Chris Lefteri is a Materials Consultant, Designer and author of 9 books on materials. He is also the inventor and founder of Fixits, reusable eco-plastic moldable sticks, which you can use to repair all manner of things around the home and office.
Chris shared how he turned a useful material into a marketable product and the challenges of creating and marketing a unique product, where the audience needs to be taught how to use it. Chris also shares his advice from running a successful Kickstarter campaign. You will go away with lots to think about, and planning to order a pack of Fixits to try for yourself.
Listen in to hear Chris share:
- An introduction to himself and his business (01:04)
- What Fixits are and how they work (01:30)
- What inspired him to create Fixits (03:31)
- Turning a useful material into a marketable product (05:11)
- Finding and working with a manufacturer (09:09)
- Manufacturing a product responsibly (11:45)
- Lessons in creating products in small batches (10:48)
- The challenges of selling a unique product (14:09)
- Teaching the public about your product (16:42)
- His advice for running a Kickstarter campaign (18:09)
- His number one piece of advice for other product creators (23:07)
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Transcript
Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast.
Vicki Weinberg:This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling
Vicki Weinberg:products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.
Vicki Weinberg:I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert.
Vicki Weinberg:Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational
Vicki Weinberg:stories from small businesses.
Vicki Weinberg:Let's get started.
Vicki Weinberg:Hi, so today I'm talking to Chris Lefteri from Fixits.
Vicki Weinberg:Fixits is Chris's very own invention and we have a great conversation today about
Vicki Weinberg:inventing a product and all that entails.
Vicki Weinberg:The product Chris has invented is really unique.
Vicki Weinberg:And of course there were some challenges with creating a product
Vicki Weinberg:and selling a product that people don't even know that they need, um,
Vicki Weinberg:because it's something brand new.
Vicki Weinberg:And we talk a lot about that during this episode.
Vicki Weinberg:It was a fantastic conversation and I would love now to introduce you to Chris.
Vicki Weinberg:So, hi Chris.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you so much for being here.
Chris Lefteri:Hi Vicky.
Chris Lefteri:My pleasure to talk to you.
Vicki Weinberg:So can we please start by you giving an introduction to
Vicki Weinberg:yourself, your business, and what you.
Chris Lefteri:So my business is based on empowering people, householders to repair
Chris Lefteri:stuff, and I founded Fixit in:Chris Lefteri:fun, and convenient way for, you know, anybody, anybody in the house to be able
Chris Lefteri:to repair their stuffand avoid the whole idea of putting stuff into landfill.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:And can you just, I know it's really hard cause this isn't visual, but can you, and
Vicki Weinberg:we've all obviously linked to your website so people can see, but could you just
Vicki Weinberg:give us a really little instruction as to what Fixits is and how you might use it?
Chris Lefteri:Well, Fixits are essentially a series
Chris Lefteri:of, uh, plastic sticks.
Chris Lefteri:You dip them into a cup of hot water.
Chris Lefteri:Straight from the kettle could be around minimum of 60 degrees.
Chris Lefteri:The hotter it is than the faster the, um, they will soften.
Chris Lefteri:Uh, once you put the stick in the cup of hot water, it will begin to become
Chris Lefteri:quite soft and within sort of 30 seconds to a minute, it will become floppy.
Chris Lefteri:You take it out, it's completely cool.
Chris Lefteri:So it doesn't, doesn't, it's not even hot.
Chris Lefteri:And you, um, then can mold it into any shape you want in the same way you
Chris Lefteri:can with, you know, modeling clay or plasticine and use it to repair any
Chris Lefteri:number of things that would be very difficult to repair with tape and glue.
Chris Lefteri:So things that may be quite brittle and, and the glue doesn't have much
Chris Lefteri:of a contacts area or things like tape where you need to wrap it around,
Chris Lefteri:you know, Fixit does things that all, both those two products can't do.
Chris Lefteri:So we use it for a very popular one with our customers is repairing,
Chris Lefteri:broken, uh, glasses on the side frame, uh, for charging cables for big things
Chris Lefteri:like children's toys, that sort of snap and you want to fix it back, you
Chris Lefteri:know, you want to fix it back together.
Chris Lefteri:Um, any number of things taking them on holiday with you.
Chris Lefteri:So I think the best thing about it is that, and, and the unique thing about it
Chris Lefteri:is that if that repair doesn't work or you wanna try it again because you wanna make
Chris Lefteri:it better, then you stick it back into the whole water and um, and do it again.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, that's amazing.
Vicki Weinberg:So it's completely reusable.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah.
Chris Lefteri:Fixit is completely reusable and I don't have to use it.
Chris Lefteri:I don't have to use hot water.
Chris Lefteri:I can use, um, a hair dry, heat it up again, and yeah, pretty much.
Chris Lefteri:Yes.
Chris Lefteri:Infinite number of times.
Vicki Weinberg:That's amazing.
Vicki Weinberg:So how did you come up with the idea, Chris, and what inspired you to even
Vicki Weinberg:start thinking of a product like this?
Chris Lefteri:My background is a designer and the the other company that
Chris Lefteri:I run is a materials design studio.
Chris Lefteri:So several years ago when I was writing one of my books on materials
Chris Lefteri:for designers, I discovered a sort of material that was used in industry.
Chris Lefteri:In a very obscure way, in a way that you'd never really see it.
Chris Lefteri:And I was really fascinated with it.
Chris Lefteri:And I, you know, got some, some material from the supplier.
Chris Lefteri:I was using it at home.
Chris Lefteri:I took some home and we kept some granules, a bag of granules
Chris Lefteri:in the kitchen drawer, and my wife thought it was fantastic.
Chris Lefteri:We take it on holiday with us, you know, the little bag bag of granules and
Chris Lefteri:she had this idea to turn it into a, a consumer product and to make story, which
Chris Lefteri:it didn't have, you know, it wasn't a product that was ever used for repair,
Chris Lefteri:part of what the material could offer, and that's really where it started from.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, that's amazing.
Vicki Weinberg:And what was the material used for?
Vicki Weinberg:Just out of interest?
Vicki Weinberg:What?
Vicki Weinberg:What did people use to use it before, before you came up with this use?
Chris Lefteri:It's used in packaging as a compostable material for packaging.
Chris Lefteri:It's used as an adhesive.
Chris Lefteri:It's used in medical applications.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah, I mean, a whole range of things are quite obscure.
Chris Lefteri:Nothing that you'd be able to point to and say, oh yeah, you know, I know what it is.
Chris Lefteri:I know the material.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah, so quite obscure and, and not having anything like a
Chris Lefteri:story to do with, uh, repair.
Vicki Weinberg:That's really interesting.
Vicki Weinberg:So it came in granule form, is that right?
Chris Lefteri:Yes.
Vicki Weinberg:So how did you come up with the idea of
Vicki Weinberg:creating the Fixit sticks?
Chris Lefteri:Well, so I, I really thought.
Chris Lefteri:You know, as magical as it is to watch these granules, you know, soften
Chris Lefteri:in a cup and it is quite magical.
Chris Lefteri:I wanted to have something that was much more accessible and much more handy.
Chris Lefteri:And I always had it in my head that when I had this bag of granules, I'd keep
Chris Lefteri:it in the kitchen drawer and I wanted something that would feel like you'd
Chris Lefteri:keep it in the kitchen drawer, you'd put it in your in a bag if you were
Chris Lefteri:going a holiday, or if you were going camping, you know, very convenient.
Chris Lefteri:And I started by looking.
Chris Lefteri:The shapes that you could, that were conducive to putting something
Chris Lefteri:into hot water and a stick felt very natural because, I mean, you know,
Chris Lefteri:you dunk it, you only hold as much of the material of the stick in the
Chris Lefteri:hot water as you want to, to soften.
Chris Lefteri:And so we played around with different proportions and different sort of,
Chris Lefteri:Variations on the stick and then settled with something that I wanted
Chris Lefteri:people to feel very familiar with, you know, so it was about, I, it's about
Chris Lefteri:the same proportions as a lolli stick, or same proportions as a nail file,
Chris Lefteri:because it's a completely new product.
Chris Lefteri:It's not something that exists in any.
Chris Lefteri:It is completely a new way of repairing something.
Chris Lefteri:And that's a quite a hard story to tell.
Chris Lefteri:So I didn't want to then create a shape that was out there as well.
Chris Lefteri:I thought let's just keep it something quite generic that is familiar that people
Chris Lefteri:can at least have some connection with, you know, so I, I kept it very simple.
Chris Lefteri:And then in order to kind of consider the colors and make it,
Chris Lefteri:you know, feel something that was, um, You know, universal and the,
Chris Lefteri:and the, you know, color is a very personal thing, and pe people can
Chris Lefteri:be put off by color very easily.
Chris Lefteri:So obviously black and white, because a lot of products are black and white,
Chris Lefteri:so it kind of, you know, blends in.
Chris Lefteri:And then the orange one, so we launched with black white, orange.
Chris Lefteri:Then the orange one really, I, I think, came about because, um,
Chris Lefteri:the first color that we trialed to get the coloring right was orange.
Chris Lefteri:And it looked really good.
Chris Lefteri:It was kind of bold.
Chris Lefteri:It was bright, optimistic.
Chris Lefteri:It kind of talked about.
Chris Lefteri:Utility and functionality.
Chris Lefteri:And so we kept it.
Chris Lefteri:And so we, the first ones we launched were black, white, and orange.
Chris Lefteri:And then I re, as I said, I re, I really wanted to have this
Chris Lefteri:element of repairing, being fun and to, you know, empower people.
Chris Lefteri:And the easiest way of doing that is you make the product attractive.
Chris Lefteri:So from the beginning, from the outset, it was, I, I wanted this
Chris Lefteri:idea that people would look at and think, oh, that's interesting.
Chris Lefteri:I like, and I'm gonna need it at some point.
Chris Lefteri:So it was those two things.
Chris Lefteri:I need it and I like it.
Chris Lefteri:And the extension, the natural extension of that was to launch
Chris Lefteri:some colors that were much more, uh, fashion colors, you know.
Chris Lefteri:So I went to, um, Rymans, it's not Rymans, uh, Paperchase on Wandsworth Road.
Chris Lefteri:Uh, and they, and they, you know, it's filled with color in there and
Chris Lefteri:colors of pens and paper and, and crayons and all that sort of stuff.
Chris Lefteri:And I just remember thinking it'd be great to see Fixit in this type
Chris Lefteri:of environment and, and to actually, you know, build that story of fun
Chris Lefteri:and accessibility through the colors.
Chris Lefteri:So that's why we launched.
Chris Lefteri:I'm trying to remember.
Chris Lefteri:We have a, a specific name for them.
Chris Lefteri:I won't use specific names.
Chris Lefteri:I'll just say yellow, green, and pink.
Chris Lefteri:They have quite nice, catchy names, but I have a, a memory
Chris Lefteri:problem, so I can't quite remember.
Chris Lefteri:I don't wanna get it wrong.
Vicki Weinberg:No problem.
Vicki Weinberg:I know exactly what that's like
Chris Lefteri:Flamingo pink.
Chris Lefteri:Flamingo pink is one.
Chris Lefteri:Sorbet Yellow and Mid Green.
Chris Lefteri:Am I right?
Chris Lefteri:I'm not sure.
Chris Lefteri:Something like that.
Vicki Weinberg:I think I've seen the colors and I think
Vicki Weinberg:that's a good description anyway.
Vicki Weinberg:Even if that's not , the exact names of it as a great
Vicki Weinberg:description of what they look like.
Vicki Weinberg:So.
Vicki Weinberg:How, um, I'm, I'm really curious, actually, there was something you, you,
Vicki Weinberg:um, mentioned, I'm gonna touch on a bit later, but what I'd love to know is, so
Vicki Weinberg:were you working with a manufacturer to go through this process of developing
Vicki Weinberg:them sticks and developing colors?
Vicki Weinberg:How did that come about and how did that work?
Chris Lefteri:That's a very good question.
Chris Lefteri:It was, it wasn't easy.
Chris Lefteri:We had to, to find, we had to contact a lot of manufacturers
Chris Lefteri:because it's not an easy to, to mold.
Chris Lefteri:And because we were starting up, there wasn't a huge, uh,
Chris Lefteri:you know, business for them.
Chris Lefteri:You know, we weren't gonna order millions of, of sticks.
Chris Lefteri:And we were really lucky we found somebody in the UK who's been a fantastic
Chris Lefteri:partner, so he, he used an existing.
Chris Lefteri:Mold tool to trial the material.
Chris Lefteri:Looked at how it, how it worked, how it would be produced.
Chris Lefteri:You know, does the mold separate quickly, you know, easily without
Chris Lefteri:sticking to the, to the sticks.
Chris Lefteri:And then being quite specific about the texture on it, because the texture
Chris Lefteri:on the sticks was, I mean, you know, people don't really think about texture.
Chris Lefteri:You pick up a product and you, you, you just perceive it as being something.
Chris Lefteri:Either it feels cheap or it feels Matt, or it feels nice, or it feels
Chris Lefteri:premium or glossy, but you don't really.
Chris Lefteri:Perceive it, but I, I did want something that unconsciously would
Chris Lefteri:just feel quite nice in your hand.
Chris Lefteri:And obviously when you put the stick in the whole water, the, the texture
Chris Lefteri:disappears because it then, um, you know, becomes, Just a, a neutral
Chris Lefteri:kind of semi, semi glossy surface.
Chris Lefteri:Um, so we did a lot of trials with the manufacturer working out exactly the
Chris Lefteri:right thickness of the stick so that it would mold well efficiently, uh, without
Chris Lefteri:any problems, making sure that the, you know, specifics of, you know, ejection
Chris Lefteri:molding of where the two parts of a steel tool come apart is in the right place.
Chris Lefteri:So yeah, we had a great partner.
Vicki Weinberg:So Chris, are you still working with that same manufacturer now?
Chris Lefteri:Yes, I am.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah, that's, yeah, he's, he's a great partner.
Chris Lefteri:He, he's fantastic.
Vicki Weinberg:That's great.
Vicki Weinberg:And I think it's, like you said, it's so important when you can build
Vicki Weinberg:up those long-term relationships.
Vicki Weinberg:Yeah, yeah.
Vicki Weinberg:Absolutely.
Chris Lefteri:Absolutely.
Chris Lefteri:And um, I couldn't really have done it without him.
Chris Lefteri:And, and, uh, you take it, I don't, I don't actually take it for granted at all.
Chris Lefteri:Cause I've worked with manufacturers before and you know, when you're trying
Chris Lefteri:to develop something new, you have to get somebody who embraces it and who
Chris Lefteri:actually appreciates the challenge and wants to do something that is different
Chris Lefteri:rather than somebody who thinks it's a kind of a labor and, uh, a chore.
Chris Lefteri:And, and actually he's kind of doing reluctantly.
Chris Lefteri:So we have a great champion.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, that's brilliant.
Vicki Weinberg:And, um, I know that something else that's important to you
Vicki Weinberg:is responsible manufacturing.
Vicki Weinberg:Can you talk a little bit about what that means to you and what the impact has
Vicki Weinberg:been on your product and your packaging?
Chris Lefteri:I mean, the, it's absolutely, absolutely.
Chris Lefteri:I think that the product is in itself about, Helping, encouraging,
Chris Lefteri:you know, consumers to, to repair and not throw things away.
Chris Lefteri:And on that level that, that is the most important thing about Fixit it
Chris Lefteri:is the idea that you, you make it fun, you make it accessible, and you point
Chris Lefteri:out that actually it's better to repair something than it is to buy or replace.
Chris Lefteri:That actually makes you feel good when you do that.
Chris Lefteri:There is that.
Chris Lefteri:Nice sense of achievement of of, of being clever and solving the problem
Chris Lefteri:and, and making that repair, that that is the most important thing about fix it.
Chris Lefteri:It is.
Chris Lefteri:The fact that it's manufactured in the UK is important because, you know,
Chris Lefteri:we don't have to deal with shipping and that aspect of, um, of co2.
Chris Lefteri:The packaging originally was plastic, and it was plastic originally because it was
Chris Lefteri:just, you know, it was a small startup.
Chris Lefteri:It was the most convenient, easiest, low-cost way of making the sticks.
Chris Lefteri:We've stopped using plastic, now we use cardboard, and the material itself
Chris Lefteri:is, Conforms to EU regulations for, uh, bioplastic classification, but I
Chris Lefteri:don't necessarily wanna focus on that.
Chris Lefteri:I think it's a complex area to talk about bioplastics.
Chris Lefteri:In any case, it is officially a industrially compostable plastic.
Chris Lefteri:But you know, as I said, the story for me is much more about the repairability
Chris Lefteri:and encouraging people to repair than it about what the material is
Chris Lefteri:because ideally you don't want to get rid of the material, you just reuse
Chris Lefteri:it again and again and again, so you shouldn't have to worry about where it.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah, that makes sense.
Chris Lefteri:And as you
Vicki Weinberg:say, the fact that it's a product that's designed to help
Vicki Weinberg:people reuse things that they might otherwise fit in the bin or, yes.
Vicki Weinberg:Yeah, I think, I think that speaks to itself really.
Vicki Weinberg:And coming onto that, Chris, so I picked up on something you talked
Vicki Weinberg:about, um, earlier, it was probably about 10 minutes ago now, so
Vicki Weinberg:apologies if you don't remember.
Vicki Weinberg:But you, you mentioned that, um, there were some challenges in
Vicki Weinberg:selling a product that's completely new that people haven't heard of.
Vicki Weinberg:Can you talk a little bit about the challenges of selling such
Vicki Weinberg:unique products and maybe some ways in which you've overcome that?
Vicki Weinberg:Please.
Chris Lefteri:Yes.
Chris Lefteri:It's, I mean, I, I underestimated how difficult it was gonna be to, uh, sell
Chris Lefteri:this product because, you know, I thought it was fantastic everyone I'd shown it to,
Chris Lefteri:I really thought that people would get it.
Chris Lefteri:But as I said, I, I understood very quickly, I mean, after we launched
Chris Lefteri:on Kickstarter, that there is, Big hurdle to overcome in the sense of I'm
Chris Lefteri:not selling tape and I'm not selling glue, so I have to explain what it is.
Chris Lefteri:You know, I have to give a description.
Chris Lefteri:I can't just say it's glue, it's tape.
Chris Lefteri:So, so that's the first thing you have to overcome and, and do that in a very
Chris Lefteri:quick way because, you know, we don't, we don't have huge attention spans.
Chris Lefteri:So you have to, you have to get that across.
Chris Lefteri:And at the same time, uh, encourage, encourage consumers
Chris Lefteri:to, to build the value.
Chris Lefteri:Um, you've got to, you know, point out the advantages, um,
Chris Lefteri:so that it does save money.
Chris Lefteri:It does save the planet, it does make you feel great to fix stuff.
Chris Lefteri:And that's very much a about building a community and showing illustration,
Chris Lefteri:you know, photographs of, you know, customers and what they've
Chris Lefteri:done with the Fixits and just keep repeating that message that it's fun.
Chris Lefteri:It saves the planet, it saves you money, you know, in just repeating that
Chris Lefteri:and building on that from the sticks.
Chris Lefteri:You know, we're launching, uh, we've launched the tape, uh, we'll launched
Chris Lefteri:some variations on the tape and some other repair products very soon as well.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:And I completely get what a challenge it is because I guess also there's
Vicki Weinberg:a thing that people don't understand it and they don't understand
Vicki Weinberg:exactly what the product's for.
Vicki Weinberg:They might sort of say, well, this doesn't work, and it's because
Vicki Weinberg:they haven't quite got what the intention behind the product is.
Chris Lefteri:Yes.
Chris Lefteri:I mean, exactly, and you, and you, you have to be quite explicit because,
Chris Lefteri:you know, I mean, as somebody pointed out, you are showing me a stick.
Chris Lefteri:How do I get from a stick to this repair?
Chris Lefteri:You know, I don't need to do that.
Chris Lefteri:I don't need to explain that.
Chris Lefteri:If I, if I'm selling tape or glue, everybody knows how, what
Chris Lefteri:tape is and how it works, and everybody knows how, how glue works.
Chris Lefteri:With the stick.
Chris Lefteri:You have to, you have to, you have to be very clear.
Chris Lefteri:But for me, the, the, the magic of this stick is that you put in
Chris Lefteri:hot water, becomes soft and then becomes hard, and then you can do
Chris Lefteri:the whole thing again and again.
Chris Lefteri:And, um, I wanna make sure that we, uh, that's shared.
Vicki Weinberg:And were there any specific sort of communications or
Vicki Weinberg:pieces of media that you created that you think really helped with this,
Vicki Weinberg:with explaining what the product is?
Chris Lefteri:Hmm.
Chris Lefteri:Uh, yeah, I, I don't think that there's a single, I don't think
Chris Lefteri:there's a single one because there are so many facets to this story.
Chris Lefteri:There are so many attributes that I want to get across.
Chris Lefteri:The, the hardness of the stick, how it works, what you can do with
Chris Lefteri:it, um, how you can remold it.
Chris Lefteri:So there are so many facets to the story and, and the usability that
Chris Lefteri:it's, it's difficult to pinpoint to one image, to be honest with you.
Chris Lefteri:I mean, and I think video is absolutely the, the way that we're moving forward
Chris Lefteri:because you can tell so much you, you can communicate so much more with a video.
Vicki Weinberg:I was just about to say that I've seen your video and I
Vicki Weinberg:think that that for me is a really great way of just demonstrating what
Vicki Weinberg:the product is and how it works in just a couple of seconds because it is so
Vicki Weinberg:visual and it's much easier to get that across visually than it is in text.
Chris Lefteri:Yes, absolutely.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Lefteri:And, and we're trying hard with it.
Chris Lefteri:We have a great copywriter.
Chris Lefteri:A again, you know, I have people are working with fix, poking, working
Chris Lefteri:with me on Fixits who I really appreciate and they totally get it.
Chris Lefteri:You know, uh, we have a copywriter who totally, you know, understands
Chris Lefteri:the voice to Fixits has and where our target is and what we're trying to.
Chris Lefteri:So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's really about storytelling and making
Chris Lefteri:sure the story is very clear.
Vicki Weinberg:And while we're speaking about storytelling, if you don't mind,
Vicki Weinberg:um, I know that you mentioned that you launched with a Kickstarter campaign.
Vicki Weinberg:Can we just talk a little bit about that, about what your experience of
Vicki Weinberg:running that campaign was, and perhaps any insights that you had from it?
Chris Lefteri:Um,
Vicki Weinberg:I know that's a very big question.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, so wh when, when was your, your Kickstarter campaign, what was
Vicki Weinberg:that,:Vicki Weinberg:Yes.
Chris Lefteri:No, no,:Chris Lefteri:I mean, I think the, the thing was that we, I think we did fantastically,
Chris Lefteri:I mean, I, I've never run a, a campaign like this before, and no
Chris Lefteri:one who was working on that with me had run a campaign like this before.
Chris Lefteri:We did a lot of preparation.
Chris Lefteri:I did have access to certain, uh, journalists.
Chris Lefteri:That I could, you know, write something for about, you know,
Chris Lefteri:Fixits that, that was directly related to the Kickstarter campaign.
Chris Lefteri:So that really helped.
Chris Lefteri:But I think just getting the, the message out there.
Chris Lefteri:I'm being very prepared.
Chris Lefteri:I mean, you know, I, I thought it was a quick thing to, to launch a kick,
Chris Lefteri:sunny kickstarter, but not at all.
Chris Lefteri:I mean, you have to be supremely prepared and organized and have a team
Chris Lefteri:behind you because it's a global thing.
Chris Lefteri:It's, it will, it will launch.
Chris Lefteri:You know, I think it, when launched in Asia and maybe Australia, you know
Chris Lefteri:what, uh, whatever it was, midnight UK time, and it's a 24-hour thing,
Chris Lefteri:so you have to keep managing that.
Vicki Weinberg:And how long typically does a campaign run?
Chris Lefteri:I think typically they run for a month.
Chris Lefteri:I was run, ran for.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh gosh, that's quite a long, that's quite a long time.
Vicki Weinberg:And I guess that's quite intense then if you're constantly trying
Vicki Weinberg:to draw attention to the campaign.
Vicki Weinberg:Yes.
Vicki Weinberg:I mean,
Chris Lefteri:yeah, it is quite intense, but not half as, as intense as it
Chris Lefteri:was to actually send out the products because, you know, we, we did very well,
Chris Lefteri:um, sold thousands of packs of Fixits.
Chris Lefteri:But the hard work really was was getting them out there after the
Chris Lefteri:campaign and getting them out there, getting them out there to different
Chris Lefteri:parts of the world in a timely way.
Chris Lefteri:That was the, that was the really, that was a very challenging part.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, that's really interesting.
Chris Lefteri:So we had, we had the office filled with, you know, my, my
Chris Lefteri:team who worked in the design studio, packing sticks, putting them envelopes,
Chris Lefteri:and putting labels on, taking to the post.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, I'm glad to hear it was a success.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and you mentioned you were working with some journalists at the time, so was
Vicki Weinberg:that to get words out about the campaign?
Vicki Weinberg:Was that the purpose of that?
Chris Lefteri:Yes, yes.
Chris Lefteri:Design journalists, yes.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, that's fantastic cause I've, I've spoken to a few people
Vicki Weinberg:who've ran Kickstarter campaigns, but neither of none of them have
Vicki Weinberg:actually spoken about that angle.
Vicki Weinberg:So that actually makes a lot of sense.
Vicki Weinberg:So were you targeting journalists from the kind of publications that
Vicki Weinberg:you thought people might be, you know, people that read those might be
Vicki Weinberg:interested in supporting your campaign?
Vicki Weinberg:Was that the idea?
Chris Lefteri:No, it, it was, I was very lucky.
Chris Lefteri:I knew journalists because of my design studio, because of the success of the
Chris Lefteri:books, because the book books and the popularity of those books over the last
Chris Lefteri:20 years, I was able to contact a couple of people that I knew very well and
Chris Lefteri:say, Hey, I'm launching this product.
Chris Lefteri:A really designed for any product about the environment.
Chris Lefteri:You know, would you be, you know, would you like to write something out?
Chris Lefteri:Or for me to write something up?
Chris Lefteri:So we did it in that way.
Chris Lefteri:Not necessarily, it wasn't a huge kind of level of research to find the right
Chris Lefteri:magazines or journalists, and they were.
Chris Lefteri:Magazines, uh, journal, you know, uh, online magazines.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, well, clearly it's, clearly it works.
Vicki Weinberg:I think it's great and I think there's, it makes total sense to
Vicki Weinberg:use any connections that you have.
Chris Lefteri:Oh, absolutely.
Chris Lefteri:Yes, absolutely.
Vicki Weinberg:And is there any other advice that you have for
Vicki Weinberg:anyone who might be looking at using Kickstart to, to get started?
Vicki Weinberg:I think it was a really good point you made about ACT actually having
Vicki Weinberg:to send the products out afterwards.
Vicki Weinberg:Cause I think that's something that I'd never thought about that of course
Vicki Weinberg:the better you do the, the harder the job you might have afterwards.
Vicki Weinberg:Is there anything else you think people, um, might be interested
Vicki Weinberg:to know or take on board.
Chris Lefteri:Well, you're building a, you're building a story, and, and that
Chris Lefteri:story has to be inspiring, has to be informative, and I would test the story
Chris Lefteri:on, you know, friends, family, just see if what it is that you want to say about
Chris Lefteri:your product is clear, because you might think you know your product inside out and
Chris Lefteri:you should, but you know, making sure that other people know that it's a different.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes lot of sense.
Vicki Weinberg:Tell that story and um, and get it tested by your friends and family.
Vicki Weinberg:That really makes sense.
Vicki Weinberg:I guess, especially if in the case of your products, it's so unique.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I guess if your friends and family couldn't understand what the product
Vicki Weinberg:was and what it did, yes, then that was a really good indication that perhaps
Vicki Weinberg:everyone else would be in a similar.
Chris Lefteri:Yeah.
Chris Lefteri:And tell people about it and they'll point, they'll say, oh,
Chris Lefteri:really, what does that mean?
Chris Lefteri:Or what does that do?
Chris Lefteri:Or, why are you doing that?
Chris Lefteri:And, and they were, they're very, they were fantastic conversations to have had.
Vicki Weinberg:Yeah.
Vicki Weinberg:That definitely sounds valuable.
Vicki Weinberg:And it also sounds like, so if you were looking to mark a Kickstarter,
Vicki Weinberg:there's, it sounds like there's an awful lot of material you need to
Vicki Weinberg:create before you even think about
Chris Lefteri:Yes.
Vicki Weinberg:Getting something up there.
Chris Lefteri:Yes.
Chris Lefteri:Yes, you do.
Chris Lefteri:That's really good to.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, thank you so much for everything
Vicki Weinberg:you shared, um, with me today.
Vicki Weinberg:Chris, I just got one final question, if you don't mind, which is one I ask
Vicki Weinberg:everybody who comes on the podcast, which is, what would be your number one piece
Vicki Weinberg:of advice for anyone who has a product idea that they'd like to take forward?
Chris Lefteri:I would say without a doubt, just do it, and if you
Chris Lefteri:dunno anything about retailing, if you dunno anything about.
Chris Lefteri:You know, product development, just do it anyway cuz you'll learn on the spot.
Chris Lefteri:And I didn't know anything about retailing.
Chris Lefteri:I had no concept of what online marketing was or is, or how it functioned.
Chris Lefteri:Um, I did know about materials.
Chris Lefteri:I did know about storytelling and I knew about design, but that's not, that
Chris Lefteri:was not nearly as much information, you know, uh, expertise as I did have.
Chris Lefteri:So my advice is just do it because, You regret it if you don't.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant advice.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:And I've also picked up as we've been talking that along the way you've
Vicki Weinberg:obviously worked with other people who can help you out in areas where perhaps
Vicki Weinberg:you you know, you didn't have as much experience and I think that's a really
Vicki Weinberg:good people to hear as well, that you don't have to necessarily do it all
Vicki Weinberg:yourself or, or learn it all yourself.
Vicki Weinberg:You can work with other people and build on their strengths.
Vicki Weinberg:Yes.
Chris Lefteri:Like working with you.
Vicki Weinberg:Yes.
Vicki Weinberg:I should probably disclose the fact that I've been working you on your,
Vicki Weinberg:on your, on your Amazon account
Chris Lefteri:and you are one of those people so thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:And thank you again for everything you shared today.
Chris Lefteri:No worries, Vicki, my pleasure.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you so much for listening right
Vicki Weinberg:to the end of this episode.
Vicki Weinberg:Do remember that you can get the full back catalog and lots of free resources
Vicki Weinberg:on my website, vickiweinberg.com.
Vicki Weinberg:Please do remember to rate and review view this episode if you've enjoyed
Vicki Weinberg:it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find are useful.