#766 – From Royalty Checks to Amazon Millions

What began as a handmade Christmas gift eventually became a patented product, a successful licensing deal, and a multimillion-dollar Amazon brand. Super Blanky founder and CEO Karen Bonnici joins Bradley alongside her nephew and newest intern, Jack Lustig, to share the story behind the wearable blanket. After watching the children play with her original cape-style design, Karen developed its signature pocket sleeves, hand-sewed the first 500 units, and validated the idea through craft shows.

Karen later licensed her patents and trademarks to a manufacturer that brought the product into Target with characters such as Jurassic Park and Paw Patrol. Although the arrangement generated approximately $4 million in first-year retail sales, Karen earned only a royalty percentage and had limited control over the brand’s direction. When the licensing business began to decline, she learned e-commerce, sourced her own inventory, and launched Super Blanky on Amazon with two SKUs. The brand generated approximately $75,000 in its first five months, reached $2.2 million in sales last year, and is now projected to more than double that revenue.

The conversation also explores Karen’s approach to building a team around complementary strengths. Her creativity and product-development experience are balanced by Jack’s background in data science, economics, and competitive sports. As he learns PPC, inventory management, and Amazon operations, Jack is gaining real-world experience while helping the family business become more data-driven. Karen also discusses simplifying her brand identity, tracking every major business change, investing in education, and keeping essential talent inside the company.

With TikTok, Shopify, new products, and an eventual exit on the horizon, Karen is deliberately building Super Blanky with room for its next owner to grow. Her journey proves that an idea does not need to begin with a perfect business plan. It can begin with one thoughtful gift, one problem worth solving, and the courage to keep learning until that small idea becomes something far bigger.

In episode 766 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Karen, and Jack discuss:

• 00:00 – Introduction
• 00:50 – Meet Karen Bonnici And Jack Lustig
• 05:14 – The Idea Behind Super Blanky
• 07:18 – From Handmade Blankets To A Patented Product
• 08:15 – Licensing The Product For Major Retailers
• 11:23 – Taking Control Of The Brand
• 13:20 – Launching And Scaling On Amazon
• 16:08 – Bringing Jack Into The Family Business
• 19:26 – Reaching $2.2 Million In Annual Sales
• 19:55 – Expanding To TikTok And Shopify
• 24:10 – Strategies That Helped The Business Grow
• 31:34 – Preparing The Company For An Eventual Exit

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today’s guest made tons of money licensing her patented product and then decided she wanted to take control of her brand and started selling herself on Amazon and now has made millions of dollars. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world and continuing our tour here of interviews in Austin, Texas. We’ve got a couple more here who are brand new to the show, so we’re going to go ahead and let them introduce themselves first and get some backstory about their brand and everything else.

Karen:

Hi, I’m Karen Bonnici, and I am the founder and CEO of Super Blanky. Super Blanky is the wearable blanket that’s truly a blanket.

Bradley Sutton:

Truly a blanket, not fakely a blanket.

Jack:

Hi, and I’m Jack Lustig. I am my Aunt Karen’s nephew over here, and I am interning for her.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, so we’re going to get some info on this. We’ve never had an intern before, so hey, this is something I think that actually is interesting, especially with family members. It could be some of your first hires as well, but there’s actually an interesting story that I know a little bit about, but I tried to, on purpose, not know too many details so I can listen to it for the first time with the rest of you. Now, Karen, where do you live now? Where were you born and raised?

Karen:

Detroit, Michigan. Right on my hat. Both? Yes, born and raised in Detroit.

Bradley Sutton:

Did you attend college after high school?

Karen:

I did. I went to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Bradley Sutton:

I’m trying to think of the mascot. I know most of the-

Karen:

The Broncos.

Bradley Sutton:

Broncos. Oh, Western Michigan Broncos. Okay. And then what did you study there?

Karen:

So I studied public relations, journalism, and theater.

Bradley Sutton:

With the goal originally of doing what?

Karen:

To be a creative, really to work in theater, but I didn’t have the courage at the time to tell you the truth to really pursue that completely, but I’ve always been a creative, so the journalism and PR.

Bradley Sutton:

And so what was your first gainful employment after graduation?

Karen:

I was selling telephones. Remember those old electronic telephone systems with all the buttons and pads on them? I had a sales job and I was horrible at it. And it had a lot to do with I was not passionate about the product. It was very expensive.

Bradley Sutton:

With that theater degree, you could have faked it until you made it.

Karen:

I could have, but it was just a really expensive piece of equipment, and somehow way back then I had empathy for small businesses and I’m selling them this, back then, a lot of money, like a $3,000, $4,000 phone system to these little plumbing shops and all. And I just remember it just didn’t fit me. Didn’t feel right to push a product that I didn’t feel passionate about. And that is, yeah, that’s actually kind of comes full circle with what I sell now.

Bradley Sutton:

I appreciate the honesty there from before. So that’s good, like imposter syndrome kind of there, but she didn’t go through with it. What about you? Were you also born and raised in the same place and where’d you go to school?

Jack:

So funny enough, I was actually born in South Korea and I was adopted. So my mom is her sister. And so I’m from Livonia, right outside of Detroit, pretty much. And I went and lived in pretty much Livonia my whole life. Then I decided to actually go to school out in Grand Rapids. And funny enough, what actually made me go to school out in Grand Rapids was I visited my cousin Kevin, her son. He went to Kendall College out there to study. And I went out there and visited him for a week and I just fell in love with the city so quickly and instantly.

Bradley Sutton:

So was that the school you also went to?

Jack:

So no. I actually decided to go to Aquinas College, which was a small school out there as well. But I just fell in love with the city and it’s always made me want to go back there.

Bradley Sutton:

And let me try and remember, you said at dinner you studied data analysis or something like that?

Jack:

Yes, so I studied data science and I have a minor in economics as well.

Bradley Sutton:

And you played college sports, what did you do?

Jack:

Yes, so I played college lacrosse. My position that I played was defense, close defense to be exact.

Bradley Sutton:

And then, is working for your aunt here your first full-time or part-time gig after graduation?

Jack:

Yes, yes it is.

Bradley Sutton:

How did this come about? Whose idea was this?

Jack:

Both of ours, I would say mainly hers.

Bradley Sutton:

What was your thought process there?

Karen:

So I know that there’s a lot of learning that happens outside of college, you know, sitting in the classroom and then everyday application, how it really works in a business like data science, economics, very relevant to what we do in our business. But how that really works inside of a business, how a small business, large business is impacted by all of that study, you just have to be in it and play the game.

Bradley Sutton:

Going backwards, when did you discover e-commerce, like what year and what aspect of e-commerce was it?

Karen:

So I, six years ago, started studying e-commerce under Amy Weiss, who’s an amazing coach. And so yeah, so I started studying, I had invented my product 14 years ago. I actually invented it for Jack when he was a little kid. And so-

Bradley Sutton:

Hold on, I mean, 14 years ago was a lot longer than six years ago. So what happened in that eight-year period of time? When you say you invented it, was it just a thought in your head that these eight years or what?

Karen:

So as a creative, I’ve always made, I had a 28-year career in the performing arts. I had a hands-on kind of craft business that I would do art shows and stuff. And I would make things over and over and I thought, you know, I can’t keep making the same thing over and over and selling it. And I thought one day that would be really cool if I came up with an idea that could be manufactured. And I also made a lot of handmade gifts when the kids were young, when my kids were young. And so I made one year a superhero cape slash blanket and I gave it to Jack and his sister and my niece Angela as a Christmas gift one year. And the kids loved it and it was a lot of fun, except that it was a double-layered fleece blanket and it had a neckband on it. And so it’s not a lightweight little silky cape. It was a full-on blanket.

Bradley Sutton:

So are we talking choke hazard here or what?

Karen:

We’re talking choke hazard.

Bradley Sutton:

She was going like this, I’m like, oh, what kind of story is coming next?

Karen:

Yeah, yeah. So I made choke hazard non-safe products for my nieces.

Bradley Sutton:

That builds character.

Karen:

Yes, yes. But then I noticed the kids, but they loved them, right? Because it was like this big cozy cape and I really built it. The idea was to give it to them to say, hey, you’re strong, you’re capable, you’re your own superhero, wrap yourself in that comfort knowing that you are the one who’s got your back, right? But the kids were then running around with their arms and holding up the blanket in the corners, right? And flying around like this to keep themselves from choking. And then I thought, well, I saw them doing that and I’m like, oh, I just have to attach their arm to the blanket. So I came up with our patented pocket sleeve and the arm goes in the pocket, out the pocket. We have two utility patents and yeah, so I was able to protect it. And eventually then I took the first 500, I sewed by hand, put them into arts and craft shows. My first year while I had applied for my utility provisional patent was really my year of market research. I had tons of parents coming around the booth. They were excited and buying and I thought, you know, I got something here. Then I learned about licensing and I got the product through a licensing partner who was providing blankets to big box stores like Walmart, Target, all of them. So, I licensed my intellectual property, my patents and my trademarks. They also had licensing relationships already with big like Disney characters and such. So we had like Jurassic Park and Paw Patrol and lots of licensed characters.

Bradley Sutton:

I was in Jurassic Park 3 as an extra, so I don’t have a theater degree, but there’s my claim to fame.

Karen:

All right. Let’s see. There’s always that. That’s our seven degrees of separation, right? So then we, you know, they married the licensed characters with my design, my utility design, put it in Target stores and we started selling there. And so I was collecting a royalty. That was a mailbox business, you know, I used to call it, people say, how did you make money doing that? I said, I went to the mailbox, I opened up the mailbox, I cashed the check. So I was involved with the process and, you know, communicating a lot with the licensing partner that I had, the licensee. But I could not compel them to make the adult blankets. And I just.

Bradley Sutton:

All this time we’re talking about, like from the time you developed the product before e-commerce, you were doing all of this stuff offline, right?

Karen:

Correct. It was all offline. Right. So, yeah, and it was available then on Target.com once my licensing partner got it into Target stores distribution in the physical stores, it also was available on the.com.

Bradley Sutton:

Just I mean, you were seeing a check for like your commission stuff, but if you were to estimate in those days, you know, one of the biggest years before you went online, what the total gross revenue, you know, not what hit your check, but like about the sales, like rough estimate around this, you know what it would be?

Karen:

I mean, our retail first year in was about $4 million, you know, retail wise in terms of what it was being sold for.

Bradley Sutton:

And so obviously you’re not making that in your garage anymore. Where did you outsource the manufacturing to?

Karen:

So it wasn’t really that I was outsourcing the manufacturing. I went to a manufacturer who had factories in China. I licensed my IP, I rented it to them. They rent it as well as how they rent licenses, you know, the Disney characters. So they brought us together. They paid me a rental fee, they paid Disney a rental fee, and they went to their factories in China and had the products produced and put them on the shelves of Target.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. And then for this, for the deal that you had, let’s just say, you know, it was $500,000 one year of total sales. What would your check have been, you know, like what would you have taken home because of that?

Karen:

I’ll tell you this. So that’s NDA.

Bradley Sutton:

So what can, what in general, you know, don’t say yours, but what in general can somebody expect? Like what would be a decent deal? What would be a deal that you that you would tell people, hey, that you’re being fleeced?

Karen:

Right, right, right. So I can tell you that licensing deals can go from anywhere from 1% to like 18%. The high end Disney characters are getting 15, 17, 18% for that licensed character. I made a lot less than that. My IP was not as valuable as their IP, right? So I got a much smaller piece of the pie, but it was enough to build some retirement for myself and then eventually fund what I launched in Amazon five years ago.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So now let’s fast forward. I would assume hopefully by the time he hit college, he was not using the blanket anymore, but little did he know, things would come full circle. What made you get on Amazon? You know, because it sounds like you weren’t even operating your own website or anything at the time. This is all licensed. So like, how did it come in your mind? Hey, I want to go ahead and make my life difficult again and get on this Amazon thing.

Karen:

Right, right. So yeah, because it was going to all be me because eventually we, due to a knockoff financing on TV company after being on the shelves at Target and then a COVID hit and then the buyer at Target changed, things get very complicated, right? So eventually we were in Target for five years, but that was slipping away. And I was just very compelled to continue what I had created, even when I was making and selling those 500 hands-on, you know, handmade blankets. I was selling adult blankets at the time as well, and the adults loved them as well. So I thought, okay, I got to figure this out. I mean, initially, actually, then beyond the first 500 I’d sewn my hand, I’d sold a few thousand more than that, but I had found some cut and sew factories in Michigan. I was never profitable though. I really just about broke even paying for my patents. And then it was finding the licensing opportunity and then the next step. So I’d already understood, okay, to get, I need to get fabric from China. No, I need to go and source the entire thing from China. I figured because ultimately the affordability of putting it into the marketplace would need to be done overseas. So I just started digging and digging and starting to figure out who I was going to learn from. And I took some courses and I took some more courses. I really just started learning the ropes, how to find a factory, how to price it, how to determine whether or not the market really does want what you want, right? Such an important thing.

Bradley Sutton:

How many SKUs did you launch off the bat? Did you launch a bunch or was it just one? And how did it do the first couple months?

Karen:

Yeah. So we launched one parent product, two SKUs. And we had in the first five months, we had like about $75,000 in sales and I was excited about that. And then I thought, okay, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. It was me by myself. I was running the PPC and just doing the entire thing. I did not know enough. I knew that was one thing I would have to hand off. So that was, that was our, you know, the first five months of me just kind of figuring it out, getting into the game. But I was profitable that year. I made profit. I have been net profit positive every year I’ve been in the business. So, so then the next year we did $750,000, the next full year, right? And we saw that Q4 was really our great season. So then I started moving forward and forward. And then you learned about inventory and, you know, making sure your inventory is fully optimized and making sure that your SEO is in place and make sure you use your Helium 10 tools.

Bradley Sutton:

When did you discover Helium 10 and what, what tools were, have you been using?

Karen:

I, I think pretty, yeah, right away, right away, Amy, Amy said, go to Helium 10. That was probably the first tool we ever used. Yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

And what, what aspect of Helium 10 have you been using, like, you know, was it for the keyword research, making the listings or your advertising, which ones were your favorite tools?

Karen:

Well, um, yeah, like collecting the keywords and building the entire how, how we should write the listing and, um, uh, Frankenstein and all, you know, we used them all and continue to, um, we use your tool as well as some others now, but yeah, no, it was our very first tool and it continues to be reliable for us.

Bradley Sutton:

At what point did you need help where you couldn’t do everything by yourself? And when you’re have a $70,000, you know, for a few months of sales, sure. You know, one person can handle that, whether they have a job or not, but you know, 700,000 now it’s getting a little, uh, iffy at that point. Did you already have somebody or have you been running things solo until you went internal to the family to hire?

Karen:

No, no, no, no, no, I have not done this by myself. So it was in the spring after the fall, I had, you know, launched, I launched in like late summer and then by the following spring. So probably about 11 months in, I hired somebody, uh, a remote, um, a VA say from the Philippines who, um, who, who had some PPC expertise and began to run our PPC. That was the first hire.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Now, how did you have the idea for, um, I mean, you said how you had the idea, but then how did you present it, uh, uh, to your nephew here that, Hey, would you like to, to come work for this blanket that you kind of inspired?

Karen:

So I, I, I’ve kind of shared a few times this week and Jack’s resume was that he, um, has a data science, um, major and economics minor, very relevant to the work we do. And it’s all about, I mean, he’s a data, data minded, uh, young person, but he’s also been beating me in checkers since he was like three or four years old. I’m like, I am the creative, seriously.

Bradley Sutton:

It’s very stereotypical. We Asians, whether you were adopted or born, we have this in our ability chess checkers. You guys better watch out.

Jack:

At times. That’s what I will say.

Bradley Sutton:

Very important question. Are you a paid intern or are you doing this out of the kindness of your heart for the experience?

Jack:

So I am getting stipends for the work that I put in for it.

Bradley Sutton:

How long, how long have you been doing this now?

Jack:

So I’m like two months in pretty much at this point. So, cause I just graduated college in the spring. So if this is all brand new to me and it’s just a big learning experience.

Bradley Sutton:

How many hours a week are you working and what are your responsibilities?

Jack:

So right now I’m currently working 10 to 20 hours a week. Just learning how, like some, for example, the paper, put a click, the inventory management and like what all the terms are as well. Cause within the last month there are so many new terms that I like-

Bradley Sutton:

ACOS.                              

Jack:

Yes. Stuff like that. Like I didn’t even know what an SKU was two months ago when someone said what was an SKU?

Bradley Sutton:

Southern Korea University.

Jack:

So, yeah, so I just, just been on a big learning spree pretty much.

Bradley Sutton:

How has he been doing and would you recommend this kind of arrangement to others out there?

Karen:

Yeah, I would. I would say so. I mean, honestly, my, my hope was to provide him an opportunity just to learn because like I said, you know, you go to business school, you go to college and the real world application as if anybody who’s been in college in many recent years or even long ago, what you learn is really not what you’re using exactly. Certainly there’s value to college. Maybe not in, in some spaces I’d say, I mean, I think there’s not a big secret. There’s a lot of people in the account space don’t even consider college necessary anymore and I don’t disagree with that, but it was time for him to put what I know he has his, where his brain works. You know, when, when Jane, Jack was beginning to onboard and we began to have the conversation, I said to Jack, what I say to everybody who, who I’m considering bringing onto the team is listen, I’m all about making certain that you are in a position in the company that gets you excited, that makes you energized. And if you start, if Jack started to do the creative work and Jack started to do the innovation and idea work and ideation and sitting down and working with a graphic artist and communicating to our customers and being the, you know, content creator communicator with our, our, our creator team, you know, that we’re building on TikTok, that’s not really, you know, where he excels and he, and he knows that. So I, what I continue to say to him is just, I want to make sure that everything that you’re learning is this exciting you, is this making you feel energized? Does it drain you or does it make you feel like, Ooh, this is cool. I want to learn more about this. So yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

Is this year going to be your projected biggest year or was another year your biggest year of online sales and approximately how much are we talking?

Karen:

So, this year is our biggest projected years. We are having very strong growth right now. So, we were last year close at about 2.2 million and we are predicting beyond 2X growth.

Bradley Sutton:

And which marketplaces is that? Obviously, Amazon USA, you on any other Amazons, you on TikTok, Walmart, anything else, Shopify?

Karen:

Yeah, we are on Amazon Marketplace, which is where we bring in 98% of our revenue. And so we are on TikTok and-

Bradley Sutton:

We got to get that wrapped up. A product like yours, I think we would do that. TikTok should be at least 10, 15, 20 maybe.

Karen:

Thank you, Bradley. I appreciate your vote of confidence. We believe exactly the same thing. The product is highly demonstrable. It’s very what you would see it on QVC, you’d see it on HSN, right? So we know that it’s TikTokable, right? So we’re ready and we are working, you know, we’re working on building that. I’m actually here this weekend trying to make some big decisions about what is going to shift in our TikTok plan. We do feel, you know, according to, you know, we have felt the halo effect, right? We use Yooka as one of our tools to measure the halo effect. You know, they present us, you know, data that says that we have a certain halo effect. We’re trying to evaluate how accurate that is and where that information is coming from. But we’re also measuring the things we do, right? And we’re very good about keeping change logged. Like we, over the last year and a half, that’s one of the things I’ve implemented in the company is when we are making any sort of updates in our ads and what did we do that really could be just put the lever, you know, put the gas to the puddle. Is what did we change and we make sure that we track it or what did we do that now caused us to suddenly lose, you know, sales, right? So we keep a change log. And so we’re watching that as well as like this additional kind of experience of sales that we wouldn’t necessarily expect from our avenue, Amazon revenue.

Karen:

So we’re believing that, yeah, we’re having an effect. We’re having, you know, kind of enjoying that halo effect from TikTok. So, but, you know, there’s a lot of people here talking this weekend about, you know, TikTok does not necessarily have to be like a profitable channel, but make sure, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re realizing that there is a halo effect and then trying to assess what that is. I refuse to believe that for our brand in particular, we can’t, we will be profitable on TikTok. We can build a, you know, we’re building a creator community. People are excited about the product. And yeah, no, I mean, like this is a very natural product for TikTok, so.

Bradley Sutton:

In retrospect, a good decision to go online, even though obviously you’re working more, you’re hiring people and stuff, or would, would you have just stuck with the licensing? Is that still a thing? You still bring in revenue from that side of things?

Karen:

Yeah. So, no, we’re not doing licensing anymore. Yes, it was an excellent decision. So I was making a small bit of a really big, you know, piece, but ultimately to build the value that my net worth is now, it would, it’s not even comparable. So, you know, my, my company is profitable every year. Our net profit continues to grow. Our gross, you know, gross. So I plan an exit and I’m planning an exit in the next couple of years. So in the end, would I stay with what I’ve done and work my butt off to do what I’ve done or just stay with a nice, comfortable royalty check?

Bradley Sutton:

By the way, don’t want to stir the pot. Does Jack have any percentage points on said exit at all?

Karen:

He does not. He does not.

Bradley Sutton:

Not yet. He’s got to work harder for that. Jack, you can pay me a little bit later for that.

Karen:

But yeah, no, I feel as though, so here’s the thing. Most inventors are not entrepreneurs and most entrepreneurs are not inventors. Somehow I happen to be both. So by the time I was ready to move forward with Super Blinky, I think I already had a set mind about, yeah, no, you have to dig to find, find revenue. Right. Does that make sense? Yeah. So that’s kind of so. But it’s not always a combination that you find. So somehow I’ve been able to do both. But I’m a much more creative person than I am. Data and numbers and all the sciences of that. So I just have brought people onto the team who can support me with the things I’m not good at. So.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So we’ve talked about some unique strategies like developing a product just, you know, from scratch or something that was made for your kids or nephews and nieces. You know, that’s unique in itself. Getting a utility patent, important, you know, that protected you. And then licensing, also unique. What else have you been doing since you’ve been online that might be different to what the majority do out there or what they’ve heard about? Like any other unique strategies? Because not just, you know, like, sure, you could do all those things. That doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to do, you know, two million, three million, etc. So what are some of the things that you think have helped help you get to the level you’re at?

Karen:

Ok, that’s a really good question. I’m thinking just like from the basics point of view, like what like what are the A, B’s and C’s that you’re supposed to do in this business? Certainly I’ve done those, not all of them. But I think that one thing that I definitely have done is I’ve invested in myself and my education and frankly, coming to Market Masters, an event like this. So I’ve also joined other masterminds and programs and I do hear advice and I do take advice. So I actually was in the hot seat at the very first Market Masters here and I took and implemented some.

Bradley Sutton:

What was some of the stuff like which I’m sure you got like seven or eight things. This today was my first panel that I was actually on it and we all had advice. So if you can go back, the top two things that you learned at that first Market Masters that moved the lever for you.

Karen:

Yep. So I had this vision as I was building that I needed to create a brand and a brand that would be differentiated from the product name. There was some complications when I was leaving the licensing contract because I was okay, so Super Blanket was selling for 15 bucks in Target with with Batman on the back of it. Right. I knew I was about to launch onto Amazon and sell a kid’s blanket for probably 30 bucks and an adult blanket for 40 bucks under the name Super Blanket. And I could not compete with Batman on the shelf, my generic version that I would not have licensing rights to. Right. So I had to get away from the name Super Blanket. So I created one brand name and then that brand name was simply for the adult product, the adult size throw blanket. And then eventually I was bringing back in Super Blanket, the kids product, and that wasn’t being sold in Target anymore. So I could start to use Super Blanket. So then I had Dream Mighty, which was the adult size blanket. And then I had Super Blanket, which was the kids blanket. And then I thought, you know, I really need a parent over this. So I had two product trademark names and then I thought, I’m going to put a parent over this whole thing. And I had a whole other parent trademark name. And there was so much confusion. And then, you know, like I was trying to get TikTokers to talk about the product. Nobody was mentioning the name. It was and I knew it was just feeling like I was being crushed by this. I need not to do this. And I had to come to Market Masters for them to kick my ass and say, stop it. Just stop it. Your name is one thing. Pick which one. And do that. And that was the best. I mean, sometimes you just need somebody to just like push you into the fire and go, boom, do this. And that’s that was so valuable. So awesome.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So that’s one from Market Masters. Now, another thing either from Market Masters before or just on your own, you develop that you think is pretty unique that has contributed to your success.

Karen:

And I’m also now in Tomer Rabanovich’s top dog community. And I’m building over there with that is-

Bradley Sutton:

Are you going to Cyprus next week?

Karen:

I’m not going to Cyprus. I’m very sad. I would like to because my family is also Maltese and it’s just a hop, skip and a jump and I can’t get there. But anyway, to go to Malta. But anyway, so no. So building teams. Right. And then bringing in the right people, the right talent and making sure that you’re just, you know, we’ve worked with agencies while, you know, a little bit I’ve had, you know, I had somebody doing PPC. I don’t like letting go of things. You know, I definitely have learned for me, I like to manage and have people on my internal team that’s worked best. We are considering a move toward some agency work in TikTok. I’m kind of trying to make that decision this weekend. But ultimately, I think that’s the other one really big thing I’ve learned is really making sure that you not agency out your entire business. Right. And bring in the talent that fits. Like I said, you know, about Jack, when I said when we when we’re onboarding him, like this is your this is what wakes you up and this is gets you energized. And it’s funny. We’ll be sitting in a meeting and I’ll say to Jack, so what did you think about this? And do you get this? You understand this? He’s like, oh, my gosh, that’s so cool. Yeah. And he like geeks out on it. I’m like, yeah. So glad you’re geeking out on this data number thing. Not my thing. Glad you’re excited, you know. And so that’s what to me is what you need to do is figure out what energizes you, what drains you, hire the people that can do the thing that drains you and energizes them. So.

Bradley Sutton:

So last question for Jack, you know, I’m sure almost everything here is kind of like new for you because it’s your first conference and this is like one of the highest level ones you can be. But what like one takeaway is like something, you know, you’re going to go in and implement here in your business or something that impress you the most, like a strategy that you heard, you know, learn from one of the hot seats or one of the presentations here. It could be that Costco gold hack that won the hack contest. Could be anything. Which one? And you can take your time to think about it, too, because we headed this later.

Jack:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that Costco gold theme, that’s always going to be something that’s going to be sitting in the back of my head. I’m always going to be thinking about that no matter what.

Karen:

He’s going to need to borrow $8,000 from me to do it.

Bradley Sutton:

You guys want to know what that is? Well, you’re going to have to see if Kevin lets us talk about that. But what happens at Market Masters sometimes stays in the hack contest, that is. But other than the hack contest, was there something else that you like?

Jack:

Oh, just like how we were talking about the strategies and like how like people’s personalities can like help you in your business. Like some people have their strengths and weaknesses and it’s all complementary with each other. And it just had me thinking back to like a sports reference that because I play sports my entire life is when you can complement each other, you guys can perform phenomenal things rather than doing it all by yourself. So having a team that fits around you and each other is what will work best in business, at least.

Bradley Sutton:

Ok, sounds good. And what better team to have than your own family? Sometimes, although I’m sure that could, you know, cause some some issues around the dinner table if there’s some.

Karen:

We’re doing good. We’re doing good. I will say this, too, about Jack is because he is an athlete and played sports from the time he was, what, four years old. I mean, he has he we talk business and he often goes to the sports mentality, the defense, the offense. We’re talking PPC is like, oh, I see how this is a this is a defense campaign. You know, this is a defense. This is how it should be played. And it’s just it just it’s fun to see. It kind of cracks me up. But that’s his reference point. And he’s spot on, you know, so it’s pretty fun.

Bradley Sutton:

He’s doing some product targeting. And he says, like in lacrosse, I went around the goal and looped or I don’t know what you call it when you when you score the goal, like from the back or anyways, we can do sports puns all day long here. But anyways, you know, I was going to ask at the end of this, you know, what’s the future hold? And sounds like you already have that in mind. You’re looking for an exit. And then is that to, you know, take it easy or do you want to move on to something else?

Karen:

So I would like to exit because I don’t want to do this forever. I feel like I want to get it to a certain point. I know there’s like a lot of growth and lovers that I have right now that I would like we’re launching on Shopify in the next couple of months. We’ve already got tick tock going. We’re going to make that profitable. But I know I can position the company in a way that there’s so much. I mean, there’s so much more room. There’s product development that’s still coming. Right. We have a new kids product coming out this year. We’ve added a hood to the kids super Blanky. We’ve got as we’re working on our super towel, which is the beach towel version with the patented sleeve. So there’s growth there. But there’s so much more product development opportunity that I am leaving on the table for whoever is going to buy the company and distribution channels. I have not touched retail yet. And I think there’s a lot of opportunity. So I’m definitely of the mindset where I’m building a company where there’s still a lot more on the table for whoever buys the company. But, you know, I’m I’ve been at this for a while and I’m excited to be able to just put it to kind of somebody else’s hands.

Karen:

And I will do something else because my brain would not rest well if I didn’t just keep on going. So I’m going to do something else. I’ve been entrepreneurial, I would say, my whole life. And I definitely have an understanding that everything that I feel like I’m not this. Am I smarter than I used to be? I don’t know. I am. I am much more learned than I used to be. And I and I’m energized. I’m energized still today by this company and what I do. And I want to do something else that’s exciting. I think there. I mean, I say this a lot. There’s dementia in my family. And I just think that this is this company building. This company has been my Sudoku. So I don’t think I will ever just kind of stop working. I will do something else. I will. I’m not sure what that will be. I have some ideas around it. But yeah, no, I’ll keep doing something after I sell.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Awesome. All right. Well, maybe next year, Market Masters, if I’m here and you’re here, we’ll maybe record another episode and see if you still have the business or how your TikTok Shopify launch has gone. It’d be great to catch up and keep making sure to use Helium 10. And if you have any issues with it or some suggestions, hit me up. We’re working on Shopify stuff potentially, so might be able to help on that, too. All right. Well, we wish you the best of luck.

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