Building EngErotics: 10 Years of Sex Tech, CBD & Breaking Barriers

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Oh my goodness.
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What am I thinking of that?
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Ten years.
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Somehow that's long enough for trends to come back, your favorite TV show to become classic television, and for everyone to collectively realize maybe we should have been nicer to our backs.
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But it's also long enough to build something that actually lasts.
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Lasts.
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Hello, hello, and welcome to the Engerotics live stream.
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I am Jackie Mick, your emotional support chaos goblin for today.
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And today we're celebrating Engerotics turning 10 years old.
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We're looking back at where we started, everything that's changed over the last decade, and somehow realizing that Stranger Things and this company have been around for the exact same amount of time.
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And honestly, that feels fake.
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Let's get into it.
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So as always, I'm joined by the team, the leadership team behind Enderotics, and I'm gonna ask everybody the same question, and it's gonna be awkward because it always is.
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I've got all that kind of stuff in my basement.
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I've got like, you know, streams and stuff.
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But yeah, that's one thing.
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Um, seriously though.
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Uh what would I if I could go back and tell my 2016 something, my 2016 self something.
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Uh, I would have told her to quit her corporate job sooner.
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Girl, I would have said quit sooner.
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Don't wait, quit sooner.
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For real.
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Hard agree with that one.
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Um, Heather Barr, our COO and formulation specialist.
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What about you?
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If you could go back and tell your 2016 self one thing, what would you tell her?
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Buckle up.
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No wild ride.
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No additional information, just buckle up.
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Pretty much.
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Because everything, as soon as we figure out something, we think things are going right, things change.
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And so you have to be adaptable.
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Um, you have to be able to pivot quickly.
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And um man, the last 10 years, it's been one major change after another, mostly really good changes, some really significant challenges, though.
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So yeah, buckle up valid.
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And then uh we have Amanda Moser, our sexologist and CBD researcher.
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What would you tell your 2016 self?
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When I in 2016, I was still an undergraduate college student, only studying human sexuality, have not dabbled in the cannabis research yet.
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And I would love to go back and tell her that it's all gonna work out.
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You're gonna get out of North Carolina, you're gonna make it to Denver, you're gonna somehow do the largest study on cannabis and sex.
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And it's gonna be great.
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And and you it's gonna be all right.
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And I know that's hard to say now because I would love to say that now to my future self.
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But looking back, it's uh it's gonna be it's gonna be really good.
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I love that.
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Uh and I am Jackie, our CMO, and like I said, the emotional support chaos goblin.
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Uh, and personally, I would tell myself to uh go to therapy because I think if I would have done it earlier, uh my brain would be in a much better place now.
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And it's already like in a vastly better place than it was before, but still.
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Earlier therapy.
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I do support therapy.
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Yes, and uh just a friendly reminder from me to everyone out there listening: time is a scam, it's all made up.
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Uh, 10 years really means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it also means everything to us right now.
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Yeah.
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10 years seems pretty significant right now, but at the same time, it went by in the blink of an eye.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So I'm just like, is this real?
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Is it happening?
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Maybe it's not actually happening.
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I don't know.
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So um, for those of us who are here at the very beginning, uh, what inspired Engurotics initially?
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Like, how did how did it come to be for people who do not know the story?
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Okay, that's me.
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I was here the very beginning because I'm the founder.
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So I founded it.
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But if I'm being honest, um Heather was here at the very beginning too, but she was not yet part of the company.
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Um, Heather, you were in the um uh private Facebook group, the Engerotics community.
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And I don't know how you found your way in there, but the Engirotics community used to be a different group.
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Um, and it was from my days of being in direct sales and doing uh pleasure parties.
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Um, y'all know it's like the pure romances of the world and things like that.
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But what inspired the company?
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Um really, it was like I was I was pissed off.
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I was pissed off and I was really jaded.
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Um, I was really disillusioned with my corporate career at the time.
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Um, you know, because climbing the corporate ladder as a black lady structural engineer ain't no joke.
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And, you know, when you become a mom, like, you know, the world of engineering, corporate world in a lot of ways as a whole, just not friendly to moms.
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Um, not friendly to women, black women, gay people, like pick your minority.
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Um, so I wasn't really like pleased with that.
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And I was uh working in oil and gas at the time.
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Uh I was having a really difficult time with my boss, who um was a white man who seemed to just want to be in a pissing competition that I didn't ask to be in.
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Um that was irritating.
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Uh on the direct sales side, um, something MLM, whatever you want to call it, you know, but the pleasure products, uh pleasure party side, um I was disillusioned with that too because um there was such a lack of representation in the marketing.
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And I didn't find the education to be really legit, meaning um, yes, we're talking about products and what goes where and how to use them and have a grand old time, but I found that we weren't talking um about safe materials, porosity, absorbency.
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Um, we certainly weren't talking about, you know, kink and BDSM in a healthy way.
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I mean, it was a lot of these companies were like very pro 50 shades of gray and you know, like selling the tie and the, you know, but not really taking the time to like, hey, like here's how you educate your your clients about proper BDSM, things like that.
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So um really disillusioned with that um as well.
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Um, and also quality.
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There was a quality issue with some of the products I was offering.
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All of that to say I was just, you know, I could do it better myself.
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I could do it better better myself.
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Maybe I should start my own thing.
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Didn't know what that thing was, didn't know that, didn't know what that thing was.
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Um, but I was really just kind of jaded, disillusioned, pissed off.
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Like, I'm not getting what I need over here, I'm not getting what I need over here, not really happy.
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I could do it better myself.
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And here's the thing like, you know, being a structural, a corporate structural engineer in oil and gas, or it's a lot of money, you know, like golden handcuffs are a real thing.
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So it's like I took a big, a big step back.
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Big step back.
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Because let me tell you something.
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If y'all think you're just gonna wake up and start a company and be making 85, 90, 100, 150, whatever, pick your salad, you are not hanging up, you will not.
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So yeah, that's that's what it is.
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I just, you know, I woke up one day and I'm like, man, I'm really unhappy.
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And I think I could do this better.
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I think I could do my professional life better.
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I think I could do engineering better, I think I could do pleasure products better, I think I could do life better.
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So, and I was a new mom, and I'm like, I ain't got time for the for the book for the Yeah, like it's hard to be a mom and the your time, not all of it being yours.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Yeah, and and yeah, I'm still in that boat.
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Um, it's still got a little ways to go, but yeah, that's basically what it was.
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There were just um a lot of gaps, you know, in in there were a lot of gaps in what in the pleasure party sex toy party thing that I was noticing.
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Um, and a lot of the marketing was very heteronormative, cisgendered, um, white.
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Um, it wasn't very inclusive.
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Um, it wasn't really marketing that really spoke to me.
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It wasn't really, it just wasn't doing its thing.
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Um, and the education could have been a lot better.
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There's just so many things.
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But yeah, basically just finding the gaps and filling them.
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Um, finding the gaps in my own life and finding a way of filling those.
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What was the very first product that we that Engerotics released?
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Okay, so the first thing I wanted to say was vibe number five.
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That's not true.
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That's not true.
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Um, so the first product that Engerotics ever released was a set of novelty table bells.
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And if you were here in the very beginning, you might remember them.
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Heather, do you remember that?
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Oh, I think I know where this is going.
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One of them said ring for wine, and the other said ring for sex, and I sold them as a pair.
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Um, now, of course, I didn't know what I was doing.
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Like, I had no idea, and you don't know what you don't know.
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Uh, what a lot of people don't know about angerotics is that we started on Amazon.
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And, you know, Heather, Jackie, uh, maybe Amanda, as you know, like we had a conversation or two or three about, oh man, this is a brilliant brand.
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Put it on Amazon.
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And I'm like, absolutely the hell not.
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Absolutely not.
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Um, because we actually started there.
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I was like, that's gonna be such a good thing for what I'm trying to do.
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Amazon is vast, its reach is vast, we're gonna reach all kinds of people.
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And you know what?
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No lies detected.
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All of that was true.
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Uh, we started there.
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I was like, we're gonna be an Amazon store.
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Um, but in order to offer um intimacy devices on Amazon, you've got to prove yourself and you have to have like, I think it was like 50 sales, 100 sales, whatever.
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And I'm like, well, what the hell am I supposed to sell?
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Like, I already know what I want to sell.
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And here's the thing vibe number five had already been like was already on the way to being manufactured.
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So I already had money in that bucket.
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And then I realized, oh, I can't just throw these on here.
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Um, no, I had to find something else to sell so that um we would be eligible for the sexual wellness uh category.
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Um, so I sourced these table bells, sold them as a pair, and we sold those like gangbusters.
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But yeah, the novelty table bells.
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I wish I had a picture.
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I should have like gotten like some old pictures.
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Were they were they like the the the red bells with the black handle?
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Uh no, no, they're like the like at a hotel desk.
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Like ding ding you put it with the yeah, okay.
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They're they're those.
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Okay.
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Yeah, I think like your you know, hotel desk, concierge desk, you go and you ring for service.
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That was like the ring for service bell, except we're not, we're ringing for wine, we're ringing for sex, you know.
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That's that's what it is.
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Um, but yeah, I sold them as a pair, I think for like 12 bucks.
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And we we sold 20 and then we sold 30, and then we sold 50.
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And then after we were allowed in the sexual wellness category, uh, we kept selling the bells.
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And so then we were selling vibe number five, which was technically the second product, um, but also Endurotics first intimacy device.
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Um, but we sold that along with the table bells on uh Amazon until I decided we weren't gonna be an Amazon store anymore.
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What I think we still have a few of those bells in stock, actually.
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Oh, do we?
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Do we have some?
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I think we've got a couple tucked away.
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Just a couple of we should throw them up on the website and sell them as like a tanned anniversary thing.
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I think that would be fun as hell.
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We that'd be fun.
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I don't know how many we've got left.
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Maybe, yeah.
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Save one for me.
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I'm probably the first customer.
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But yeah, ready for my bell.
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Like so, what what what went into consideration when you were developing vibe number five?
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Also, by the way, excellent name.
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Five has been my lucky number since I was in like middle school.
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So really thrills me.
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Yes, that's awesome.
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Um yeah, so you know, when I first started Enderotics, for those of you guys out there who don't know, um, androtics is short for engineered erotics.
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When I first started Engerotics, I was so for sure that I was gonna come out of the gate developing new concepts because I had a lot of ideas then.
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I still have a lot of ideas now.
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We all do.
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People have pitched us their ideas, as all three of you know.
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But I was like, man, I got so many awesome ideas.
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Like, you know, because I I'm an engineer.
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Like, that's that's you know, I went to two degrees in engineering from CU Boulder.
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Um, you know, know a lot of other engineers, and it's like that's what we do.
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Like, we solve problems and we like create new stuff, like just the types of things that I did in my career, just like on a different um wavelength.
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Um, so I thought that we were gonna be doing that, and I had like all kinds of ideas, and then I realized, then I realized bringing a product from concept to market ain't no joke.
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Like, you need a lot of time, you need a lot of tenacity, a lot of money, a lot of money, more time, more tenacity, even more money.
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You probably won't have the money.
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Guess what?
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You need to link up with people who have money.
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You've got to raise money, you have to find investors.
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I'm like, shit, I don't know anything about that.
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And um, and I was really grumpy about it.
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I'm like, this is gonna take forever.
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I'm gonna be like working on this because we've met people, you know, Heather, like we've met people, like as we've gone through our journey that were, you know, just barely got their ideas off the ground, still getting their ideas off the ground.
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And so um I decided to start with what I know, which is engineering, um, internal engineering more specifically.
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And basically it talks about internal engineering says, um, you know, okay, cool, you can have two designs that look virtually identical, or maybe they are identical on the outside.
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Um, but can you optimize the inside?
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Can you engineer the internals?
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Can you design the internals in such a way that it's gonna outperform its competition?
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And the answer is yes.
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And we know that this is true for every other industry.
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Um, I don't know if people think about that so much in the world of intimacy devices, because you can have two bullets, they look exactly the same.
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One might conk out on you um in a month's time, and the other might, you know, last two years.
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Why?
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It's because the one that lasts two years is better designed.
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So I started there, um, started talking to factories, interviewing factories.
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Again, didn't know any factories.
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I was just reaching out to people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, seeing what everybody did, requesting samples, seeing what I might want to start with.
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Um, and then I started having that conversation.
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Like, hey, I really needed to do this.
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Like, what can we do?
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Is this an option?
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Like, what?
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And it was just very like simple stuff.
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Like, just very simple stuff.
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Um, uh, not anything like cutting edge or groundbreaking, just like very simple stuff.
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Like, hey, I need to make sure that you know, the o-ring around the thing is gonna be, you know, because the sample you sent me is kind of loose and you know, just things like that.
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Um, and that's really how we started.
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That's really how I started.
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Um rather than like bringing something, you know, to the fore that the world has never seen before, just like keep keeping it basic.
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I'm like, well, you know, maybe we just want to make people's bullets work better.
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So nice.
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But y'all already knew that.
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Um, how how different was the industry in 2016 compared to how it is now?
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I mean, everybody chime in here because I think everybody's gonna have a different perspective.
00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:50.879
Um, are you talking about for intimacy devices or sex tech or CBT in general?
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:53.360
Whatever you want to touch on.
00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:54.320
Okay.
00:16:54.639 --> 00:17:00.240
I I feel like um sex tech was still like it was still new.
00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.759
It was still a very new um concept.
00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:11.519
Um, I had just learned about it, but it hadn't really taken off in the way that it has in the past five years.
00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:16.799
Um, I don't recall seeing any sex tech conferences or anything like that.
00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:26.640
Certainly, people were not really using CBD for sexual wellness, like the focus was on um curing whatever ails you, pain, whatever.
00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:39.839
Um, and I don't think that the um, and I mean this is still true to some extent, but the greater pleasure product industry and the world of sex tech were still very apart.
00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:51.200
I don't think that anybody in the greater pleasure product industry really knew anything about sex tech, and but and I want to say vice versa, but that's not entirely true.
00:17:51.519 --> 00:18:07.039
Sex tech exists to fill those gaps in the greater pleasure product industry, but also folks over here in sex tech are not necessarily plugged into all of the like what's mainstream in the uh greater pleasure product industry.
00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:08.000
What do you guys think?
00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.240
Jackie, you've been in the industry for a hot minute.
00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:19.200
So the first thing that I thought about is I in 2016 where I lived, and that was Florida, um, CBD was still pretty taboo.
00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:25.440
Like uh we I don't even think we carried it in the chain of stores that I worked for until at least three to four years later.
00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:28.400
Um, and it was only a very few things.
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:40.799
But one of the things I remember from 2016 was like the burgeoning industry of teledildonics, which was like the sex toys that operate via Bluetooth or like apps or whatever.
00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:44.720
Like that was like brand new and like just getting started.
00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:47.519
So that was my only knowledge really of sex tech.
00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:48.880
Yeah.
00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:52.799
And there was like a big thing around the um, there was a patent.
00:18:52.960 --> 00:19:10.400
Uh, I'm I'm kind of I think I'm gonna butcher this because I didn't, it just now came to mind because I hadn't heard the term teledildonics in quite some time, but um, there was a patent involved, and nobody else could really explore you know, teledildonics until the patent expired, um, something like that.
00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:19.119
I'm gonna have to look it up and refresh myself, but I vaguely remember reading about that as I was doing whatever due diligence I was doing in starting products.
00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:20.880
Amanda Heather, what do you think?
00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:23.680
Did you guys notice any any differences?
00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:31.519
And I mean, my experience was pretty different because I didn't originally come from the world of sex tech.
00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:33.680
Um I came from the tech world.
00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:40.240
Um and so I didn't really have a good handle on it until I really joined Androtics.
00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:51.440
I mean, I was interested in the community just for personal reasons, um, but that's very different than actually analyzing things to propel a business forward and bring new products to market.
00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.599
So I don't know that I can really speak that well on the differences between what used to exist between what we're doing now.
00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:09.119
Um, I can speak a lot to what we're doing now, um but things were just um I feel like quieter.
00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:13.680
Things were done not as much on a public stage.
00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:23.039
You couldn't um I don't remember ever going into like intimacy devices on store shelves um back 10 years ago.
00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:26.079
Oh yeah, we had a specialties, yeah.
00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:27.440
Oh yeah, they're all over now.
00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:29.759
Yeah, and it was still go anywhere.
00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:30.720
Right.
00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:32.079
I mean, I was at Target.
00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:38.240
Um, Target had some like all these mainstream places um are carrying uh pleasure products now, which is great.
00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:46.000
I feel like we're talking about it more rather than the CD store in the back alley that you know nobody really wants to be seen visiting.
00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:48.000
Um so I really like that.
00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:52.400
I think that the the educational component, and Amanda, I'm sure you can speak a lot more to that too.
00:20:52.559 --> 00:21:00.079
The but the educational component and the willingness to discuss um a taboo topic has really changed a lot.
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:15.839
Yeah, I would uh I would agree with that, you know, especially with, I mean, even just the one topic of CBD, um, you know, I don't think it I I know it wasn't um as mainstream as it is now.
00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:23.440
Um, especially like I lived in rural North Carolina, uh, where cannabis is still federally illegal.
00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:28.400
Uh, I felt like you can't even say the word without going to jail.
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:31.039
If you say the word take it to jail, yeah.
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:41.440
And so um, yeah, CBD, I remember when that was just coming out, that was a big thing, and that was years after um 2016.
00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:42.480
So I would agree.
00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:51.359
So, how how did engerotics get in to make the leap from sex tech to CBD bath stuff?
00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:52.240
Okay.
00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:58.720
So uh this happened in the engurotics community, and I can't remember who it was.
00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:07.119
Um, and this was Before the algorithm was trash, it was like during the heyday of like, oh, the algorithm was going to show you the things you wanted to see.
00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:11.839
Somebody in the group, um, which has been archived, by the way.
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:13.039
So you can find it.
00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:14.559
You cannot join it.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:16.799
Um, maybe I'll reopen it if times get better.
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:17.519
I have no idea.
00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:24.960
But somebody dropped a comment in the community and they said, Hey Raven, um, what do you know about weed loop?
00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:27.119
That was the verbiage, weed loop.
00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:29.759
And I was like, Well, not a damn thing.
00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:45.119
Because at the time um I was working for this company and they did um, they worked on contracts for um, I think like government contracts and stuff like that, um, in addition to private companies.
00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:47.519
Anyway, they they did randoms.
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:50.000
Oddly enough, I never got a random drug test.
00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:53.759
They never asked me to participate in a random at all.
00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:57.519
And like, I could have been smoking my ass off the whole time.
00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:02.799
Um, but it wasn't anything that I touched because I didn't want to lose my job.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:09.279
I'm like, okay, knowing my luck, I'm gonna like have a little puff or whatever edible, and then I'm gonna have to pee like the following morning.
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:10.559
So I didn't know anything.
00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:14.480
Um, I wasn't using it recreationally, I wasn't using it for intimacy.
00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:16.640
Um, but I know who did.
00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:20.240
Like I had friends who knew all about all about that.
00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:22.559
And so I started asking around.
00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:28.720
Um, and that's how we found um our first, I want to, well, what do you call them business partners?
00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:31.039
They were like informal business partners.
00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:44.240
Um I had known this person for some time, and it was essentially like partnering up with that dude who sold weed back in the day, smoked weed back in the day, because there was a lot of that in the cannabis industry.
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:50.079
There were a lot of people that were like, you know, people that were doing illegal shit back in the day that are trying to go legit.
00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:52.400
That was exactly what it is.
00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:55.119
Um, but anyway, so I did some asking around.
00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:58.319
I just asked people who were in the industry who knew.
00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:04.319
Um, so I talked to one person and then another who were very deeply involved in the cannabis industry.
00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:07.119
And I'm not gonna mention them because I don't know if they want to be mentioned.
00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:18.960
So I'll just I didn't talk, I didn't know I was gonna be telling the story, but um, you know, they were like, yeah, there's there's uh opening here, you know, because this isn't really offered widely.
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:28.400
Now at the time, um, you know, fora was like, you know, they they broke through, like, you know, um THC infused personal lubricant.
00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:29.119
That's what it was.
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:30.960
So, Raven, what do you know about Weed Lube?
00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:33.039
I'm like, I don't know, but let me find that find out.
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:39.039
And I came back to the interotics group and uh I said this is what I learned um about what it can do.
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:46.960
Um, you know, I have I don't know about this firsthand because you know, corporate America, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, don't want to lose my job.
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:52.319
But then it turned into like, well, how come inurotics doesn't work on this?
00:24:52.480 --> 00:25:03.200
Because there were a lot of parallels between um the uh gaps in regulation and safety for intimacy devices and the same for CBD.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:22.480
Um so it's like going back to why I founded the company, uh, one of the things I didn't say at the start of the show was um I noticed that there was a lack of QAQC standards, um, design guidelines, things like that, that held manufacturers accountable for safety, efficacy, quality.
00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:28.480
Um, so that was that's true um in the world of intimacy devices, also true in the world of CBD.
00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:32.799
Well, it's gotten better, but back then, this is 2016 or 2017, I guess.
00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:35.599
Oh yeah, it was a wild west.
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:43.519
People were like, you know, using their magical butter machines and you know, funneling it into a bottle and calling it a day, that sort of thing.
00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:45.839
Um, but yeah, it started in the angerotics group.
00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:47.920
It was like somebody was like, hey Raven, what do you know about this?
00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:48.960
I'm like, not a damn thing.
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:50.000
Let me find out.
00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.599
And so the the first CBD product we made was the oil.
00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:58.960
No, wait, okay, was it was it an oil?
00:25:59.119 --> 00:25:59.440
I don't know.
00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:00.240
I have no idea.
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:01.200
I was just doing it.
00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:03.039
I have to you I have to logics.
00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:05.440
I've got to think really, really far back.
00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:06.720
I've got to think really far back.
00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:17.839
The the original no, it wasn't always a stick though, but it was the the that was the base concept, was what has turned into our current salve stick.
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:18.799
It didn't always be a little bit more than a lot of things.
00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:22.880
Actually, I have a buried memory.
00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:27.920
I think Heather, do you remember some clear bottles of oil?
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:29.359
Do you remember that?
00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:31.680
Because if you don't, it was very okay.
00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:33.119
So this was pre-Heather.
00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:37.119
Okay, this was this was this was pre-the golden age.
00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:55.440
So um, so the people I was working with at the time, they said, Hey, we've got some ideas, but we don't know how to get it out there, and we don't know how to make it better, but let's talk and let's work together to see if we can get it out to the masses.
00:26:55.759 --> 00:26:59.599
Um, there were two things that I got from them.
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:07.039
I got um a bottle, several clear bottles of CBD using distillate.
00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:10.240
So it was CBD distillate infused oil.
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:14.720
And when I say oil, it was distillate and fractionated coconut oil.
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.559
It was a lubricant, big air quotes, you know.
00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:20.799
So nobody sue me or anything.
00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:25.519
Um, I think that was one of the first things that we dabbled in.
00:27:25.839 --> 00:27:34.000
Um, but then also we had these little pots of what would later become the soothing salve stick.
00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:36.480
We had these little pots and they were kind of funky.
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:42.559
They had like that herby, that earthy herbal like can of it, because it was distillate.
00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:47.599
Um, there's probably some pictures, there are pictures of it somewhere in the group.
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:53.920
Um, but that it wasn't the salve stick, like we didn't even have a stick.
00:27:54.160 --> 00:28:00.160
We had like these bottles of of oil, and we had this.
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:06.160
Um, you know, the person I was working with, like, oh, I got a body butter, and it really wasn't, it was a salve.
00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:10.000
Um, so yeah, so we had a couple of prototypes.
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:15.839
Um, one that we didn't run with, and the other that later became the stick that everybody knows.
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:17.519
Now, those two formulations aren't the same.
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:18.400
I want to make that clear.
00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:26.480
Like, there were a lot of, you know, like, why doesn't our soothing salve stick stink like, you know, like back in the day?
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:29.119
Um, the formulation changed quite a bit.
00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:40.319
Um, but yeah, that was we had two very, very crude prototypes um that worked one worked well and the other really didn't.
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:46.319
Um, the oil really didn't do what I was hoping it to do because I believe I handed it out to people.
00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:47.680
I think that's what I did.
00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:52.079
Um the salve that was in the jar, that worked really well.
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.200
And we ran with that.
00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:56.480
And that was all before Heather, you were just a spectator.
00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:09.680
Um, Heather came on board because I got in the group and I did a Facebook Live where I was crying about um one of our production runs going south, like legit tears, legit tears, because I had collected money.
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:12.400
Okay, that's how I funded the damn project.
00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:15.599
I'm just like brokenhearted, didn't know what to do.
00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:18.960
But anyway, like you know, Heather came in to like you know, dry my tears.
00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:19.759
That's what happened.
00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:22.400
And that's what happened.
00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:28.640
How did we make the jump from the pot, uh the pot of salve to the stick?
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:30.400
I think that was Alicia.
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.839
I think that was Alicia's suggestion.
00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:37.839
Um we mailed these.
00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:41.680
Correct me if I'm wrong, Heather, because that this was such a long time ago.
00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:48.000
Um, but I think she was the one that was like, you know, this is really solid.
00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:54.000
If we poured it into like a tube or something and you twisted it up like a deodorant, this would be amazing.
00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:55.759
Um, and so that's what we did.
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:58.720
It wasn't my idea, I can tell you that.
00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:01.119
I didn't think of that at all.
00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:15.039
Yeah, and when I came on board, you had just started putting them into tubes, but there were a lot of issues with both the packaging and the formulation, and we wasn't table.
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:17.200
A lot of issues.
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:26.480
Um and so I came on and now we have six different varieties of salvastic.
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:30.079
Um that and we resolved all of those issues.
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:42.559
Um couldn't have done it without you, couldn't could not have done it without you because um, you know, like the people like and honestly, this is not to like shit on anybody.
00:30:42.640 --> 00:31:04.480
I mean, the my business relationship with these people did not work out um because I'm gonna tell you, like, you know, sometimes people do some foul stuff and they don't want you to know that they're up to something foul, and then you find out that something's happening, um, and then they get mad at you.
00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:13.279
The reality is, is like Heather, right before you, I was trying to find somebody with formulation experience who knew about this, and I did find somebody.
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:20.000
Um, and really what happened was um I found this person with a great skill set.
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:31.359
The people that I thought that I partnered with was like, oh, well, maybe we can have some of that too, and we'll just have, you know, her work in our I think I told you this whole thing.
00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:38.640
And the idea was like, you know, well, we're just gonna have her work in our facility and you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:44.000
Like it was essentially kind of a backdoor way to own proprietary information.
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:47.839
Anything that flowed into my company had to both flow to them first.
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.200
And I didn't like that.
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:55.200
Um, so I parted ways with all of them, and we were in the middle of like, because that's how I funded the project.
00:31:55.359 --> 00:31:59.599
I collected money, like people trusted me, they were giving me money.
00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:05.599
We were doing pre-sales for, I want to say, Heather, you were on board for one of the pre-sales.
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:09.519
I think we did pre-sales for maybe the first three runs.
00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:16.640
We were bankrolling the cost of the raw materials, um, cost of the manufacturing.
00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:26.240
We were bankrolling that all up front, like all up front, and straight out of the enterotics community, uh, via a Google form, no less.
00:32:26.319 --> 00:32:28.240
We didn't have a functional website.
00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:29.759
Um, yeah.
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:32.720
So, yeah, that that that was wild.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.240
That was some wild times.
00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.000
That is crazy to think about.
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:39.920
I don't know if we answered the question.
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:41.839
Okay, I don't even need I don't, it doesn't matter.
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:49.759
It doesn't matter, and then like throughout these last 10 years, we had like smack in the middle of it, the pandemic and the quarantine time.
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:54.079
How did that affect what we what uh Androtics did here?
00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:56.559
We made some money.
00:32:59.039 --> 00:33:07.119
Yeah, you know, the the lockdown was overall really good for sales because people were staying at home and looking for things to do.
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:20.079
So, like this was that was a very, very lucrative period that I remember being so stressed out because we had um all of the so all of our products are uh packaged in plastic.
00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:25.359
Okay, that's intentional, for better or for worse, they're packaged in plastic.
00:33:25.839 --> 00:33:33.279
All of the factories that make the plastic that our products go into switch to making PPE as they should, mind you.
00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:40.160
I'm glad that the that those factories went and stepped up for this global pandemic.
00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:43.440
Getting packaging was so stressful.
00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:48.079
We would sell product and not be able to restock it because we couldn't get the packaging.
00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:54.720
I was sourcing from all over the world, different vendors, different factories, seeing who had a particular bottle left.
00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:57.119
Was there 20 left in their back room?
00:33:57.279 --> 00:34:00.160
Uh, we will take whatever you've got, that sort of thing.
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:02.079
So it was incredibly stressful.
00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:09.760
And but I think we only have one product that was actually out of stock for any sort of extended period of time, but we had to pivot a lot.
00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:19.199
Um, but it was also a really good opportunity to try these different packages, uh, different packaging options that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise tried.
00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:28.639
Um, because we had vendors that we looked that we really liked, that we had good relationships with, that we still have good relationships with, um, but they didn't have what we needed.
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:30.480
So we were trying different options.
00:34:30.719 --> 00:34:46.719
And it was frustrating to put a known product into a new packaging and saying, Well, I hope it works, I hope the dimensions are right, I hope the labels fit, um, knowing that if it's off by an eighth of an ounce, that that could affect the final product, things like that.
00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:50.400
That was uh so stressful, so stressful.
00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:52.800
All right, that sounds terrible.
00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:57.039
Uh Heather, was 20 so the the pandemic started in 2020.
00:34:57.119 --> 00:34:59.119
Was that the year that we did quad S?
00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:02.559
When was that in Denver?
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:04.400
Because that's when we met Amanda.
00:35:04.639 --> 00:35:06.079
And so yeah.
00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:07.280
Did we do that?
00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:08.480
Was 2020?
00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:10.400
I don't know if that was 2020.
00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:12.480
I I was thinking that was later.
00:35:12.719 --> 00:35:26.320
Um I remember because with the pandemic, we were in Las Vegas, and I remember that we were neighbors next to a supplier of a vendor uh from China, and they were not able to fly it.
00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:27.679
They did not show up.
00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:33.199
They did not show up, and people were like, there was like it wasn't a big conversation.
00:35:33.360 --> 00:35:35.920
We were at USA CBD Expo that year.
00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:38.800
That was our that was our first major trade show.
00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:41.920
Man, I was shitting bricks because Enderotics couldn't afford.
00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:53.920
We didn't have, I think I I paid like, I don't know,$3,000,$5,000 for this booth and then more money for my hotel room, Heather's hotel.
00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:00.480
And it wasn't even just Heather, it was me and my spouse and Heather and her spouse, the four of us.
00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:16.239
Um, so putting all of us up in a hotel, um, all of that stuff, I remember I was just shitting bricks because you know, I had the money in the personal reserves, but I was like, man, I don't know if this is gonna work.
00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:19.119
That was the year we won our first product award.
00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:24.480
Um, but you know, at the trade show, I remember, you know, the pandemic wasn't the pandemic.
00:36:24.719 --> 00:36:30.320
People were like, there were whisperings and kind of hushed conversations about a virus.
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:36.480
I remember like, you know, a virus, um, you know, like, oh, were you worried about getting sick?
00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:38.800
Do you know anybody who's gotten sick?
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:42.239
Um, I'm amazed that we didn't get sick, Heather.
00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:46.960
I don't know, like, because by that time we were there on Valentine's Day.
00:36:47.039 --> 00:36:50.320
So it was like Valentine's Day 2020.
00:36:50.480 --> 00:37:01.440
We barely like we barely made it because I remember by March, um, early March, that was like when the world shut down.
00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:07.840
And um so I don't know like how we did it.
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:09.360
I had such a great time.
00:37:09.519 --> 00:37:11.039
We had a lot of fun.
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:21.840
Um, but man, I was so I was so nervous, not because like of the the virus, um, which we you know we didn't we weren't calling it COVID.
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:24.159
I think everybody was like talking about coronavirus.
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:35.039
I think it was like coronavirus, and we weren't calling it COVID yet, but um yeah, so that 2020 we were in um we were in Las Vegas, maybe it was 2021 when we met.
00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:36.639
I don't remember, but we met Amanda.
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:38.800
I was I was gonna ask, yeah.
00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:43.519
I want to I want to know Amanda's origin story because I just assumed Amanda has always been here.
00:37:43.840 --> 00:37:47.360
No, no, no, I haven't.
00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:52.719
Amanda, you tell it from your perspective because I know what it was like for us to meet you.
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:55.599
Like, like what did what did you see?
00:37:55.840 --> 00:38:04.000
Like, I don't know if I know we met through quads, but I remember you met one of my mentors, Dr.
00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:04.400
Knox.
00:38:04.559 --> 00:38:04.719
Dr.
00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:05.280
Knox.
00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:07.440
Oh, yes, love him.
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:17.840
Um, he honest to God got me to where I am today because when I first started college, I was a biology major thinking I was gonna work with animals.
00:38:18.159 --> 00:38:24.159
And I learned very quickly I had to take a lot of chemistry classes, and that was not gonna that was not gonna work.
00:38:24.320 --> 00:38:33.199
Um, but I ended up taking an elective course, which I thought was just gonna be a fun, fun elective called Courtship and Marriage, um, that was taught by Dr.
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.559
Knox, and that introduced me to the world of human sexuality.
00:38:36.639 --> 00:38:38.480
So I definitely owe Dr.
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:40.400
Knox uh where I am today.
00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:48.320
Because I remember after class, like walking up to him and being like, oh my god, this is an academic field that like I can study and learn more about.
00:38:48.400 --> 00:38:51.039
And he's like, Yeah, and so took me under my wing.
00:38:51.199 --> 00:38:53.199
Um, Quadas happened.
00:38:53.360 --> 00:38:59.519
I know he met you guys, and I remember we got coffee uh once everyone got back to Denver.
00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:00.000
Yeah.
00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:03.519
And I guess, I guess you guys liked me.
00:39:03.679 --> 00:39:11.519
So you it was like, and we and we came to your presentation with with Dr.
00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:12.000
Knox.
00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:15.519
We were sitting in the audience listening, listening to both of you speak.
00:39:15.760 --> 00:39:16.159
Dr.
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:19.440
Knox, like, um, you know, he came to our table.
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:26.400
He was telling us all about how he was writing a new textbook or whatever, but he purchased several items and then he brought one of his colleagues.
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:29.280
And for those of you who don't know, I've been taught like Quad S.
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:40.400
Quad S is SSS, four S, hence the quad, quad S, and that stands for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.
00:39:40.639 --> 00:39:43.599
And Engerotics had a table there.
00:39:43.760 --> 00:39:46.639
Um, and this is not a large trade show.
00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:54.320
So for those of you who are familiar with like the ex visas of the world or you know, USA CB expo in the big hall, this wasn't that.
00:39:54.480 --> 00:40:01.360
Um, you know, we were like in the foyer, like in front of the grand ballroom with like there weren't very many vendors.
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:03.599
That's the other thing about academic conferences.
00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:09.199
Like, it's not a sea of vendors, it's a curated collection of a few.
00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:12.320
And uh, so we were there for three days.
00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:16.239
Um, we were at the table from like seven to five for three days.
00:40:16.400 --> 00:40:21.039
Well, it breaks in between and going to talks, but um, I can't remember if Dr.
00:40:21.199 --> 00:40:25.360
Knox introduced you to us or if you wandered up on your own.
00:40:25.440 --> 00:40:27.039
I have I want to say that Dr.
00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:30.400
Knox made the introduction.
00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:36.480
Yeah, because I do remember getting coffee after because like we just weren't able to talk or whatever having.
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:38.320
Um, so yeah.
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:51.280
We decided that we wanted to stay in touch because you know, you were telling us about all the research you were doing, and I was like, Yeah, and Heather's like, yeah, and we went out to coffee somewhere in Denver.
00:40:51.519 --> 00:40:56.559
Um, and I want to say it was like closest to DU, um, somewhere in that area.
00:40:56.639 --> 00:40:59.119
Maybe funny because that was before I started working at du.
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:04.639
So it wasn't on my side of town, and I know it wasn't on Heather's side of town.
00:41:04.800 --> 00:41:09.519
Like, actually, I fixed a coffee shop, it was kind of in the middle, and so yeah, it was over by DU.
00:41:10.079 --> 00:41:10.880
Yeah, see you.
00:41:12.079 --> 00:41:24.000
Um, yeah, and so like because Heather and I talked about you a lot, and I just remember being really impressed with your work and what you were doing.
00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:25.840
I was so glad to have met you.
00:41:25.920 --> 00:41:27.920
Um Heather felt the scene.
00:41:28.559 --> 00:41:31.199
I don't even think my research was published in like it wasn't.
00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:35.519
Yeah, I conducted my study, but it wasn't published in a journal yet.
00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:37.840
I was um a baby, I was a fetus.
00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:44.559
I just I just know that I believed deeply in what you were doing.
00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:56.880
And I was like, I don't know how we, I don't know if she'll join us because you know, we were, I mean, it wasn't we weren't anywhere close to being 10, you know, it's 2026.
00:41:56.960 --> 00:42:00.159
So like it was like, I don't know, five, six years ago.
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:05.360
Maybe I like somewhere in there, 2019, 2020, 2021, somewhere in there.
00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:07.119
Amanda, you happened.
00:42:07.360 --> 00:42:11.679
Um, but I just remember feeling like, man, I wonder if she would work with us.
00:42:11.840 --> 00:42:20.239
I wonder if she believes in what we're doing, like, you know, because it was like Enderotics has been primarily bootstrapped.
00:42:20.320 --> 00:42:22.239
We're not a multi-million dollar company.
00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:23.679
Place orders, y'all.
00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:24.960
Like every order counts.
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:27.199
There's my little like mid-show commercial.
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:31.519
Um, but yeah, I just remember being so fascinated.
00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:33.920
I was like, this is fascinating.
00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:35.199
And I was really impressed.
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:41.280
We have talked about needing someone with that type of expertise on the team for quite some time.
00:42:41.360 --> 00:42:41.679
Yeah.
00:42:41.840 --> 00:42:54.639
Um, because you know, we've got a lot of really great products, but we were running into a lot of folks who didn't know how to use them and didn't know like what they were looking at, why they would want to look at it, what you know, what what makes it special.
00:42:54.960 --> 00:43:05.760
And so, Amanda, like with your research background and you've done you've taught me so much, so much through all of your educational articles and just our conversations.
00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:09.920
Um and it's it's amazing, it's so enlightening.
00:43:10.079 --> 00:43:17.199
And realizing that there are a lot more options and a lot more variety in in life.
00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:20.159
And yeah, so it's been amazing.
00:43:21.119 --> 00:43:27.840
Do you think your two thousand the 2016 version of you would be like happy with how things are now?
00:43:28.239 --> 00:43:28.880
Yes.
00:43:29.280 --> 00:43:29.679
Yes.
00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:38.960
Oh yeah, she'd be so proud of all the work that she has done, all the dreams that she's always wished for.
00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:49.440
I I think I think that 2016 Raven would definitely be really, really happy and proud.
00:43:49.679 --> 00:43:59.760
Um I like people saw uh people saw something in the concept of angirotics and and in and and in me.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:07.840
As a founder, like I didn't see it, but I mean, I had a lot of people telling me, like, this is brilliant, like this is gonna be a thing.
00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:09.039
And I was like, I don't know.
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:11.360
I just I'm just working on this, you know.
00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:18.079
During the time that I was working, my nine to five, I was working on engirotics at night and on the weekends.
00:44:18.239 --> 00:44:20.800
Um, and that changed when I quit my job.
00:44:20.960 --> 00:44:22.559
I was taking a break, of course.
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:29.920
I thought I was just taking a break, but you know, 2016 Raven definitely didn't like she didn't give herself enough credit.
00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:39.840
Other people saw like something that she did not, and it still blows me away to this day that like because from jump, it wasn't just me.
00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:41.280
It was not just me.
00:44:41.519 --> 00:44:48.239
Um, you know, before Heather, it was like, well, Alicia, she called me up and she told me she was gonna be a part of it.
00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:49.760
She said, I'm a part of this.
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:52.320
There was no, like, she didn't ask, she told me.
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:55.039
She's like, I'm gonna be your chemical engineer.
00:44:55.199 --> 00:44:56.400
That's that's it, and that's all.
00:44:56.480 --> 00:44:57.199
I'm like, okay.
00:44:57.360 --> 00:44:58.800
She's like, All right, bye.
00:44:59.119 --> 00:44:59.440
Okay.
00:45:00.320 --> 00:45:08.239
Um, you know, we had somebody, I had somebody who was ready and willing to do the first iteration of the website.
00:45:08.639 --> 00:45:11.920
Um, you know, my husband has always cheered me on.
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:15.199
Like, you know, he said, Well, if you're gonna start a company, I get to be the CTO.
00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:23.519
I'm like, okay, you know, his his his um he's he's in um computer science and um cybersecurity, so that's fitting.
00:45:23.679 --> 00:45:28.079
Um, but there were always people who believed who wanted to be a part of it.
00:45:28.320 --> 00:45:32.800
I was like, it hasn't even become a thing, so yeah.
00:45:33.039 --> 00:45:39.599
Um, it's just wild to think about that because yeah, I was I had just turned 30.
00:45:39.920 --> 00:45:43.360
10 years is a long time, yeah, yeah.
00:45:43.679 --> 00:45:44.960
I was a new mom.
00:45:45.119 --> 00:45:46.639
Um, I had this baby.
00:45:46.880 --> 00:45:50.000
Um I didn't you had two babies, yeah.
00:45:51.920 --> 00:45:53.920
You had a baby in the company, yeah.
00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:55.360
Oh, well, yes, yes, I did.
00:45:55.440 --> 00:45:57.199
I was like, I was like thinking about the physical baby.
00:45:57.280 --> 00:45:59.920
Yeah, like engirotics is like I birthed enrotics.
00:46:00.079 --> 00:46:02.159
Um, I'm just so grateful.
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:04.320
Like, I and we've put up with a lot of shit.
00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:05.760
We've gone through a lot of shit.
00:46:05.920 --> 00:46:14.320
I mean, I feel like outside of the um, you know, all of the wins and stuff, like we've gone through a lot of shit to get here.
00:46:14.559 --> 00:46:22.159
Like, you know, we've had people that have tried to steal our formulations, you know, swindle us out of our formulations.
00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:41.760
Um, we've had people, and when I say people, I definitely mean men uh who have told us that they don't really see the point in focusing on women's pleasure, um, or have told us, yeah, you know, or or or you know, like I I know how to run this company better than you do.
00:46:41.920 --> 00:46:44.559
I'll never forget when I announce the name.
00:46:44.639 --> 00:46:48.320
Like, I'm gonna call this thing Engirotics.
00:46:48.400 --> 00:46:51.039
That was the thing I did a Facebook post about it.
00:46:51.280 --> 00:46:56.800
Um, I'm gonna call it Engirotics, and it's short for engineered erotics, and this is what it is.
00:46:56.880 --> 00:47:00.719
And I didn't even have a logo or trademark yet, but this is what it is.
00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:28.400
And there was a guy who um slid into the DMs quietly, privately, because obviously um he didn't really think he could post this publicly, he had to come whisper it in the DMs, and you know, well, as a marketing person, I'm not really sold on inge erotics, and then he gave me like, you know, a reason a number of other options, like, you know, sensual erotics, what's some other, you know, bullshit.
00:47:28.559 --> 00:47:32.320
But I'm not really sold on the name because I'm not sure how to pronounce it.
00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:33.599
That's basically what it is.
00:47:33.679 --> 00:47:40.320
Like, I'm looking at this, and uh I such that is such like a male thing.
00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:44.559
Like, I don't like this name because I I don't know how to say it now.
00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:54.320
Listen, listen, now you know, ladies, whether like you, I'm talking all the ladies out there, and some of the men too that love them, some designers, okay.
00:47:54.480 --> 00:48:00.159
All right, like, and I'm a bitch butcher some of these, but you know, Givenchi and Eve Saint Laurent.
00:48:00.559 --> 00:48:19.280
The first thing that came to mind was Herme is like, yeah, air maze armies to me when I was a kid, you know, like but even like beyond designers, let's talk about, you know, uh let's talk about authors and and composers, you know, like Chaikowski, Doyskoy, Doys Doystoyevsky.
00:48:19.519 --> 00:48:21.599
I can never say that name correctly.
00:48:21.920 --> 00:48:22.880
You know what I'm saying?
00:48:23.039 --> 00:48:37.679
Like all of the pieces of art, um, the designers, the clothing, the cars that we enjoy, the foods that we enjoy, um that are not necessarily easy to pronounce.
00:48:37.760 --> 00:48:40.559
That doesn't stop us from eating them, wearing them, driving them.
00:48:40.719 --> 00:48:40.960
Yep.
00:48:41.119 --> 00:48:43.519
And um, and that's essentially what I told him.
00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:50.880
I was like, listen, people know how to say this, this, this, and this, this designer, this composer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:48:51.280 --> 00:48:54.079
Um, they can learn how to say rotics too.
00:48:54.159 --> 00:48:57.440
And on top of that, you know, engirotics is an engineering company.
00:48:57.679 --> 00:49:03.760
Engineering is a field of study in which you need to pause and think and and and figure out.
00:49:04.239 --> 00:49:05.760
And it challenges you.
00:49:05.840 --> 00:49:10.400
And I think it's fitting that the name of the company that I'm founding should do the same.
00:49:10.559 --> 00:49:12.559
And do you know I never got a response?
00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:14.239
Yeah, I've never got a response.
00:49:15.039 --> 00:49:16.880
I'm gonna, I'm gonna put that on Instagram.
00:49:17.039 --> 00:49:24.960
I'm gonna like put it like on like do the green green thing, and I'm gonna like slide in and do my little commentary, but I've never forgotten that.
00:49:25.119 --> 00:49:26.320
I've never forgotten it.
00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:28.559
And we've been through so much of that.
00:49:28.960 --> 00:49:36.320
Uh, we're nearing the end of our time, but I did one of the things I think that makes Enderotics so like special is the customers.
00:49:36.480 --> 00:49:48.400
Do you have like any fun customer stories or like I don't know, any good feedback or like our customers are special, they are make up a big part of our community.
00:49:48.719 --> 00:49:52.000
I just wanted to give them a little bit of love too.
00:49:52.400 --> 00:49:53.599
Yeah, yeah.
00:49:55.199 --> 00:49:57.039
Well, I think so.
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:07.760
All of our C BD body care products came to life because of customer requests and feedback.
00:50:08.639 --> 00:50:22.000
So um, yeah, it I mean there's a lot of things that didn't necessarily make sense to me or that weren't, you know, didn't really work well with what I was envisioning.
00:50:23.039 --> 00:50:24.000
But they work.
00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:27.599
And so we really rely on our customers, they are amazing.
00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:37.920
Um, they give us ideas, um, and we bring to life things that are based off of real wants and needs.
00:50:38.079 --> 00:50:40.719
Um, so yes, our customers are everything.
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:43.039
That's great.
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:45.440
Um also sorry.
00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:46.079
No good.
00:50:47.920 --> 00:50:56.639
I know that we're running short on time, but I wanted to call out that Jackie over here has been kind of amazing and not saying much about her role in the company.
00:50:58.559 --> 00:51:00.960
If you don't listen, no, it's not embarrassing.
00:51:01.199 --> 00:51:06.639
We can go an extra five minutes for this because no, I'm so bad at talking about myself.
00:51:06.719 --> 00:51:12.880
I forget everything good that I've ever done, and I can only remember like what I did two seconds ago.
00:51:13.199 --> 00:51:14.719
Okay, my brain is so dumb.
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:16.239
I'm gonna tell you all about Jackie.
00:51:16.320 --> 00:51:20.000
Let me tell you all about Jackie because Jackie and I we met in P3, right?
00:51:20.159 --> 00:51:21.760
And that was like we met in P3.
00:51:22.239 --> 00:51:25.920
You were like a mini celebrity to me, celebrity to me for like a little bit.
00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:30.159
You're like, oh, I was like, this this lady is so cool, like it would be so amazing to work with her.
00:51:30.239 --> 00:51:31.360
And now look what we're doing.
00:51:31.599 --> 00:51:34.639
I just, you know, I was just like really blown away.
00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:45.920
Like, I've I've never forgotten um when you interviewed with me, and I was just so happy that you felt comfortable enough and safe enough um to interview with me authentically.
00:51:46.239 --> 00:51:52.079
And um uh, you know, Jackie, you brought like one of your favorite squishmallows.
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:52.480
Yes.
00:51:53.119 --> 00:52:50.880
Um, and I was like, you know, and and I I recognized, you know, what that was about because you know, by that time I had a little experience under my belt being a parent, not to like compare you to a child, but it reminded me of like, you know, when my children or one of their peers needs comfort comfort, reminds me of myself, like when I'm like, I need comfort, and um you know, and so I was not like I I didn't want to like pry or anything, but it was like there were like the subtle cues, and you know, it's like man, it seems like she's working really hard to like make eye contact, you want like you know, true, and it was it was like it was a really um a really good experience, but I mean, really what sealed the deal for me was like the blog that you wrote after the interview, and it just like I didn't know that anybody felt that way about interviewing with me.
00:52:50.960 --> 00:52:59.519
I didn't know that just like being like a decent human being in an interview was like enough to write a blog about.
00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:01.599
Um, and I thought it was so sweet.
00:53:01.679 --> 00:53:06.880
And I showed my husband and I was like, I just interviewed this woman and I just like I don't even know what to say.
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:09.199
Um, it made me tear up if I'm being honest.
00:53:09.280 --> 00:53:12.639
Like, I just didn't really know like how to respond.
00:53:12.800 --> 00:53:14.800
So I sent Jackie a squishmallow.
00:53:14.880 --> 00:53:24.000
Yes I didn't know, I didn't really know how to express my gratitude in words, so I like spoke a language that I knew Jackie would appreciate and understand.
00:53:24.079 --> 00:53:26.480
I'm like, well, I hope she doesn't have this one already.
00:53:26.559 --> 00:53:29.280
So let me I always have a stuffed animal near me right now.
00:53:29.440 --> 00:53:30.400
What's today's?
00:53:30.480 --> 00:53:31.039
Yes.
00:53:31.360 --> 00:53:35.039
Well, this is um Larry the pool sloth.
00:53:35.280 --> 00:53:40.079
Hey, okay, he is lovely.
00:53:40.320 --> 00:53:48.079
Yeah, he used um when we lived in Florida, he would be the one I would bring out to the pool with me, but we don't have a pool here in Michigan, so he is my desk guy.
00:53:48.320 --> 00:53:48.960
I love it.
00:53:49.199 --> 00:54:06.079
Um normally, like I still have stuff packed up from when we were gonna move, but normally I also have Bertram, he's like a little plaid bear, and he his his he's like my business stuffy, like he he takes care of all the paperwork for whenever we get a new stuffy, like he has a very big role in the household.
00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:07.039
I love it.
00:54:07.280 --> 00:54:12.480
Yeah, I mean, like meeting you, Jackie, was just like, you know, it was a breath of fresh air.
00:54:12.719 --> 00:54:15.280
Um, and you know, of course, like I said, we met in P3.
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:21.679
And so and I and I feel like again, this was like things were different in P3 because P3 is a pandemic group, remember?
00:54:21.840 --> 00:54:22.079
Yes.
00:54:22.239 --> 00:54:31.360
So there were a lot of people that I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know and connecting with that I wouldn't have otherwise been connected with, if not for P3 on Facebook.
00:54:31.599 --> 00:54:34.800
And I feel like it was like, I feel like it was different.
00:54:34.880 --> 00:54:36.400
I'm gonna go ahead and say that publicly.
00:54:36.480 --> 00:54:41.519
I feel like the vibe was a lot different um back in those days than it is now.
00:54:41.840 --> 00:54:47.679
Um and felt like it was more about connecting and less about posturing.
00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:50.800
Yeah, I I would agree, I would agree.
00:54:51.039 --> 00:54:59.519
And I mean, I'm happy that it's helpful, um, you know, to some capacity, but it really like just was not, it was a lot different.
00:54:59.679 --> 00:55:06.880
Like when it first like kicked off, and people were really like holding each other up during the pandemic and this, that, and the other.
00:55:06.960 --> 00:55:11.920
Um, and I got dropped in there um by uh JB at System Joe.
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:13.760
Like he he used to be at El Dorado.
00:55:13.840 --> 00:55:14.880
Shout out, JB.
00:55:15.039 --> 00:55:15.440
Yeah.
00:55:15.599 --> 00:55:27.599
Um, and uh, and I've never forgotten his kindness either, because he surely, when I met him, he saw a lot of people coming through uh El Dorado talking about I'm gonna start a company and he'd never hear from them again.
00:55:27.760 --> 00:55:30.079
Uh, but of course he heard from me again.
00:55:31.199 --> 00:55:37.760
And so he would be like, you know, Raven is the real deal, like, you know, um, and I'm like, I am, I am, you know.
00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:39.679
So um, yeah.
00:55:39.840 --> 00:55:42.880
So it it yeah, so that's the Jackie origin story.
00:55:42.960 --> 00:55:46.400
And Jackie, you may not want to sing your own praises, but I'm gonna sing them.
00:55:46.559 --> 00:55:54.960
Um, every piece of art, the graphic, the happy birthday androtics graphic that I've been posting, not my graphic, that's definitely Jackie's.
00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:59.360
Um, I'm also very grateful that we spent a summer watching P Valley together.
00:55:59.440 --> 00:56:01.039
That was very uh exciting and fun.
00:56:01.280 --> 00:56:01.679
Oh my god.
00:56:01.920 --> 00:56:05.679
Season three is supposed to be coming out this year sometime, and I am waiting.
00:56:05.840 --> 00:56:06.159
Yes.
00:56:06.480 --> 00:56:07.199
I I don't know.
00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:16.400
I I don't appreciate them playing with my emotions because I'm so ready because season two was so heartbreaking.
00:56:16.719 --> 00:56:20.880
It was, and I need my heart put back together with season three, please.
00:56:21.119 --> 00:56:22.559
I don't know if my mom has recovered.
00:56:22.639 --> 00:56:25.039
She's like, I don't know if I can do another season of this.
00:56:25.199 --> 00:56:28.239
Like, not if it's that rough.
00:56:28.400 --> 00:56:30.719
Like, I need to know that Mississippi's okay.
00:56:30.800 --> 00:56:33.440
I need to know everything is we need to know.
00:56:33.679 --> 00:56:35.440
I need an update on Little Murda.
00:56:35.920 --> 00:56:37.760
We we need we know, we need to know.
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:43.199
Um, but yeah, I'm just like, I'm so um, it's really surreal.
00:56:43.360 --> 00:56:54.559
We've been in business for 10 years, um, primarily bootstrapped, you know, and like so everybody on this screen, y'all, everybody on this screen owns equity.
00:56:54.719 --> 00:56:58.800
Okay, and I've been stingy as fuck with my equity.
00:56:59.039 --> 00:57:04.480
Um, I still own the majority share of the company, so I'm still in the driver's as you should.
00:57:04.719 --> 00:57:08.880
Yeah, it's like otherwise we it's gotta stay, you know, black owned, you know.
00:57:09.119 --> 00:57:20.159
Um, but there were um a number of opportunities that presented themselves, like, hey, well, you know, maybe we can talk some, you know, money equity exchange, and not all money is good money.
00:57:20.239 --> 00:57:29.920
It's just really surreal to know that, you know, whether whether we're making money or not, whether like orders are coming in or not, we're still functioning.
00:57:30.159 --> 00:57:35.519
Like, you know how many, excuse me, you know how many companies have folded along the way?
00:57:35.599 --> 00:57:38.159
Like, oh yeah, a lot.
00:57:38.480 --> 00:57:41.119
Um, so yeah, I'm really thankful for that.
00:57:41.599 --> 00:57:44.800
Do we have any goals for the next 10 years?
00:57:45.679 --> 00:57:52.639
Yes, yes, I have I have a big one, but I'm not ready to share it.
00:57:52.800 --> 00:57:53.760
I have a big one.
00:57:55.679 --> 00:58:05.360
One of the things that I've been much better about in the last 10 years is using, I'm not a woo-woo person, but I I do believe in manifesting.
00:58:05.599 --> 00:58:12.960
Uh, I do morning pages every morning, but the first thing I do every morning is I wake up and I write a full page of whatever's in my brain.
00:58:13.119 --> 00:58:15.760
Sometimes it's just woohoo, yeeha, and all that, literally.
00:58:15.840 --> 00:58:16.800
That's all I write.
00:58:17.039 --> 00:58:26.239
But uh a lot of times I'll put stuff in there that I think is ridiculous, and then six months to a year, I see the fruits of that labor.
00:58:26.320 --> 00:58:28.480
So, like, throw shit out there in the universe.
00:58:28.639 --> 00:58:30.800
What do we want in the next 10 years?
00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:39.440
I mean, um I want I've done I I I have I'm gonna keep mine to myself.
00:58:39.679 --> 00:58:46.400
Um but it goes um above and beyond where we've been.
00:58:46.559 --> 00:58:54.960
I will just say that um I envision the company beating the odds um in a major way.
00:58:55.039 --> 00:58:56.719
But I I'm gonna just put it like that.
00:58:57.039 --> 00:58:58.239
All right, fair enough.
00:58:58.400 --> 00:59:01.039
I think that's a that's a that's a good way to put it.
00:59:01.360 --> 00:59:02.000
Yeah.
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:06.480
How about you guys with the last minute or two?
00:59:07.760 --> 00:59:20.320
I mean, my my number one goal is to continue living here in Detroit and uh growing more of my own food because I harvested my first peas last week and I have never known a pea to taste this good.
00:59:20.480 --> 00:59:22.559
And it was the same way with tomatoes last year.
00:59:22.639 --> 00:59:26.000
Like, I don't the grocery store food is thumbs down for me now.
00:59:26.079 --> 00:59:30.320
I want to grow all of my own food, and I have the space to do that, so I'm going to do that.
00:59:30.559 --> 00:59:32.719
Yeah, Amanda, you have a hard stop at 2 p.m.
00:59:32.960 --> 00:59:33.840
So what's yours?
00:59:34.719 --> 00:59:36.639
I'm just gonna keep on keeping on.
00:59:36.719 --> 00:59:39.519
I love what we're doing, and I know that we're gonna keep growing.
00:59:39.760 --> 00:59:43.679
All right, all right, well, you know, girl, go do your thing because it's two right now.
00:59:43.920 --> 00:59:46.079
So I'll see you guys later.
00:59:46.480 --> 00:59:47.039
All right, bye.
00:59:47.519 --> 00:59:48.880
Happy birthday.
00:59:49.920 --> 00:59:53.440
Just a full thoughts is just keep rolling with the punches.
00:59:53.519 --> 00:59:59.119
Um, it's been a wild ride, and everything nothing is the way I expected it to be.
00:59:59.360 --> 01:00:06.000
Um, but I'm kind of excited, and everything is uh a journey and a learning opportunity.
01:00:06.239 --> 01:00:08.159
And just gotta take it as it comes.
01:00:08.480 --> 01:00:09.519
Absolutely.
01:00:09.760 --> 01:00:10.639
Well said.
01:00:11.360 --> 01:00:11.920
All right.
01:00:12.079 --> 01:00:15.519
Uh turns out a decade can go by pretty fast.
01:00:15.679 --> 01:00:22.400
10 years of products, education, community, and a whole lot of conversations that help make pleasure a little less awkward.
01:00:22.639 --> 01:00:25.440
Thank you to everyone who supported NGOtics over the years.
01:00:25.599 --> 01:00:31.199
Whether you've been here since the Google Forms days or you found us yesterday, we're really glad you're here.
01:00:31.360 --> 01:00:34.320
Go throw on your favorite 2016 playlist.
01:00:34.400 --> 01:00:44.239
Try to skip like the um this guy's name just uh flew right out of my mind as I was making the joke.
01:00:45.920 --> 01:00:48.639
Try to leave out the Drake, please.
01:00:50.960 --> 01:00:56.000
Celebrate something you've built and maybe treat yourself to something nice from Engirotics.com.
01:00:56.239 --> 01:00:57.840
Cheers to the next 10 years.
01:00:58.079 --> 01:00:58.719
Cheers.