Summary

@0:03 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Hello everyone and welcome to the Shday Entrepreneurship. This is your host, Mr. Gabriel Flores. Today I have the CEO of Oransi, Peter Mann.

Now Peter is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully bootstrapped two companies with no outside funding. Peter's present company is a leading US designer of manufacturing of air purification products for consumers' schools.

And businesses nationwide. He started designing air purifiers at night as a side hustle while working full time during the day and is executive at Dell in the early 2000s.

He is a US Navy veteran. Peter, thank you so much for your service and a former Dell executive as I mentioned.

Now Peter's first founded Austin based Allen Corporation in 2002, a company that designs and manufactures indoor air purifiers and then Peter sold that and then founded this version.

I'm based new company. Peter, you have some experience, my man.

@1:05 - Peter Mann

Thanks, Gabriel.

@1:06 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I'm excited for you. Now, before we get into Iran scene, we talk about that. would love for you to introduce now.

I kind of get a little background, but I would love to hear from you.

@1:15 - Peter Mann

Give us who is Peter Mann. Wow, that's a pretty. I mean, I'll just jump into my business background. So, I mean, I went to college and really didn't know what I wanted And I wanted to go to a good college and didn't want to have debt.

So, that was the reason why I went on ROTC scholarship and led me to going into the Navy. But my, my degrees in more math and statistics.

And then when I got out, it was pretty interesting because this was early to mid 90s. And, you know, at that time it was pre 9 11.

And if you had a military experience, nobody really cared. so it was, it actually kind of a good thing.

But it kind of made me really kind of hone in on kind of what my skills were. And so for 10 years, I kind of worked at two Fortune 100 companies, Tuck Data and Dell.

And that's really where I got my, call it MBA on the job experience. I didn't have, I never took a business class, I didn't know anything about business.

And so I, you know, put it in the time to really understand like how businesses work and, you know, I got to work in some operations.

And rules. And then when I was at Dell in the early 2000s, it's when the dot com bubble burst.

And it was just every two weeks we were laying off people. was, it was not, it was not a fun place to be.

And that was really the push I needed to go off and start something. I co-founded, you know, e-commerce business and, you know, Pure Fire's was one of the products.

we actually sold some other products. And this was the early days of e-commerce. For my background, I was at Dell and I was developing functionality for Dell.com and I was involved in the Dell printer launch from a marketing standpoint.

So I knew how to bring products to market and I knew how to market and sell online. so in the early 2000s, it was interesting because what you saw in the other categories was a bunch of mom and pop shops.

And so I was used to competing with HP and Compaq and then you're competing with this little shop. And so we actually did pretty well and the timing was great.

And we built that up and in 2009, I sold my business partner to really dig into air quality because my son struggled with Asmon.

And it really left an impression on me to help him and people like him. And we've grown through the years and COVID was really kind of a game changer in terms of air quality awareness and air purification.

And in 2021, we merged with an electric motor company. And so right now we're focused on reshoring our manufacturing back to Virginia with air purifiers.

And longer term, I see us branching out into some other categories since we have an electric motor technology that, you know, the sky is the limit as to what we do.

So I'm super excited about the future.

@4:27 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Now, one of things you mentioned, you kind of got your MBA just by working, right? What do you decide to just say, you know what, I'm just going to be an entrepreneur.

@4:36 - Peter Mann

I'm not going to the corporate world. I'm just going to do my own thing. Yeah, I mean, for me, I always had the need for autonomy.

was an issue with lack of confidence. It's like, am I a poster? Am Am I how do I do this?

so for me, having 10 years of a corporate experience just gave me, like, I understand the basics of how things are.

And if I could do it over again, maybe I would do things differently now, you can't. But if I were someone that was just starting off and wanting to go off into my own, I mean, at that time, it didn't even occur to me that was something you could do.

But the internet and technology has really changed over the last 20 years that makes that possible. And so I think if I were to distill it down, is really just understanding a customer problem and find a way to solve that problem better than someone else.

It's really that simple. You know, you can get caught up in technology and you can get caught up in other areas.

at the end of the day, it's like somebody needs to buy your product or service. And ultimately, it's better if they can tell somebody else about it.

And if you really solve a problem in a unique way, there's just so much value that, you know, I think that's a great way to grow a business if you're starting off.

It's just

@6:04 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, that's a very great point. know, everybody I think throughout this podcast, what we really try to focus on is, you know, identifying a problem that is actually a consumer problem.

I think we all have problems, but I think you also have to have that right product market fit. And you seem to have done that, right?

One of the things you mentioned was your son and that passion for him and his need for air purification.

Tell us about that time when you decided to go ahead and sell off your other business to start that new business.

What made you go ahead and do that leap outside of your son? And two, how do you really differentiate yourself from the other purifiers out there?

@6:44 - Peter Mann

How do you kind of create that brand? so what's interesting is, so I was in at 50-50 of ownership of It's normal.

It's It's like a marriage, right? And you have your ideas of what you want to do, and the other person has their ideas of what they want to do.

And at some point, if there's a conflict, it's almost like a bad marriage. And so when I talked with our lawyers, they're like, yeah, this happens all the time, 50-50 arrangements.

So I would not have done a 50-50 business arrangement, knowing what I know now if I could go back and redo things.

But that was part of the conflict. Because you get into a situation where what I see as an investment for the business, for the future, the other person doesn't see the value, and it's just a cost.

And then over time, it's just not great. And so it was partly as life's too short to be miserable in your own company.

And so I'd rather sell off really what I built to start over, but really solve the problem that I wanted to solve.

And with my son, when he was an infant, he just struggled so badly with... It was such a big impact on his quality of life and mine and my wife's as well.

@8:06 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Everyone was impacted by this one.

@8:08 - Peter Mann

Your infant child can't breathe and they start changing colors.

@8:13 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, man, it could not even make it.

@8:15 - Peter Mann

And so it's like there's got to be something we can do.

@8:18 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And then what they give is steroids too.

@8:23 - Peter Mann

And that just does some crazy things. So what can we do that kind of just cleans the environment so he's not triggered into an asthma attack.

And that kind of gave me just a lot of passion and drive to make it happen and to do things in the right way and not take shortcuts.

With COVID, everybody and their brothers seems like they got into the air purification business just because it was an opportunity.

for me, it's not about making money. about solving problems and helping people. And so it's, you know, I think that that kind of separates us a bit from some of the other folks because we're not going to.

Take shortcuts and we're going to be authentic and we're going to be transparent about what their product does and doesn't do.

And that's. That's not typical in at least in our industry.

@9:24 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, definitely. Now one of the things you kind of mentioned, you know, the difficulty of the partnership also having, you know, the lawyers.

Can we kind of briefly talk about the importance of that? Because I think this is a great. Thing that for entrepreneurs understand, having the legal structure in place to ensure that individuals know what their role is.

@9:45 - Peter Mann

Can you kind of talk about that and how you created your structure. Yeah, so we had fortunately what they call a buy sell agreement in place.

And that's. You know, if someone's not happy or, you know, because, you know, if you, if you form a.

Our company and you have two people and you have no legal structure around it. It's really ambiguous and how does one person leave?

Or what if one person just decides, hey, I'm done working and I'm going to do something else, but I'm still a person and owner.

And so you have what they call a buy sell agreement that basically just lays out this is kind of what happens if somebody wants to leave or that's really important because then you're just managing to whatever their program is and in a good business lawyer that's looking out for everyone's interest can draft that out pretty easily.

It's a standard document. But I would say that that would be the key to having a place. I think it's also better if you have two people, one person's maybe 51% the other's 49% or have a third person that's a tiebreaker.

I think that's a better scenario because sometimes someone's just hard-headed. The other two people can overrule them. It just alleviates, I think, a lot of conflict.

The goal is to be successful and the last thing you want to do is have infighting with your management.

@11:15 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, that's very true. The quicker you get to a resolution, the faster you can move forward. I completely agree.

One of the things you mentioned was you wish you knew some things before the partnership. What are some of those things that you wish you would have known that maybe you know today that you wish you would have known before you started that partnership?

@11:36 - Peter Mann

Well, one was just the challenge of being in a 50-50 relationship. It is really like a marriage and you have to treat it as such.

Really, just don't let things fester that can contribute to bigger issues down the road. I think just being open and communication is really the key.

to the whole thing, but I think engaging with the business attorney that can kind of shed light because they know the horror stories of what can go wrong.

@12:09 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

It's almost like a marriage counselor. It's like, what are marriage counseling before you get married?

@12:14 - Peter Mann

Like there should be something like that for business to prevent it because it's inevitable that over some period of time, know, if the, you know, the business, the business goes south that maybe doesn't matter so much.

But I think sometimes the someone's worse when we're And the business is successful. And then it's, you know, the person you are or the other person may be different five or 10 years down the road from when you started.

@12:41 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

That's very true. know, and it's kind of interesting, you know, that we kind of talk about some of difficulties, but, you know, starting a business can have its rewarding moments as well.

Right. What are some of those aspects that you found enjoyable during throughout your entrepreneurial journey?

@12:58 - Peter Mann

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's about helping. People been seeing the reviews about how it's changed people's lives or made their lives better or, you know, we got a message yesterday from a customer whose, you know, mother was, you know, really sick and struggling during COVID but this kind of help protect her.

And this is said effectively kept her alive during COVID because she was in this really clean environment. And, you know, you just see that over and over and over again and to me it's like yeah we're doing the right thing.

And so it's just making an impact in people's lives I think is to me that's what's rewarding it's not about a sales number or, you know, I'm not a big ego kind of a person.

And so maybe I'm not driven by the same things that others are but you know when you see these things over and over again it's just like yeah this is, you know, to me I never would have dreamt I could even be in this position, you know, if I went back 20, 25 years ago it's kind of mind-boggling.

@14:00 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

With that said, speaking of your current business, O'Rani specifically, what are some of the significant hurdles that you've encountered starting this, even though you've already been in the air purification kind of world?

What are some of the hurdles or difficulties or challenges that you face starting this new business?

@14:17 - Peter Mann

Yeah, I mean, there's a couple. I think anytime you start a business, nobody knows who you are, and it's like, how do you get your name out there?

And so I fortunately, you know, had built up the other business, sold it, and then had money to start this business.

that helped with not having to go and spend time raising money. I had cash to get the business started.

And I knew, you know, focused on e-commerce and I understood how to market and sell any commerce. But with that said, when you're first starting out, nobody knows you.

Like, why would someone, you know, and so I think it's really important to understand the customer, what customer problem you're specifically solving and how you're doing that.

That better than anyone else. And then getting that message out to just really starting off with a small group of people.

It's about starting small and getting traction and momentum to be able to build and having expectations that you're not going to crush it day one.

It's just more of a, you know, the community build the path and get, you know, a little bit stronger every day.

And in terms of more recently, the challenges with COVID, gosh, there's probably 100 year pure five brands and you know, there used to be maybe 15, like five years ago.

And so the competition has just gone crazy. Amazon's a huge marketplace. And they've opened their arms to the Chinese factories.

so there's a lot of really low price stuff. so that's, that's been a bit of a challenge in terms of how do we get our message across and better connect with people with the landscape just almost overnight just.

Just radically changing.

@16:01 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, and I think we see that in a lot of industries and I'm not trying to get on any political horse here, any folks, but we do see it in a lot of industries where China is able to really undercut us in prices.

great example is the solar industry. You know solar world out you know we live in Oregon. We have a lot of solar plants here in the Oregon area that have struggled because they're they're competing against such low price.

High you know similar quality solar panels that are coming from overseas and they're terrorists. know we put terrorists on it, but it's still it's a difficult thing.

So you know I guess what I would just encourage folks that are listening. Hey, feel free to dig into the company in a little bit.

See where they're manufacturing and if you're preferred to buy locally then make sure that you're digging into kind of find that information.

Now with that said Peter what what goes into an air purifier like what exactly goes into these things.

@17:00 - Peter Mann

Typically, it's a motor or fan filter in the housing. It's pretty much the parts. And so, as mentioned earlier, we merged with an electric motor company a couple years ago.

So we have a new electric motor technology that we're in the next month or two launching our first product.

And it's proprietary technology that's going to give us a lot of performance advantages, as well as really cost competitive with the Chinese imports specifically.

And so, you know, what we've seen is a HEPA filter is a HEPA filter. It's just almost a commodity.

And so, you know, there's an opportunity with the motor part, which is the engine to have a difference. And so that's kind of where our energy and time has been focused.

But that's the crux of what an air purifier is. It's basically just moving air through a filter and enough air to clean, you know, the air in a given size room.

It's pretty much all it is. But from an engineering perspective, it's a lot more challenging than that sounds.

@18:06 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, I'm assuming. I've actually, folks, if you have not yet, definitely check them out. In fact, we'll have the information in the newsletter.

So please subscribe at the Shades of E.com. We'll have this information. really, air, there's a variety of air purifiers actually look really, really cool.

In fact, they're growing. They actually have a facility out in Virginia. So folks, if you're listening and you're looking for a job, they are hiring local workers, I believe, out in that.

So they are expanding. Now, one of the things, Peter, that you mentioned too, is you did start this with your own funding.

How do you effectively scale a bootstrap, debenium-sized business with no outside funding?

@18:48 - Peter Mann

It's cash flows important in terms of, you know, when you sell online, get the money in a couple days.

If you sell through Amazon, maybe it's 30 or Days that's a bit of a longer cycle, but they have a huge marketplace.

so, but if you can sell through your own website and get traffic to your website and convert traffic into orders, you can get cash in a couple days.

And so it's about, you know, bringing in the right amount of inventory and managing your inventory turns pretty, pretty tightly to where you know you're effectively paying for the inventory by the time it comes.

The other thing is negotiating payment terms. If you're not manufacturing yourself with your contract manufacturer to where, you know, the time that you have the product, ideally, if you could tell it before you have to pay for it, then it's, you don't need a investor's say for that or a bank.

But, you know, for us, we grew organically and we grew through developing stronger bank relationships since we were profitable.

And that helps. It's a lot, but there's a point where if you want to grow faster, you may need to bring in some outside capital or look at some other sources of capital, just to, you know, there's kind of a limit to what banks will do.

@20:13 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

They're, they're very conservative.

@20:17 - Peter Mann

And I've kind of got my PhD and how banks work over the last few years. And so I understand, I used to be a little bit down on banks, but now I understand their business model is there.

@20:29 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

They work off of really small margins. And so they can't afford to take any, really any kind of risk.

@20:37 - Peter Mann

And so they're very, very conservative. It's not that they don't want to help you.

@20:42 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

You know, there's this expression that, you know, the banks are with you when it's sunny, but as soon as it starts to rain, they take away your umbrella.

@20:52 - Peter Mann

And it's because they, know, their margins are so small, if they have someone that just goes south, it just is really impossible.

@21:16 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I mean, know, if you want to look forward looking, that's more of a DC type.

@21:24 - Peter Mann

Right.

@21:25 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I mean, that's kind of like Silicon Valley Bank, right? A great example of where they took on too much risk and unfortunately it didn't pay off.

And you know, there are other avenues of funding folks too, right? So there's a lot of great business accelerator programs out there like the one we just recently created here in Oregon, the Latino founders, a business accelerator program.

We've earmarked grant money for entrepreneurs. you come in your picture ideas during these business accelerators. that's free money, right?

Grant is nothing. don't have to pay it back. You can use it for operations costs. You can use it for marketing.

You can use whatever. Right. those are other options. So, what's interesting?

@22:25 - Peter Mann

I've been in e-commerce marketing 25 almost 30 years. It has just changed dramatically. From what it used to be all those pop-ups that everybody hates.

And things have shifted to video. And I mean, it's the one thing I've learned is you can't get married to what you're doing.

Because what you're doing now may not work in two or three years. Like you have open to trying what's new.

And I think the opportunity or the lower cost attention is more on whatever is the newer platforms that people are going to.

So, Mark, Getting is really about just getting someone's attention. If you have a product or a service where you can demonstrate something, it's very visual.

then video is a fantastic opportunity. And you can run YouTube ads or if you're not getting organic traffic. those can be even like five or 10 cents a click.

It's crazy how low price that is. For our category, if you advertise the word or purifier on Amazon, it's like $20 a click.

I mean, the math does not work. you can't, like our products are 200 or maybe 250. And even if you convert 10%, you're spending $200.

Like there's not enough. It's really difficult. So I think it's understanding the economics of where you're advertising. The, you know, being able to convert people.

And really what we're starting to do more is build, this is a Seth Godin thing, but build more. I'm in the product because if you build marketing in the product and you solve someone's customer and they tell somebody about it, it doesn't cost you anything, but you're just shifting it to like making a really great product.

And then finding ways to get the lower priced attention. And right now that seems to be on video and there's some discovery and search ads on Google that can be lower priced, but it's kind of hard to give specific advice since there's so much variation in what people are making and selling, but but I think it's kind of building a tribe and starting small and getting traction within it and just kind of building organically from there is ideally the best way.

@24:47 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And how do you mention price? How do you cost effectively reassure manufacturing from China to the U.S. and optimize supply chain?

Yes.

@25:00 - Peter Mann

So it's really been kind of crazy this last few years with COVID. Within our category, at least there's been 25% tariffs that have been put in place.

And the ocean shipping during COVID just went, you know, used to be, you know, the East Coast, but it was 3,000 to 3,500 for container from China.

And then it went up to as much as 22,000 for that same standard during COVID. Now it's back to where it was.

Before. And so that was pretty painful when it went to 22,000. I can imagine. Or it container it and then to have a 25% tariff on top of that.

so, you know, that's part of the reason that's really pushed us to resore manufacturing and source a lot of our components locally.

It helps significantly from a cash flow standpoint, because, you know, if we can get net 30 or net 60 terms with the local supplier and sell it and get paid in two days.

It's like. The math is phenomenal, whereas if you make something in China and then you ship it here, to get to the East Coast, could take like 60 days.

There's just all that time you've invested on inventory that's on the water and then all the tariffs and it's just kind of, you know, it's difficult.

And so the other thing that we've been doing is really pushing our suppliers for lower costs.

@26:32 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And China is hurting right now. They're out there.

@26:35 - Peter Mann

They're down like 24%. They're desperate for business and you can push them for lower pricing. You know, one thing is, you know, if you have tariffs, you're like, Hey, I'm paying 25% more to sell your your widget that you know that you're making.

know, and the other thing you could do is really push out payment terms. The issue with China is These factories is, initially, there's no trust.

And so they often make you prepay. But as you develop a relationship and work with someone for some period of time, you can start to get net 30 terms, maybe net 60 terms.

And that helps a lot in terms of the cash flow for your product. But to start, it's really difficult to do anything, but paying for that inventory.

then, gosh, wait for it to show up. So that's a little bit tougher in your business. But it's kind of the it is what it is.

@27:34 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, and it is interesting, I think shipping costs, when you think about small business in expansion, like our SMBs, small-medium size businesses, when you think about their expansion and their growth, a lot of times it's the funding that they grow too fast, operations can catch up or funding.

Right, everybody can continue on if they have enough money. Now, one of the things you kind of mentioned too is these tariffs and the...

Price of it, but you're also hoping to expand to continue to grow. So how do you expand cells beyond North America?

What are some of those challenges that you see and what are some of the benefits?

@28:13 - Peter Mann

You mean selling internationally? Correct. Yeah, our focus right now is really the US market. I've been looking at some of our competitors and these are global companies.

what's interesting is while they promote all the international companies, selling them that they do, if you look at their financial reports, their 75%, 80% USA, also like the US market.

Like we're the ultimate consumers. Like the average European spends like 50%, 60% less than an American.

@28:47 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And so we do have plans to expand into Europe, but we've got much lower expectations.

@28:54 - Peter Mann

Yeah, sense. And it's also more expensive if we're manufacturing here. To sell over there because we have to shift the product and you have to do customer service.

And it's like it's a higher cost of doing business for a lower amount of sales. And so, you know, for us, where I see probably more growth coming, it's introducing new products to the US market.

And then, you know, kind of, you know, two, three years down the road doing a bit more internationally. But we're kind of really almost retreated back to really focusing on the US because, you know, you can get excited about how many people live in a country or whatever.

But it's like, or, you know, we had someone that told me like, oh, these people, they save so much money.

@29:40 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And I'm like, well, that's the problem.

@29:41 - Peter Mann

If you're saving money, it's like, that's we're in a job of selling. It's like, there's a problem there. And so, the US doesn't have that problem.

It's, you know, it's, let's focus on the market that we know and the customers that we know. There's no cultural issues, no language issues.

Is and they spend more than than any other country and a per capita basis by far.

@30:06 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, and I think folks, I think this is a great example of an entrepreneur doing their due diligence and really understanding product market fit, right?

You might have the greatest solution to a problem that doesn't exist. That's sometimes a problem with entrepreneurs as well.

I know I've had this moment myself where I have the greatest idea ever to a problem that didn't exist, right?

And so making sure that you have a solution to an existing issue that actually has the market in a market that you can actually build a profit off of.

Because to Peter's point, I mean, if you're saving money, then that's probably not the right market because your job is to actually sell, right?

Your job is to actually get people to buy. Now, what you've been doing this for years. You've been doing a lot of different.

You're now starting your new company. What's some advice you would give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

@31:05 - Peter Mann

Wow. I think a lot of what to me, a lot of in life is about having proper expectations, lot of, you know, happiness and successes, setting proper expectations, you know, understanding like, where do you want this to go to?

What do you want this to become? And is that realistic? And, you know, to your point, are you really solving a customer problem with this?

is it realistic to get there with what you're working on? I think it always costs more and takes a lot longer than you think.

You know, and if someone's younger, you have, you know, if you're in your 20s, I think 30s is even young doing this a while.

I mean, you have a long time in your career. You don't have to crush it like the first year.

The goal of business is not really so much to win. It's to stay in the game. And so how do you keep playing?

I think that's the mindset that you have to have. It's not that you need to destroy your competition. Or I think you need to focus on the customer and stay in the game and keep the business afloat.

And constantly reevaluate it. Is this making you happy? And is this what you really want to be doing? Like for me, I just have this mission to help people breathe better.

And I'm just committed to it. And I'll take the punches along the way. If you're not committed to it, you may not be willing to put in what it takes.

And not every day is sunshine and roses. But for the most part, to me, the journey is fun. But there are bumps along the way.

And you just have to be able to move beyond it and have perspective on why you're doing that.

@33:01 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, very true. Now, you mentioned you got some new product developments on the line. What does the business look like in five years?

@33:10 - Peter Mann

Can you tell us what some of those products might be? Yeah, well, we're still getting the first air purifier out, so we're very focused on that.

But I would say our motor technology allows us to have an advantage where it's smaller size, it's higher torque, and quieter.

And so if you can think of, you know, we're looking at the consumer markets, kitchen appliances, where that would be an advantage, or even the home and garden-type products, especially as certain products move from fossil fuel or gas base to electric.

Yeah. Our technology is perfect for that. Yeah. You know, and it's going to, it's in the process of being patented.

So, you know, it's really going to differentiate us in the marketplace. If you have something that just... Spins faster, blows air better.

There's no shortage of options for us. We're still in the process of identifying what we want to do next and then mapping that out.

really right now we're just setting up a whole new factory production line. We're making the motors, we're assembling the air purifier.

I think once that's done in two or three months, we're going to quickly move on to. The next product, which my guest is probably a kitchen and planes, but I see us really branching off into a number of different categories.

@34:37 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I love it. And you know, folks, listen again, if you're in the Virginia area, they are in fact hiring, I believe, out there at their workshop.

So go ahead and look that up to check out the purifier. I think this is a really cool thing.

I'm probably going to look at it because again, my wife has asthma. Our kids, you know, they have allergies.

We live in Oregon. It rains pollen out here. So if you've ever been out here, you guys know that.

Now, Peter, for the listeners at home, how can they find you if they want to learn more about your business?

How can they find you there on the website or social media?

@35:11 - Peter Mann

is your information live? Sure. Yeah, our website is or on C dot com. It's or a n s I dot com.

And I'm on LinkedIn, Peter Mann and man. Yeah, happy to chat with anyone.

@35:24 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Perfect. In fact, this is a great time because all this information will be on the The of Entrepreneurship newsletter.

So great time to plug the newsletter. If you are not subscribed yet, please check out the shades of e dot com.

You can go ahead and subscribe to newsletter there. You can also follow us at the Shades of E on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok.

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So go ahead and be looking up for that.

@35:53 - Peter Mann

Now, Peter, is there any last words you'd like to say for the listeners? I think I'll just repeat what I.

What I said before is build marketing into the product. I think it's so competitive that you can spend a lot of money in advertising very quickly.

It's a lot better if you have a product that actually solves a customer problem that the customer would be willing to tell somebody about.

And that's really hard to do, but it just life is so much simpler because the ed costs can eat you can take away all and more of a Yes, that's a very great point.

@36:32 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

fact, folks listening, create a story around your product. Peter's done a great job about creating a story, about his son.

That draws people in. It really makes people feel like, oh, this individual is really focused on quality and make it efficient because they're using it for their own personal self as well.

And you can see the passion. You can hear the passion coming out for Peter really wanted to make this thing work.

And I think that's another thing to think about too. Peter mentioned it. Find your passion about, you know, once you find that, you'll go from your zone of confidence to your zone of genius, right?

Because then you start doing something that time just flies by, you're working on a project, all of a sudden it was four hours later and you're just like, wow, I just been having such a good time doing this.

I didn't even notice at times. That's when you're in your zone of genius, right? And so that's really when you begin to take off.

So again, folks, don't be afraid to try new things. Go out there experience travel. Read, drink plenty of water because that's another thing we need to start doing often.

Peter, thank you again so much for being on the show. I really do appreciate it. I'm really excited for you and know what you're going to be doing in the future.

Folks listening again, please follow me at the shades of Eon Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Thank