Get your Stubby on

This podcast episode of AM Insider features a conversation with Derek McCurry, the owner of Stubby Nozzle Co. McCurry shares his journey from working in additive manufacturing marketing to establishing his own business designing, manufacturing, and selling 3D-printed car care products, specifically leaf blower nozzles for drying vehicles. The discussion covers his background as a mechanical engineer and marketer, the evolution of his business from Facebook Marketplace to his own website and major online retailers, and the benefits and challenges of using 3D printing for final product manufacturing. McCurry offers insights into the importance of marketing for small businesses, leveraging customer feedback for product development, and his experiences scaling his manufacturing through desktop FDM printers. He also touches on examples of other successful small businesses utilizing 3D printing and provides advice for individuals looking to start their own ventures in this space.

• The Leap from Additive Manufacturing to Real-World Product Development
•  Derek McCurry's Background and the Genesis of Stubby Nozzle Co.
•  Product Details and Manufacturing
• Evolution of Sales Channels and the Importance of a Direct-to-Consumer Website
• The Crucial Role of Marketing in Entrepreneurial Success
• Viability of 3D Printing for End-Use Products
• Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs in Additive Manufacturing
•  Examples of Other Successful Small Businesses Utilizing 3D Printing
•  Competition and Market Validation
•  Future Product Development and Customer Feedback
• Marketing Strategies Beyond Online Marketplaces
• Skills Learned from Additive Manufacturing and Previous Roles
• Resources for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome everyone to that next edition of AM Insider. I am one of your hosts, Dustin Klemken. I am quite excited for the conversation that we're having today. One of the reasons why I'm pretty excited about this, Justin, is, you know, since we work in the innovation space, there's nothing more innovative than, than jumping from the additive space, which is innovative on its own, but then actually.
Jumping to making a product and solving problems in the real world. And so one of the things I'm excited is exploring someone's journey who was working in the additive manufacturing space specifically for that, but then jumping over to actually making products in the real world. Justin, have you known anyone over the years who has done that successfully?
Successfully. No. So that's why it's, it's really good to talk to our guest today because, you know, he he's [00:01:00] become pretty successful at what he's doing. And it's a leap that I personally am afraid to take, right? It's like, Oh, I have this idea. I should, I should do. So it'll be interesting to hear the story and how things are going and what's gone right.
What's gone wrong. And then maybe a little light of what it's like to be from an OEM and then moving into a business the way that he has. And see what his insights are on it. Yeah, and that's one of the big things that I, I think not everyone always understands is anyone can come up with an idea or a product idea, but then it's a whole nother and different skill set to actually make a business around it.
Cause it's becoming easier and easier just to print just about whatever you want. It never used to be that way, of course, but it is becoming more that way. But then to actually make a successful business behind it. That's to me, that's where a lot of the magic happens. Absolutely. And I we'll let him tell us about how long [00:02:00] it's been going on, but from, you know, my perspective, what is it?
Most businesses fail within the first couple of years. And I know it's been going on for more than a couple of years. So, you know, if you're still going strong and living And making a business out of it, I would say that's a great success. So I'm very interested to hear more about it. Yeah. So without further ado, why don't we go ahead and bring on our guest?
Today's guest is Derek McCurry. Derek, welcome to the show. Yeah. Hey guys, thanks for having me a long time to talk. Well, we got, we got plenty of time right now, so I'm looking forward to that. Could you tell us a little bit about
yourself and give us a little bit of background of who you are, where you came from, what you've done?
Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Derek McCurry. I am the owner of Stubby Nozzle Co. So we manufacture, design, manufacture and sell car care and detailing products namely the stubby car drying nozzle. That's kind of my bread and butter and how I [00:03:00] started the business. But yeah, I I'm a mechanical engineer by trade.
I went to Georgia Tech here in Atlanta, Georgia. That's where I, that's where I currently live. And oddly enough, I, even though I studied mechanical engineering, I have been a marketer for pretty much my entire career before I started my business. So the first six years of my career, I was at Siemens.
Marketing and selling factory automation and drive technologies. So stuff like, you know, machine tools, motion control equipment stuff like that. And then I moved over to, to the 3D printing division of HP, which is where I work with Dustin and Justin here. Got to know these guys pretty well and work alongside them.
So I think I was there for about four and a half years. I was one of the marketing managers responsible for the North American market while I was there. You know, [00:04:00] generating awareness and demand for the HP multi jit fusion technology. And then while I was there kind of as a, as a side hustle I started this business and without, you know, getting too much into the weeds basically I, you know, I was doing this.
You know, in the evenings on the side as I was doing my day job, so I had kind of a safety net and then, you know, at some point I decided to pull the trigger and branch off on my own and turn it into a, you know, my full time, my full time job. So, sorry, long answer for the 1st question, but that's kind of, you know, that's my, that's my back story.
My, my history. So tell us a little bit about what the product is. So, I mean, it, it made you, you know, start while you were, when you were at HP, you started making these parts and then tell us what, what it does, what it is, and what made you decide to, to do this full time? Yeah, [00:05:00] absolutely. So I had, I think I had a couple of different 3d printers at the time.
You know, it was printing is a hobby of mine you know, in my spare time, and I often use it just for you know, fulfilling some need around the house, like a custom bracket for something. And one day I was on Facebook and I was in this
group for auto detailing and I came across this. Post of somebody that had designed a short nozzle for their leaf blower for drying off their car.
And I was like, oh, that's cool. And so, but I said, you know, that, I mean, it looks a little rough right now, just, I think I could, I think I could do it better. So I designed my own and I was using it, you know, this is one of my, this is
much good questions on weekends. And so. Yeah, so I designed my own version of this. And it, it slowly evolved into a business. So [00:06:00] people, you know, were reaching out to me on Facebook saying, Hey man, can I, you know, can I pay you for one of these? So I was selling, I think, on Facebook Marketplace at first, and then after I had built enough momentum there, people were like, Oh, hey, you should, should open up an Etsy shop.
So I did that, and that was my primary sales channel for a while. And that just kind of kept snowballing. So started an eBay store and I got on Amazon, which is when it really took off and then surprisingly my last sales channel was setting up my own website, which I. One of the learnings maybe I can get into later is I wish I had done that much sooner was, you know, set up my own you know, my own website, my own sales channel.
There's a lot of benefits to that as a business owner. So yeah, that's kind of how the business has evolved over time. So Yeah. So you print the [00:07:00] nozzles. I mean, what, what materials and printers do you use? Are there different ones? What are the good and bad? I kind of realized I didn't fully answer your last question.
So it's, so like, what is a Steadicard drain nozzle? Basically, you know, that long tube that comes with your leaf blower. What you're, what you're doing with my product is you're replacing that. With a shorter nozzle that has a smaller diameter. So really the benefits are just maneuverability. And then being able to get closer to your car and it increases air speed.
But for guys that are really into, you know, washing their own cars and detailing, you know, they want to keep their paint pristine and scratch free. So it's a touchless drying solution. So it's an alternative to using a towel on your vehicle. And so you're just literally blowing the water off your car.
And most of my customers have, you know, like ceramic coating or white sculpted bowls. So it's, it's really just like, Oh, what's a [00:08:00] new, you know, a new method or way of drying cars. That's, and it's a trend. That's it
seems to have stuck here within the past few years. So, yeah, and sorry, that, that was answering your last question.
What was your, what was your most recent question again? What materials do you use and like printers to produce the parts or are you moved into injection molding? Where, where are you at this point with the. Yeah, so I'm still all in on 3D printing. I've definitely considered moving at least some of the more popular products to injection molding.
But I started out with a farm of Prusa machines, Prusa MK3S Plus machines. And then when Bamboo Lab came out a few years back I, I switched over to, to, to 14, P1S machines. It's a 0. 5 of the Prusa machines, but these, you know, these Bamboo Lab machines are just so, so [00:09:00] much faster. So, I'm actually getting more throughput with fewer, fewer machines now, so.
And all of my products, exclusively, It's like PDTG, so you can have any color as long as it's black. And PDTG is a, you know, it's a mastermind of fictions because it's, you know, temperature resistant to an extent. It can fill a dark hole, so. And ductile. So, drop them in leaf blowers with a nozzle attached, they can survive.
Most of it, so that's that's awesome.
Can you tell us a little bit about what that journey was? You said you started on Facebook marketplace and then you kind of evolved eventually into your own website, but. You're on Amazon. So what, what are the goods and bads of how you were doing it to what you're doing now for, for reference? Yeah. Oh man, there's so much to say [00:10:00] there.
I, I've learned a lot and you know, I still don't think I fully have it figured out. But you know, absolutely. I would encourage somebody that's considering doing something similar to this. start out with their own website. You know, you, you own your own audience, you own your own customers. It's just much easier to communicate with them.
Of course you capture higher margins. So there's lots of benefits. Is you have to do a lot of your own marketing that happens to be my background. So, you know, I think that's contributed to a lot of my success. But yeah, that's really the benefit of some of these online marketplaces like Etsy or eBay or Amazon is, you know, they're giving you instant access to a pretty large audience and they're doing a lot of marketing.
So, you know, so popping up in search results on Google you can pay to have them do, you know, [00:11:00] paid marketing for you as well. And there's going to go into leads on that, but I won't bore you guys with that right now. But but yeah, I think those are kind of the general considerations for. Using these different marketplaces, but I like to have, I sell on all of them just because I like to have, you know, a little bit of diversification if you will.
And then one other sales channel that I didn't mention is you know, retail. So I think maybe a dozen retail partners or companies, and these are companies that sell their products. So you're sure to. So it's, it's also been awesome.
So Derek, just stepping back for a minute you know, over the years I've encountered engineers who are trying to figure out where they go with their career path or marketing people. And some engineers were like, [00:12:00] well, I could, I could never go into marketing. I don't, I don't have that skillset or I couldn't go into sales or maybe a marketing person says, well, I don't think they would accept, accept me as an engineer.
And, and, you know, I, I think it's. You're kind of a living example of how important it is to have that wide set of skills if you want to be successful. So I'm curious, you know, if you, if you didn't have all that marketing experience, even though you're formally trained as like an engineer, do you think you would have been able to be as successful as you have been with this business so far?
Definitely not. Yeah. I think you to be a business owner, you have to have you know, some marketing or sales marketing or sales mindset. And if you don't, you can certainly, you know, partner with somebody that does, but you know, it's absolutely critical. I've seen so many similar, like small 3D printing based businesses.
That have really like [00:13:00] never taken off just because they didn't do the marketing piece. Like there's a lot of really cool products cool, unique and novel products that I've seen on, you know, marketplaces like Etsy that had a really interesting, I think could sell well if they just market it better and you know, sold it on their own website or a major, you know, a larger sales channel, like, like Amazon or Walmart, for example.
But yeah, no, it's, it's marketing is extremely important for, for any business, but especially a small business. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I guess speaking to the audience that we have here if there was someone in marketing or someone in engineering or just. Generally someone in additive who's thinking about
doing something like you're doing where they step outside of 3D or maybe leverage 3D to spin up their own business kind of like you've done.
Do you have any kind of advice or input for them at all?
That is a great [00:14:00] question. I've had the luxury of having, you know, a safety net and a job while I was testing the waters with all of this, and it's slow, you know, it kind of slowly evolved over time. So I know a lot of people are afraid to take that jump. And I was lucky enough to, you know, do that slowly.
I, I would say like it is super, one of the things I do is I share best practices and network with other small, you know, home based 3d print businesses and that's been extremely helpful. That's probably one of my best. Resources and, you know, ways that I've, I've gotten some, you know, golden nugget of information that really helped me a lot by, by kind of sharing these best practices.
So I think, you know, using work forces is going to be a show about specifically finding [00:15:00] somebody that's already done and can give you, you know, a fresh force out to do what not to do. It was a great start. I. I'm pretty risk averse and like conservative in general when it comes to, you know, just taking risks.
So so yeah, I probably never would personally just start a business to be able to test the water. And that's great advice. I mean, I'm just kind of happy about it. I mean,
that is one of the beautiful things about. 3D printing, right, is I slowly scaled my manufacturing over time. So I started with one printer and basically just kept doubling. At one point I just could not when, when it was since that some, you know, competitors and copycats come out, but when I was the only thing on the market, I literally couldn't keep up with the demand and I had like a two month backlog and I couldn't get enough printers.
The Prusa machines are [00:16:00] manufactured in the Czech Republic, so, you know, by the time I order one, I have to wait like, you know, two months for one to come in and anyways, my point, sorry, back to my point, 3D printing, you know, allows you to gradually scale at least with the, you know, FTM technologies.
So that you don't have some huge up front, right? Yeah, I was, you know, essentially profitable from day one. And so that's, you know, that's, you know,
It's a really cool story. Yeah, cool. So for people who, you know, think that you can't necessarily 3d print a final product, you know, what, what are your customers saying about the parts themselves? I mean, it looks like you have good reviews online, but is there any worry because it's 3d printed? Of failing, or is there like a warranty?
Like, how do you, how do you guarantee success with the parts? [00:17:00] Yeah, that's, that's a really interesting question. I, I thought that was going to be a huge issue, right? I'm from the industry and knowing what I know about. If you're being an engineer too, I'd like to know about traditional manufacturing methods and 3D printing, like, I have, you know, I think engineers have higher standards than the completion of like the quality of products So, yeah, I thought that people were going to balk at the idea of this 3D printed nozzle.
Believe it or not, when I started out, I was selling for Like 50, 55, I think. And for us, for us in the industry, we know what it costs to produce these. So a lot of, there's a lot of margin I've since lowered the prices to kind of scale and increase volumes, but like 90. I'd say like 95 plus percent of people either don't know it's 3d printed or don't care that it's 3d printed as long as it [00:18:00] works and does the job.
Like that's all they care about. So there was that other 5 percent that they get it and they, you know, they see some of the layer lines. Granted it's gotten much better as the technology's progressed, but. You know, they don't like that. So, you know, I offer, I offer 30 day returns and you know, I'm all about, I mean, this is just advice for any small business, but like, I'm, I'm all about like having the best customer service possible and like treating people the way that I want to be treated.
And it's just super generous with placements, returns, and it's also, you know, keeping to scale your small business as well. Derek, I think you make a really, really good point. Because as you know we'll say with newer people, at least in the additive industry, they're always, or I tend to notice that they tend to focus on feeds and speeds and materials and all that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day, like you were saying, all that really matters is, is it [00:19:00] solving the problem for the customer?
And like you said, a lot of them. They, they don't know it's 3D printed or they don't care because it's solving their problem. And I think that's really the crux that a lot of people sometimes forget. And I ask it all the time is, you know, what problem are you trying to solve and why? Because that will dictate what kind of solution that you have.
And like in your case, you found that the solution you provided is, is good enough. Whereas maybe some other engineers may have thought, well, you know, you can't do that. You need a more robust material or you need a different type of printing technology when, in fact, the market says, no, we don't really need that.
What you're producing is good enough, and they're happy with it, and they're happy to pay for it. I think
I may be getting a little bit ahead of myself here with your questions, but. I mean, I have a trend that I foresee happening here is I've seen, you know, more and [00:20:00] more small, single, single person operation businesses that are, you know, producing some niche product at home show up in these major online marketplaces.
And I think that's a trend that we'll continue to see is. You know, at least that's how FDM printers become more accessible and user friendly to where no one would like to tinker with them, they just work the way they do.
We'll see more people doing just as we go along, so, yeah. Well, just to kind of confirm that, so, you might remember the company Quorum Prosthetics out of Colorado and they make prosthetic sockets for people. And they've since launched a whole different company that makes bicycle seats. Totally different product, totally different value proposition, but because they have the technology and they have the expertise, they're able to dabble and experiment with a totally [00:21:00] different business.
And, and they're, you know, they're, they're giving it a go. And you know, I, I think they have some pretty cool. Innovative designs that way. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, I kind of heard that name before and I'm guessing the owner was probably a cyclist or that was, that was their hobby. Maybe. He's just an avid outdoorsman for sure.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I, I think that's one of the things I really enjoyed about this is just like turning a hobby into a business. And I, you know, is my main business, but I recently started up another business for another copy. And I'd love to, you know, basically continue doing that when I get bored when I get I've gotten a little bit bored of it.
You know, you can only you can only, you know, talk about nozzles for leaf blowers for so long. So, so yeah, I, I, I'd love to kind of change [00:22:00] it up every few years and like start a new small business and, and kind of grow it but
then keep, you know, keep the existing businesses as just, you know, revenue coming in to, you know, support my, support my family.
Great. Well I guess, do you have any questions or comments from us so far? I guess, have you. What other examples of, you know, small businesses that are producing their products on, you know, desktop FDM printers have, have you guys come across and, you know, why do you think they were successful? That's something I'd be curious to know. Yeah. Another actually Colorado based company is called Active Armor.
And they actually produce wrist orthotics for people who play sports. So you can imagine maybe like a football player and maybe they [00:23:00] sprain or, or potentially even break their wrist. This device you can wear. And it's very breathable and it allows you to keep going on with your life without, you know, having something that's really itchy or something like that, or maybe swimming or something like that.
And as far as I know, that's also done in FDM and they do some finishing to make it look really nice. But I, I think that's kind of Innovative approach as well. Yeah, that sounds really cool. I'm curious how do they, is, is it low, like mainly local based business? Cause they have to interface with their customers or is it something that can scale, you know nationally, globally.
I mean, it really kind of depends on your, your business model. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing, but you know, you could imagine in theory, you could have, you know, 10 or 15 offices. And maybe one person at each [00:24:00] office knows how to do scanning of, say, someone's arm or someone's leg. And then they could send those scan files to a central office that, you know, cleans up the scan files, then actually makes the digital device.
And maybe they also print it there and then ship it out to the office. Or you could kind of do the reverse too, where everyone goes to one spot for the scanning. And then. They would do the fitting back maybe at a local office or something like that. So it really kind of depends what your business model would be.
Yeah, that makes sense. That's cool. I was going to say from my side, I'm not like an industrial product, kind of like what you make, you know, I've seen people do car badges that. That's something I see kind of relatively, partly because I look at them, but like on Etsy and stuff like that. Sometimes they're like, a lot of times they're laser cut, but I've seen printing of that.
But not in the, in the requirement of something that would require impact strength, kind of like what you're, you're talking about. Usually they go for [00:25:00] a more industrial ish type system, like kind of like the HP systems. But as far as desktop stuff I mean it, you know, there's a lot of. Products printed, I just don't know anybody in the volumes that like what you do or even like what Dustin was referring to.
It's funny, it's funny that you mentioned that badges for vehicles, because I was approached by a customer about he had this idea of producing, I think the Ford Bronco had just came out and. They didn't have everybody wanted these, like the classic script Bronco badge, but Ford for some reason decided not to make them.
So, you know, his, his idea was he'd already designed the, the, the emblem itself, and he was trying to get me to print them and, you know, be his manufacturing arm, but there's certain reasons that that. I don't think that was going to work [00:26:00] out at least with FDM technology, but but yeah, that's, I, that, that seems really interesting.
The ability to do like custom badges. Yeah. Well, I, I also know that it, it's pretty big in the jewelry industry. So I used to work with someone who used to be a jeweler and she told me that. 3D printing pretty much put her out of business because you can print in wax and then cast the wax. So she said a lot of jewelry that's made today, like even higher end stuff, is actually printed in wax and then cast accordingly.
So I know that's kind of hidden in plain sight even though most people don't. necessarily know that. So I think that's kind of a interesting thing as well. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard about that. I don't know much about it, but it's, it's, it sounds really interesting.
Yeah. I think there's, there's a good fit, like kind of in the orthotics and prosthetic industry, like Dustin was saying, you see a lot of people printing insoles now [00:27:00] specifically like TPU and stuff like that, of that nature on FFF or FDM, whatever we want to refer to it as. So there's a good fit there cause you know, they're sort of one off, even though you could have quite a bit of clientele sort of like the active armor solution that Dustin was talking about.
Thanks. Thanks. As you guys are talking, it just made me think of maybe I could share share some stories about some of the other businesses like I network with that are, that are kind of in the same boat as me. So so 1 of them is neat
tools. As the owner, he specializes in manufacturing primarily like organizers and battery mounts.
For Milwaukee packout, containers, I don't know the right way to call it. I'm not, I'm not a big, not really into that, but yeah, he's been very successful. We have the same kind of farm [00:28:00] set up. And so he's, you know, selling on similar sales channels doing, you know, the same, same marketing tactics.
Another one is. Shop nation. So Travis he had a similar background as me. Actually, he started his career at a, at a manufacturing company and then decided to start his own business. So he specializes in dust collection shoots for miter saws. And so. He's got, you know, this he's made this unique geometry that fits up to, you know, each and every specific miter saw model.
And then it's just, it's a better way of collecting all the dust that comes off of that. So big in the woodworking space. I think he, he was the, you know, that was his original idea. And he's, he's since been, you know, copied many times, but he's also a big YouTuber, which, which helped him out a lot. But yeah, I've seen, I mean, those are some of the guys that I just work with, you know talk to regularly, but [00:29:00] I've seen, you know, dozens of other examples of, of, of these sort of things, especially on Etsy.
Like, if you're curious about, you know, like a small business that's using 3d printing, go, go on Etsy. And I'm talking about, I'm not talking about like figurines and stuff or, you know, if you're ever interested in like some. Product for, you know, a hobby or, you know, a piece of consumer equipment around your house, like you wish you, you know, could modify it.
It's probably been done and it, and it probably exists on Etsy 3d printed. So like Etsy is definitely a marketplace for like, you know, people fulfilling these niche. You know, there's niche needs.
Yeah. The examples you kind of gave at the beginning, I mean, they're all power tool related. It makes a lot of sense, right? Because every contractor or even home D Y I person, you know, they might have a setup and it, it makes a lot of sense because you can't, you're [00:30:00] going to home Depot or whatever to buy whatever's available.
And it just never seems to have what you have. And they're not afraid to make. Their own thing. So it would make sense that like, they don't care if it's 3d printed, as long as it works and it really solves the problem. So yeah, it's, it's
interesting to hear, you know, how much power tool related items that you're speaking of.
And I wonder how much these larger, you know, the brands that you're making products for are like, Oh, maybe we should do that. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And on that note, so I, well, To speak of the power tools, I think I just happen to get connected with these guys because it's kind of a similar space, right? Like leaf blowers are yarding women power tools.
And we work with similar, I hate to use the word influencers, but you know, affiliates, influencers on, on social media. But yeah, absolutely. I, some, some of the major tool brands have taken notice. So. Ego Ego, you know, makes yard care [00:31:00] equipment. I think they have some of the, like, they're probably the number one solar relief blowers.
And so they have since come out with their, their own version of a stubby nozzle that's being, you know, mass produced and, and sold sold at Lowe's and, you know, on Amazon as well. So. You know, that tells you something that, you know, a major manufacturer has taken notice and you know, essentially, you know, it burns a little, it hurts a little bit, but, you know, they, they, they you know, there's enough, there's enough scale.
I was able to, like, test the waters for them, essentially, but there's enough scale now or, or demand for it, where it makes sense for even them to. You know make this accessory for their own leaf blower. So, yeah, right. Yeah. But at this, I get where you're coming from. Right. It's like, Oh man, they're, they're doing what I'm doing, but you tailor to essentially all the big manufacturers, right.
Which they're not going to do. Yeah, yeah. So unless the others start to follow [00:32:00] suit, I think you're still in a really good spot. And have you looked into, well, I have a couple of questions that kind of came to mind when you were talking through that. Like, do you look at it and try to figure out.
Like, do I make a different nozzle that does this? I mean, I don't know a whole lot. It's a new space, right? You're, you're kind of came up with a new space to dry off your car, but maybe there's things why you're doing this. That could be improved maybe by the nozzle design, or maybe you do some internal channels that gives it more velocity, or maybe that's not needed.
Do you, how do you go about that process? Yeah, a lot. I've gotten lots of suggestions and ideas from customers for. Other nozzles other applications for nozzles for their leaf blowers. So a few examples, you know, one guy wanted
to, you know, show cattle and I guess they, you know, to fluff up their, their fur, they use these like pet grooming blowers, but.
That [00:33:00] wasn't like very practical where he was. So he wanted to use his Milwaukee blower to like on his show cattle. And so he, I made a special stubby nozzle with like a small diameter on it that he'd get up to a hose and like blow off his show cattle. Another one was a, I think it was like a Boy Scout troop.
They wanted, they were using leak blowers to power hovercraft. And so they reached out to me asking if I could donate some, make and donate some you know, special nozzles like that, that would work perfectly for their hovercraft. So that was a cool little project. Like, I do those kind of requests all the time and most of the time I have to tell people, you know, no.
But sometimes I take on the projects just because I think they're, you know, fun, fun and interesting. But, yeah, to one of the things I did a while back that has helped me a lot is I just set up a simple form on my website, so I can also request forms, so. I get inquiries all the time. I mean, before [00:34:00] that I was getting inquiries, but now it's kind of in an organized fashion.
So, you know, people put a request, they put in their lead flow, their model number, and then that goes into my queue, my priority list. And I basically, I'm just working through, you know, what people want based off of the popularity of the request. So that's been you know, just got to listen to your customers and they'll tell you, you know, they'll tell you what they want.
So. It's been really helpful and it's kind of, it's, it's made my product roadmap really easy to figure out. And so more along the lines of marketing, you were saying, you know, you have your website, which you can self maintain marketing through that. And then some of the marketplaces that you're on, what are your feelings about like trade shows at this point?
Or is it something you're like, that that's not what people do anymore? Yeah. And I think it's very different for what I'm doing is all, you know, B2C. And what I did in my career before this was all B2B, [00:35:00] I think trade shows are still, like, critical for, for that and, you know, you get a lot of value out of, you know, making those connections with those clients that, that ship us.
For me, like, it doesn't make much sense. I thought about going to some You know, automotive or detailing related trade shows, but it's, I'll even, I've said this before, like local car shows and it's, it's just so niche that it really doesn't make sense for me. So I need, you know, I need the you know, I need the ability
to market to the whole world on the Internet and be very specific in my marketing and to find the right on the right customers.
So but, yeah, I mean, as far as. I have a lot of marketing tips for you know, small business owners. I probably the biggest ones is just start out with, you know, organic marketing. And I think this is, this is true, especially for like a 3d printing based business, but. You know, don't be afraid to show your [00:36:00] face on, you know, YouTube or social media.
That has been, you know, specifically YouTube and social media. So, you know, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok it's completely free for the most part. And they're evergreen assets that, you know, that, that live forever. So I've made a few key videos like leapfrog comparisons. Of course, I have videos for all my products but make videos that answer the questions that your customers are asking and then use it as a lead gen tool and, you know, put links in your descriptions, feedback to your website.
I've also done a lot of partnering again with influencers, affiliates that are relevant to this space, and so that's, that's all. Me a lot. And I'd say for small businesses, they're really eager and willing to [00:37:00] work with you for, for no fee, you know, they're just happy to get a cool, you know, a cool product.
And so I've been blessed in that regard and a lot of these you know, it's mainly tool based channels but, you know, I'll send them a free product and they'll review it or share about it on social and then I'll get, you know, a large influx of orders from that. So this is probably my top two tips as far as like.
You know, the first things you should do for marketing before you do any sort of paid marketing, which, you know, that, that, that can come later. Good, great advice. So Derek, thinking back to your, your career in, in additive, what kind of like skills or experiences. Did you learn that your finding are now very, very helpful or useful?
And I, I ask that for those people who are listening in, who are thinking like, okay, maybe I'm working in additive today or maybe some other industry and maybe they want to eventually kind of do something that, that [00:38:00] You've done is there any kind of like key experiences or, or knowledge that you learned that has been really, really helpful?
I think that's it's a little atypical is like, I think probably most of the folks you're speaking to in the out of this space are doing the more traditional roles, like, you know, engineering or research and development versus, you know, marketing,
manufacturing technologies. I mean. Certainly that's translated to, you know, this, this business that I have now.
But really I, I like one of my favorite jobs I ever had was when I was in college and I was at co op at a product development firm and that was. I really enjoyed that, but I didn't, I didn't think there was me personally, I didn't see like much career growth or opportunity long term but I'm so glad, like just that, just that one co op I had like gave me a great [00:39:00] foundation for my CAD, you know, CAD skills.
So I guess that is one thing, I mean, you need to be good at CAD and designing things if you're going to, you know, develop and manufacture your own products. And I'm sure being in the industry, you know, you learn these best practices about, you know, quality assurance and and customer service that certainly translates as well.
So I'm sure I'm missing, I'm sure there's lots of great things that I'm not thinking of right now, but those are, those are the ones that come to mind. Yeah. You know, just thinking back to working with you, I would imagine just, Putting together a whole marketing campaign around a new product or a new material is useful experience for for a lot of individuals who've never done it before.
Cause as you know, it's very involved. And I would imagine you do a lot of those quite often now with the business that you're now running.
Yeah, yeah, I, I, it is, it is [00:40:00] actually. The type of marketing that I'm doing, but it's, so that, that has been somewhat of a steep learning curve, but yeah, it's actually the tech, the tactics are, are, are very different between, you know, B2B and B2C. I would say, so like, I really don't use a lot of the traditional B2B marketing tactics.
I mean, Certainly like building a website, having a good SEO you know, always having a funnel and being able to, you know, constantly have people you know, finding your website and having lots of you know links floating out there and evergreen assets is, is like a key thing that you need to do.
But. For any, you know, for any type of marketing, but yeah, I I don't know, I really don't use a lot of the same skills that I used in my, in my previous previous roles. Funny how that works. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. You [00:41:00] mentioned you have the nozzle request form or your request one, cause it's, it's Smart, right?
Because your customers are telling you what they want and need. And it really kind of focuses what you should look into which I would think that you probably get better feedback than like a larger Like an OEM, like, like who doesn't and I work for now, right? It's hard to filter through so much information.
But it, it, it's nice that you can kind of get it directly from the consumer. What do they really want? Cause sometimes we miss that, right? When we're B2B it's like, but what are we actually trying to solve within that? But I will say, I'm not going to fill out the request form, but I think you should look at nozzles for some sort of vacuums for, for detailing.
If you haven't already, it's on my list. I've got a long list to the list of things I want to do. There's just so much so much time in the day to, you know. You know, marketing and finance and fixed printers and that's, I [00:42:00] mean, that's one cool thing, but also like bad thing about, you know, of having your business is you have to do everything, but you also get a lot of diversity in the type of work you do.
So I don't feel like, you know, I don't feel like I honestly haven't designed a product in months, but I'm about to dive back into that here. Now that I've got some more free time, so it kind of bounces around between, you know, machine maintenance to like optimizing my packaging to, you know, creating some videos for YouTube to design a product.
So it's like that, that aspect I've, I've really enjoyed and I hear you on the feedback, like, it is nice because all things wrapped. To me. And so I, I unlike, you know, if you work for a company and like there's feedback coming from customers to different people within the company. And then, you know, there's conflicts of interest and lots of voices to be heard.
And so it gets, it gets messy and it's, it's hard to like decipher, [00:43:00] like. You know, how you should change your product or where you should go next, but it becomes much more clear and obvious when it's just you and you have, like, an easy way to call. So, yeah, that's that's been a big win for me. So, I have a form.
So you've touched on some, some things, tips and tricks that what you do, but like, what resources do you suggest people kind of look at to find more information, especially if they want to do their own business, like such as yours with, with either desktop printers or FF machines. You know, it's tough there.
I don't think there really is one, like, one resource, like YouTube is, is is your best friend when it comes to just, it depends on the topic, right? Is it marketing? Is it like how to fix my printer? Is it how to, a lot of, a lot of finance and tax related things is, I've spent a lot of time, a lot more than I care to, on my mom.
And so that's [00:44:00] that's something that, that, like, wasn't my strong suit, but I've learned a lot about so. If it's not your strong suit, definitely hire, like, a good CPA. But yeah, I mean, honestly, just a lot of self teaching through, you know, YouTube, through Revit, different forums, depending on, you know, what you're doing, I think it's like very specific to what, you know, one of the questions you guys had asked guests in the past, just about, you know, like, what is a really good like general out of the manufacturing resource and.
I, my answer for that is I took that MIT has this MIT X pro course, it's called additive manufacturing for innovative design and production. It looks like I took that back in 2019. I think it's still around, but that was when I first started, you know, when I was first getting into the additive industry.
I took that course and that was super helpful to get up to speed quickly. I just [00:45:00] like all the different technologies and the pros and cons. And there's a lot of case like a group, like group activities. It looks like a lot of instances where you had homework and you had to go and, and, and work on a, like work on a problem.
And so, yeah, I, it's a little bit fuzzy now because it's been a while, but I really enjoyed taking that course. And it was like, A really good way to start, you know, my, my career at least. Yeah. We've had a lot of our team members take that course and everybody's had great feedback. So that's definitely something listeners should keep in mind.
Yep. Yep. Okay. Any other questions you might have for us before we, you know, wrap this up? When are you guys gonna what, Justin, when are you coming out with this product that you, you said you, you've been thinking of for, for a while? I wanna hear about that . Well, I've, I've thought of lots of different things, right? Like [00:46:00] in the field that we're in, you, you deal with a lot of customers and you're like, oh, what about that?
It's just a matter of carving out that time to. To make those things, see if they work and something that, that I've looked at and thought about quite a bit, because I have a, a lot of trees in my yard and I have to remove lots and lots of leaves, and I, I don't like bagging them, it's just, I don't know, it's better to return it back to the woods and stuff that are, that are around the house and, So, you
know, you blow everything onto like a tarp and then you move it, but then it's like, how do you keep that tarp closed?
So there's been lots of thought as I'm cleaning my yard. I need to make this little clamp system for, for a tarp that you just snap onto an existing tarp. So I can use a handle and drag it without, without any issues. So that's, that's something I think about quite regularly when the spring rolls around.
Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing too, is like if you, you know, you have that need, I'm sure there's [00:47:00] thousands or tens of thousands of other people that are having that same frustration. Right. And you know, they probably look, look for it online and have avail, find, you know, a solution. So, I mean, you, you'd be surprised.
Nobody would have thought like a short nozzle on a leaf blower would like, why do you want that? But like my my friends and family, they don't need it, you know, they're because it's not it's not It's not a hobby of theirs, but my customers certainly do and yeah, I mean you You you need to test, you know I don't know makes it really easy to test the waters and you know float a product out there and see if other people You know, have the same pain point that you do.
And you know, it's really easy. I like Etsy specifically for how easy it is to get started. Like you don't have to design a website and do all this. Just hours of research [00:48:00] do.
So you just typing the text almost like, you know, most people probably like sold something on Facebook marketplace. It's really like as simple as that. And the new products out there, it's, and it's being sold, you know, to a, to a pretty big audience. So. Yeah, I'd encourage anybody that's got an idea no matter how trivial or small it may seem like to, you know, give it a shot and, you know, try to start selling it.
To folks, you know, if that's something you want to do but you know, it's, I think I think there's a lot of ideas out there that just never come to fruition because people don't think there's enough demand for it and there could be, yeah. And before, which we haven't done already, can you give us the website that people can go check out the stubby nozzles?
Oh yeah. It's just a study nozzles. com. Okay. And then once again, you can be found on Amazon and Etsy and all, all the marketplaces that you've referred [00:49:00] to. Yep. Yep. But do me a favor, if there's anybody listening that
wants to buy a stubby nozzle, please buy it from my website because they just have a much better, it's the best, it's the cheapest place to buy it.
First of all, it helps me on my end as well. So and just let me know let me know that you found me on the on the podcast. Awesome. Well it's been fun. It's good to catch up and it's great to hear from you and we, we wish you the best for sure. And it's, it's awesome that you've been able to do this and admirable.
And I hope more people get into this type of work in the sense of building their own business on their own. And we'll catch you guys next time on they am insider. Thank you.
All right.