:

Did you ever think about going out and getting outside investment money

Julie:

or was you, were you like breathing the sink or swim with this $5,000?

Adam:

I mean, so a little bit about a background on myself.

Adam:

Um, I've been involved in e-commerce startups and, startups in general

Adam:

for the past 10, 10 or so years.

Adam:

So over that time, I've basically gained a lot of different skills.

Adam:

From, copywriting to a label design, a website launch, like I

Adam:

really can do basically a to Z.

Adam:

So I knew all I needed to do with that money was get a product made.

Adam:

So I knew I didn't have to pay anyone, anything else for the rest of it.

Adam:

Um, so even so that was still a very small budget for it, but yeah,

Adam:

I wanted to see could I launch it, could I run a few ads and see what

Adam:

happened before we started scaling it up and then yeah, to your point after.

Adam:

When we sold 15,000 units, uh that's when I started to think, you

Adam:

know, should we raise some money for this and continue to grow it?

Adam:

So we went down that path and I say, we, because in jail January, I reached

Adam:

out to an ex co-workers name's Brock, where I worked at an e-commerce

Adam:

startup called store envy with Andy.

Adam:

I absolutely loved working with the guy and the day that I left store

Adam:

and he said, one day, we're going to work together on something else.

Adam:

Little did I know it was going to be, you know, uh, around balls.

Adam:

, but I brought him in in January and we basically spent all of 2018.

Adam:

Answering the question of was that just like a little spike and just kind of

Adam:

a holiday moment, or is this a brand that we can really sink our teeth into?

Adam:

So we worked on ballsy part-time again, I was at a different startup called FameBit.

Adam:

He was still at sworn VC and through an acquisition.

Adam:

, So we basically spent all of 2018 building that out.

Adam:

We edited a third product and we hit, uh, $8 million in our first full

Adam:

year and said, okay, let's, let's go ahead and take this full-time.

Adam:

And, and that's what we did in 2019.

Julie:

So you were afraid like maybe, oh, maybe this is like a novelty.

Julie:

People are just buying it for Christmas or Valentine's day or something like

Julie:

that, but it's not, it's a viable product that you are filling a

Julie:

void in the marketplace that maybe people didn't even know were there.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, we're creating a new category, you know, in the space and yeah, I

Adam:

mean, we definitely leverage gifting and, there is a novelty aspect to that.

Adam:

Like it gets that we can get into a little bit more, and How we use that in

Adam:

our marketing and our, we bootstrapped.

Adam:

Uh, but the thing I'll I'll note there is.

Adam:

At the end of 2018, when we're getting towards that age, a million dollars in

Adam:

revenue, I said, all right, let's go out and raise money and build out a team.

Adam:

And we started having conversations.

Adam:

We actually had a couple of offers on the table and, basically November it

Adam:

blew up and we said, you know what?

Adam:

Let's just do this ourselves.

Adam:

I think we can finance the inventory.

Adam:

my partner Brock knew somebody that, that does inventory financing loans.

Adam:

So we basically.

Adam:

Decided to continue to bootstrap it.

Adam:

And here we are in 2021, we've bootstrapped the whole way.

Adam:

We've never taken on any capital.

Adam:

And, and we've also grown the brands, uh, to the state with really only

Adam:

four full-time team members, three of which are my best friends.

Adam:

So.

Julie:

are you managing shipping?

Julie:

Like that sounds to me like, Ooh, like, I couldn't even imagine, like,

Julie:

especially with that first order of 500 where you were like, holy shit,

Julie:

now we have to ship this everywhere.

Julie:

Like, how did you manage that?

Julie:

Did you have systems in place for that?

Adam:

So the first, yeah, the first orders I shipped myself

Adam:

and yes, it was holy shit.

Adam:

This is not what I want to be doing Right,

Adam:

now.

Adam:

It was really exciting at first, like, uh, you know, like it doesn't like packing

Adam:

up those first orders and you're like, man, like these are going to people.

Adam:

I don't know this is incredible.

Adam:

Uh, but that quickly fades into.

Adam:

I cannot be spending my time doing this.

Adam:

That was fun for a moment.

Adam:

And our product manufacturer at the time said, Hey, we'd be happy.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

To help you with your fulfillment.

Adam:

Which worked out really good for the first two years, the

Adam:

business they made the products and then they would ship them out.

Adam:

Um, and then we basically got to a point where we outgrew what they could do.

Adam:

And then we've moved since then to, a three PL um, who does fulfillment for us.

Julie:

So let's talk a little bit about your advertising.

Julie:

Cause it is cheeky.

Julie:

It is fun.

Julie:

How are you?

Julie:

You relied heavily on social media, like Facebook groups and

Julie:

things like that your advertising.

Julie:

How did you decide that this is the w did you decide that, okay, this is

Julie:

where we think we will have the most impact in our advertising dollars.

Adam:

So the first ads we launched for black Friday were, uh, Facebook ads.

Adam:

I think I had about four different ad sets and three of

Adam:

them were targeted towards males.

Adam:

And one, I targeted towards females and I didn't really think too

Adam:

much about the female audience.

Adam:

I'm like, this is a male product or marketed towards males.

Adam:

And I just, wasn't thinking clearly about that.

Adam:

And lo and behold, the female audience.

Adam:

Was a quadruple the amount of row ads, the return on our

Adam:

ad spend that the males were.

Adam:

And I said, okay, no, this makes a lot of sense.

Adam:

Like once the light bulb hit, I was like, okay, okay.

Adam:

Well one, like it's a fun product for a female to buy for their guy.

Adam:

Um, in two, like they seemed to really latch onto the product story with the

Adam:

ingredients and then it's higher quality, you know, and it's natural as possible.

Adam:

And then the other part of that outside of just gifting is, you

Adam:

know, females and women buy a lot of these types of products in general.

Adam:

For their households.

Adam:

Uh, I'd always bought my own products.

Adam:

So I think it just kind of overlooked that, but I quickly realized that a lot

Adam:

of guys, the women in their life buy these products and to this date, you know,

Adam:

60 to 65% of our customers are female.

Adam:

So a larger majority.

Adam:

And then.

Adam:

Um, so that was a really eyeopening kind of light bulb moment early on.

Adam:

And then we've got to leaned into that and done, I think, a better, a better

Adam:

job of just speaking to two females.

Adam:

Whether it's in our retargeting with our emails or just in the copy of

Adam:

the ads themselves to be able to talk specifically to moms, for buying it

Adam:

for their teenage boys, going through puberty as this like fun way to say.

Adam:

Hey, you're going on with somebody down there, you know, there's something

Adam:

going on and it's like this awkward conversation, but, and this is probably

Adam:

not for all moms, but for, they came to us and they gave us this idea and

Adam:

they said, Hey, we're using these as puberty packs to talk to our boys

Adam:

during this like, awkward time where they can kind of laugh about it.

Adam:

But it's also like, Hey, like it's actually time to start thinking

Adam:

about like, taking care of

Julie:

it's so funny.

Julie:

Cause like I'm of the age where a number of my friends have teenage boys and all

Julie:

of the girls are like, my kids smells

Adam:

Yeah.

Julie:

bad.

Julie:

No, that's great.

Julie:

I hadn't even thought of that.

Julie:

But now, now that again, it's like the blaringly obvious is, are things that you

Julie:

miss sometimes, but that, that is perfect.

Julie:

Yeah.

Adam:

It, and again, I can't say that I had a master plan to,

Adam:

you know, market towards moms.

Adam:

I think honestly, we were a little bit more worried that.

Adam:

Moms might get upset about how bold our marketing is and flag it on Facebook,

Adam:

but we've never had any issues on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest in

Adam:

terms of, uh, balls as a category.

Adam:

And I think it's because we strike a certain balance between being bold,

Adam:

fun, and playful, but also being very professional and upscale and

Adam:

the way that we market our products, like, you know, something called.

Adam:

Ball washer and nut rub.

Adam:

There could be absolutely ridiculous looking.

Adam:

I mean, it's ridiculous sounding when you say it out loud, but like,

Adam:

if you look at the way that our labels are designed and our product

Adam:

photography is done, like I think.

Adam:

It gets people's attention on Facebook and Instagram.

Adam:

You'd be like, is that, does that say ball wash?

Adam:

Are we talking about balls?

Adam:

And then they click through and it's like, wow.

Adam:

This actually is a full men's brand that is like taking this seriously, even though

Adam:

balls are funny or as serious as it can.

Julie:

it's funny that you're like, oh, is this real?

Julie:

Because it leading up to us having this conversation, I sent your

Julie:

website to a number of my guy friends, and one of them wrote back.

Julie:

He's like, so this is a show, right?

Julie:

No, it's not a joke.

Julie:

It was like, he's like, I literally looked at it and he was like, she's kidding.

Julie:

She's like throwing me a joke right now.

Julie:

Like I was like, I'm not, so

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, it's something that we had to go against.

Adam:

I mean, balls for whatever reason have always been kind of funny.

Adam:

you know, like, you know, getting hit in the balls and you know, there's Always

Adam:

been, you know, Saturday night live skids about, you know, Pete and sweaty balls and

Julie:

Yeah.

Adam:

these things balls and just a

Julie:

Oh, no, it's fine.

Julie:

And I'm a golfer too.

Julie:

Do you know how many ball jokes we tell over the course of 18 holes?

Adam:

No doubt.

Adam:

No doubt.

Adam:

So yeah, I mean, we, we lean into that, Right.

Adam:

Because it is funny and it is shocking and you have to do something

Adam:

to stand out, especially now when like online advertising is getting

Adam:

more and more crowded, you need to turn heads, but Once we turn

Adam:

somebody's head, get their attention.

Adam:

Like it's really on us to tell a more in-depth story about why we've

Adam:

chosen the ingredients we have.

Adam:

We make everything in the us.

Adam:

Like it's a small, independent business that we're, you know, we

Adam:

really believe in product quality.

Adam:

And to get that across to customers is key.

Julie:

So it's funny.

Julie:

I was having dinner a couple of weeks ago with some, with a couple of friends.

Julie:

Um, one couple is, um, Todd and Joe, and then another couple Jeff and Sue.

Julie:

And I was mentioning that I was interviewing you because Todd listens

Julie:

to the podcast on his morning runs and Sue listens to it in the car.

Julie:

I don't think the others listened to it.

Julie:

And so Todd is so funny.

Julie:

He was like, wow.

Julie:

I want to ask Adam question.

Julie:

I said, okay.

Julie:

He goes, is the tank going to get any logs?

Julie:

I asked that question or I may I'll see how it goes.

Julie:

I'll see where the flavor of the conversation is.

Julie:

He goes, I think he's missing some spots back there.

Adam:

That's not that crazy of a question.

Adam:

We get people, asking all sorts of questions in that regard.

Adam:

But yes, the taint is covered.

Adam:

We like to say it's for your nuts buttoned body.

Adam:

So, uh,

Julie:

think he will die laughing when he hears this on his morning run.

Adam:

yeah, that's great.

Julie:

Now one thing I want to talk about, because I think it's super

Julie:

important is I know that giving and giving back is a big part of your company.

Julie:

so let's talk a little bit about, the things that you're involved

Julie:

in as a way to give back, because I think that's important that

Julie:

people know that about the company.

Adam:

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Adam:

So, um, we've had two programs.

Adam:

the largest one is our ball wash, give a SAC edition, which is a give back.

Adam:

But I think what's really important about that is that bottle on the back.

Adam:

Shows men how to check themselves for testicular cancer.

Adam:

And obviously one of the best places to do that is in the shower.

Adam:

There's a little illustration, like a 1, 2, 3 guide on how to check yourself.

Adam:

And then we do donate a portion of profits to the Movember foundation.

Adam:

So we partnered up with them last year.

Adam:

, we raised $75,000 and donated it to them, for testicular cancer awareness.

Adam:

So that's something that we started.

Adam:

Last April.

Adam:

And it just did so well that we decided in April is testicular

Adam:

cancer awareness month.

Adam:

We just decided that.

Adam:

It's something that we wanted to keep on all the time.

Adam:

So Yeah.

Adam:

that is a currently a program that we continue to run.

Adam:

And then, last year when, COVID was unfortunately, breaking in, we were able

Adam:

to make a hand sanitizer called flake Slayer, and we donated 25% of the profits

Adam:

to direct relief, which was for the people on the front lines, dealing with COVID.

Adam:

Um, so we raised.

Adam:

I can't remember off hand, but quite a bit of money through that as well.

Adam:

We'd like to give back when we can, we're obviously not in, not, you

Adam:

know, non-profit, but it feels good to give back and it's something that

Adam:

we believe in and will continue to do.

Julie:

No, I hadn't even thought about that.

Julie:

Women are always told, we're always told to check for breast cancer in the shower.

Julie:

You're in the shower check, but I never even thought like, oh,

Julie:

check the balls for bone cancer.

Julie:

Like for prostate cancer in the, in the shower.

Julie:

Um,

Adam:

Yeah, testicular cancer is the number one cancer for males.

Adam:

Um,

Adam:

so it's something that, you know, we overlook, even though it's hanging right.

Adam:

in front of us.

Julie:

Have you seen, competition in the space now that you've

Julie:

been out for your, what?

Julie:

Three years now, are you three years?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

We're going into gear here and yes.

Adam:

Um, honestly, it makes me proud because when we first started, it was

Adam:

a lot of like how this is funny guys.

Adam:

And now, you know, even when we've talked to retailers, Right.

Adam:

Like, wow, like here's the sales, we've done that.

Adam:

And they're blown away.

Adam:

They're like, Okay.

Adam:

this is just kind of this novelty thing.

Adam:

And now we're talking to major retailers who are talking about

Adam:

adding a balls portion to their, retail spread , as a new category.

Adam:

And I like to think of it as what beard care was like 10, 15 years ago.

Adam:

There weren't a lot of beard products.

Adam:

It wasn't a thing.

Adam:

And now like beard care is, a multi-billion dollar industry.

Adam:

I feel like balls.

Adam:

It's funny as it is to say, it's having a moment, it's been, viewed seriously.

Adam:

And with that, there's more competition coming into the end of the market.

Adam:

Just recently old spice released a line called below deck, and I've got

Adam:

to imagine, we were kind of on the radar as like, What's going on in

Adam:

this ball space, we need to test it.

Adam:

And then our biggest competitor is manscape they have more of a trimmer.

Adam:

They're focused more on the Grameen, we're on more of the personal care.

Adam:

but those guys have done a great job.

Adam:

But yeah, I mean, I think it just shows and strengthens the category as

Adam:

is bulkier is like a legitimate thing.

Adam:

That's going to be here and it's going to continue to grow, over the next few.

Julie:

You know, anybody who has ever seen me give a speech.

Julie:

I always talk about this article that was written that said all of the most

Julie:

successful people have one thing in common and that is a spouse or a partner

Julie:

who isn't is invested in their success.

Julie:

And I know I've heard a lot of interviews with you and you talk about

Julie:

how important it was, um, how much your wife helped you through starting

Julie:

the company and with different ideas and marketing and things like that.

Julie:

And I think that's a great story.

Julie:

So can you talk about that a little.

Adam:

No.

Adam:

I mean, I'm really glad you brought this up.

Adam:

Yeah, My wife, Leah has been one the biggest supporter ever, uh,

Adam:

to an incredible sounding board and perspective, obviously from

Adam:

the female side of the business.

Adam:

She's come up with some marketing ideas for us.

Adam:

One was our, we were trying to figure out how to market this for Valentine's day,

Adam:

because we didn't want it to be like, Hey, happy Valentine's day, your balls stink.

Adam:

You know, that's not a great job to get the big gift, but the idea of putting, a

Adam:

slogan on it that says I'm nuts about you.

Adam:

And then having, bulkier products in there is an endearing and fun thing.

Adam:

And she, said, Hey, like you should use a slogan and we did it.

Adam:

And it's been just an absolutely huge game changer for us.

Adam:

We're marketing towards Valentine's day.

Adam:

And then Yeah.

Adam:

outside of that, you know, it's always good to kind of check yourself and get

Adam:

a, female's perspective on like the way that we're marketing and our copy.

Adam:

And, she's been a great sounding board for that.

Adam:

She's also jumped in and customer support when, in the

Adam:

holidays, things are going crazy.

Adam:

And then the other just huge moment.

Adam:

Uh, that really changed everything for me was I mentioned I was at FameBit and

Adam:

we were going through an acquisition.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Google was purchasing us and this was right around the time that it was

Adam:

about to quit take balls and full time.

Adam:

And we've got a seven year old daughter, actually.

Adam:

He was five at the time.

Adam:

And, I came to her and I said, Hey, I want to take ballsy full time.

Adam:

I'm working at Google now, isn't this, the dream like it's so, you

Adam:

know, it's secure, it's a great job, great pay, great benefits.

Adam:

And I'm just going to quit that now and like work on this ball care business.

Adam:

And I was having a really hard time with this, even though the company was doing

Adam:

really well, but , I'm just not, I guess that risk, you know, I'm at that risk.

Adam:

, and she basically.

Adam:

Said, you're being an idiot.

Adam:

I don't care what happens if the company fails or not, but you need to do this

Adam:

and I'll be here for you no matter what.

Adam:

And that was all I needed to hear.

Adam:

And, I took both in full time and I couldn't be more

Adam:

grateful for, for her support.

Adam:

And it's a huge reason why we're why we are where we are today.

Julie:

Right.

Julie:

So I listened to a number of interviews, podcasts that you've been on since you've

Julie:

started and correct me if I'm wrong.

Julie:

But I do think I'm the first female podcast host that you've been on.

Adam:

I think you're a hundred percent correct?

Adam:

Broken the ground now, so hopefully, , there'll be more female podcasts.

Julie:

So what's next you have three products.

Adam:

We've got about 15 now.

Julie:

Oh, wow.

Julie:

okay.

Adam:

yeah, it was three at the end of 2018.

Adam:

, 2019, we added Bulgari, which is now our best selling product,

Adam:

which is a ball deodorant.

Adam:

it's basically a lotion that drives as a powder.

Adam:

Many guys in the past have used baby powder, for sweat

Adam:

and, chamber tea production.

Adam:

Which works good, but it's just hard to apply.

Adam:

It's super messy and cumbersome.

Adam:

So we've made basically a motion that drives the powder a lot easier to apply.

Adam:

so that product was launched in 2019.

Adam:

And as I said, it's our number one selling product.

Adam:

And then we said, People trust us with their balls.

Adam:

Will they trust us with other areas of their body?

Adam:

So we launched a shampoo or conditioner.

Adam:

And then this year we've moved into deodorant.

Adam:

So, uh, natural deodorant, face wash and face lotion.

Adam:

And then we've just got like a normal, moisturizing body wash as well, and

Adam:

then a few other ancillary products, but we're trying to say, you know, to

Adam:

get people in, like I said, with the balls, you trust us with your balls.

Adam:

Like we also make really good high quality men's care products

Adam:

for all areas of your body.

Adam:

, so w it's a one-stop shop now.

Adam:

And again, balls are always kind of our focus and what we'll always be known

Adam:

for, but, um, Balls are always our focus.

Adam:

We're, we're a balls first cipher company here.

Adam:

Um, but Yeah.

Adam:

so we started to launch other products and, they've done pretty well.

Julie:

So if people want to learn more about your product, purchase

Julie:

your product, it's ballsy.com.

Julie:

Correct

Adam:

It's ballsy brands.com, palsy brand or ball wash.com.

Adam:

We have both of

Julie:

a link to, I mean, just Google ballsy ball.

Adam:

ballsy comes up.

Adam:

Yeah, it Google it.

Julie:

get there.

Julie:

Thanks so much.

Julie:

This was great.

Julie:

This is a great conversation.

Adam:

Yeah, I appreciate It too.

Adam:

It's really great to be on.

Adam:

And, I appreciate the time and I hope it was valuable.

Julie:

It was, it was for me, I I'm sure.

Julie:

, women who are listening, who are like, what am I going to get?

Julie:

My husband, boyfriend, whatever for Christmas are like check done.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, we, we do, uh, a lot around gifting.

Adam:

We've got basically, it's called gel that the jolly Juul sack pack

Adam:

says, keep your Juul jolly on it.

Adam:

And then it comes with a matching set of books.

Adam:

So

Julie:

Well, I grew up being called the family jewels for so long.

Julie:

There you go.

Julie:

Keep your jewels chocolate.

Julie:

Yeah,

Adam:

jolly,

Julie:

my name being Julie and people calling me Juul as I was called the

Julie:

family jewels growing up all the time.

Julie:

So maybe I need my own box.

Adam:

Well, I'll make up a discount code too.

Adam:

I'll just call it Julie 20 and that's 20% off for

Julie:

Okay.

Julie:

I'll put that in the, yeah, I'll link to that in the show notes as well.

Adam:

All right.

Adam:

Great.

Julie:

Perfect.

Julie:

This was great.

Julie:

Thanks so much.

Adam:

Thanks so much.

Adam:

I appreciate it.

Julie:

Well didn't we just have some good clean, fun on this

Julie:

episode, Adam really hit the ball out of the park with his product.

Julie:

Didn't he?

Julie:

Listen.

Julie:

You don't know how funny balls are.

Julie:

It's probably because you have never responded to a vaguely

Julie:

phrased question with the answer.

Julie:

Deez nuts.

Julie:

It bunny.

Julie:

Adam put all the pieces together on this, a great idea that he actually

Julie:

acted upon to create a terrific product that he coupled with clever marketing

Julie:

to fill a void in the marketplace.

Julie:

Now.

Julie:

Back at that dinner with my friends that I mentioned in the episode, we had

Julie:

a great time coming up with suitable drink ideas for this week's episode.

Julie:

And Todd, who I mentioned found one that I actually wanted to try.

Julie:

and now we will all be drinking on friends giving next week.

Julie:

It's called.

Julie:

Tainted love shot.

Julie:

Get it.

Julie:

Okay.

Julie:

Because of the team.

Julie:

Don't make me explain what the chain is.

Julie:

Okay.

Julie:

Here's what you're going to need.

Julie:

One part Irish cream, one part tequila rose, one part

Julie:

grenadine and whipped cream.

Julie:

For garnish.

Julie:

So what you're going to do is you're going to layer the Grenadines tequila

Julie:

rose and the Irish cream and in a shot glass in a tall shot glass.

Julie:

You do this by pouring each one evenly on top of each other.

Julie:

So starting with the Grenadier, then pouring the tequila rose

Julie:

over the back of a spoon.

Julie:

So it creates a layer on top of the grenadine and then doing that same thing

Julie:

with the Baileys on top of the tequila rose you top that with whipped cream and

Julie:

the recipe calls for pink sugar sprinkles.

Julie:

If you've got that, use them.

Julie:

If not, don't worry about it.

Julie:

And that's the tainted love shot.

Julie:

All right, friends.

Julie:

Don't forget to subscribe.

Julie:

And if you have a moment, please do leave a review on iTunes that I know

Julie:

what you like about the podcast.

Julie:

also don't forget your 20% off code.

Julie:

If you're interested in going to ballsy.

Julie:

And ordering anything it's julie 20.

Julie:

so you've got that going for yourself right now

Julie:

until next week.

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About the Podcast

This Shit Works
The people you meet can 100% Change Your Life! Networking is how you meet those people. Which sucks because you hate networking, you think you're bad at networking, and you certainly don’t have time to network. Bullshit! Welcome to This Shit Works, a weekly podcast hosted by entrepreneur, CEO, public speaker, author, business development strategist and networking coach Julie Brown. Just don’t call her Downtown Julie Brown - she doesn’t like that.

Each week Julie will bring to you her no nonsense tips, tricks and conversations around networking your way to more friends, more adventures and way more success!
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