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ABOUT THIS EPISODE

What's the small problem you've stopped noticing? Bob Labbe, a career engineer who built three air pollution control companies over 55 years, noticed his. One night before dinner, a leather coaster stuck to the bottom of his glass and poured condensation down his favorite silk tie. Instead of shrugging it off, he sketched a fix, patented it, and built The Ultimate Coaster Co.

In this episode of the Unstoppable Success Podcast, host Jaclyn Strominger talks with Bob about what it really takes to turn a frustration into a product: how an engineer thinks through a problem everyone else ignores, how he moved from pencil sketch to AutoCAD to a U.S. utility patent, why he self-funded and reinvests every dollar of profit, and how he went from manufacturing in Asia to a U.S. manufacturer at the same price.

Most of all, Bob explains why most businesses fail: not because of the product, but because of sales and marketing. His answer is relationship selling, the same principle behind Jaclyn's Relationship Capital work. Relationships got Bob his patent attorney, his manufacturing partners and his biggest bulk orders.

You'll learn:

How to tell whether an everyday frustration is a real business opportunity
Why Bob wouldn't start until a patent search came back clear
How self-funding and reinvesting profits fueled growth
Why sales and marketing is the hardest part of any business
How relationship selling works even for a $4 product
The question every founder should ask more often: who do you know?

Connect with Bob: TheUltimateCoasterCo.com · (314) 691-2669 (a real person answers) · Also on Amazon, Walmart and Target.

Ready to break your revenue plateau? Send Jaclyn the word REVENUE on LinkedIn or by email for founding-seat details on her Relationship Revenue Course.

Listen to more episodes: https://jaclynstrominger.com/podcast/#listen

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Entrepreneurship

Management

Business

English

United States

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SHOW NOTES 🔗

00:00:00Cold open + intro: the frustration that started a company

00:03:54The ruined silk tie and the decision to fix it

00:06:54What makes an engineered coaster different

00:11:40From patent search to manufacturing

00:15:20Self-funding, Amazon and 1,000-unit orders

00:18:56Why most businesses fail: relationship selling

00:27:51The 10-year plan to $30M in sales

00:34:15Jaclyn's takeaway: don't wait for permission

TRANSCRIPT 🔗

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