30: Crowdfunding Stories: Tammy Rant & TushBaby

Have you ever wanted to listen to an actual Kickstarter creator who raised over $100,000 on a project? What about learning the ins-and-outs of a successful appearance on “Shark Tank”? Or, are you just curious about the life of an entrepreneur? If so, then today’s episode is going to literally rock your world! Let’s get started…

Takeaways

1. Desire is vital, and positive thinking is helpful, but thoughts without action accomplish nothing; thankfully, it’s never too late to apply yourself, excel, and achieve success.
2. If you’re feeling frustrated with trying to find a solution to your problems in the marketplace, then others may feel similarly, which could indicate a good entrepreneurial opportunity, which you may explore through both market research and product development.
3. It helps to prepare oneself through both research and practice before doing something important, and to do it with an experienced partner for support.
4. Crowdfunding campaigns are good for not only raising funds but also validating ideas.
5. Crowdfunding campaigners need to market themselves to attract attention, and should prepare to defend their intellectual property against cheap knockoffs.
6. “Shark Tank” can provide a startup with mutually-beneficial partnership plus great publicity, but only if the “sharks” respond favorably to it; otherwise, it could hurt.
7. “Shark Tank” might accept your audition, record your appearance before its “sharks,” and even buy equity in your company, but won’t necessarily show your segment on television unless NBC can edit it to appear sufficiently dramatic.

Highlights

[01:17] Zach and Tammy Rant overview Tammy’s background, including her delayed success in school, her success in a wide variety of sales jobs, and her successful crowdfunding campaign for TushBaby.
[10:20] Tammy explains how her frustrations in solving her own personal child-carrying problems led her to both conceptualize a product that she initially named HipBaby but (due to trademark issues) renamed TushBaby.
[15:07] Zach and Tammy discuss how Tammy and her co-founder perfected TushBaby to provide various benefits like storage space, proper spine alignment and weight distribution, and child comfort.
[20:11] Zach and Tammy relate some highlights of Tammy’s experience with “Shark Tank,” from her surprise invitation to her unpolished audition video to television’s selective ratings-driven editing, plus how it motivated her to run a hasty Kickstarter campaign (with Funded Today’s support) to prove her product’s marketability.
[24:20] Zach and Tammy review Tammy’s positive experience in working with Funded Today, which she found to be proactive and communicative, and recommended to a friend.
[25:39] Zach and Tammy elaborate upon the hectic nature of crowdfunding campaigns, and assert that even the best campaigns need marketing to attract attention to themselves.
[28:07] Tammy advocates conducting ample market research, generating leads before launching, and protecting oneself against cheap knockoffs (which she has found to be a full-time job).
[31:33] Tammy summarizes some tidbits about outsourcing both warehousing and shipping.
[34:20] Tammy ranks her “Shark Tank” experience among the greatest experiences of her life, despite being both sick and scared.
[36:08] Tammy states that NBC filmed her “Shark Tank” appearance 7 days after she had finished her crowdfunding campaign, but didn’t finally commit to airing her segment until the following year, that NBC aired it because they could edit it to appear dramatic, and that reactions from the “sharks” can potentially make-or-break a business.
[41:21] Tammy asserts that she would appear on “Shark Tank” again to launch a new product, despite the stressfulness, due to the benefits of obtaining a “shark” partner while getting some great publicity, and she observes that some entrepreneurs have appeared on it multiple times.
[42:43] Tammy details her thorough preparation for “Shark Tank,” which involved both researching what the “sharks” might ask her and rehearsing her responses.
[43:29] Zach and Tammy and Thomas talk about the importance of desire, faith/belief, positive thinking, and work in helping us to accomplish things.
[45:43] Tammy encourages entrepreneurs to avoid doubting themselves excessively, but to engage in research and to start working—and that, even if your venture fails, then you’ll still learn a lot.
[47:57] Tammy and Thomas and Zach discuss how book-learning about business can either facilitate or impede people in achieving success in business.
[48:44] Tammy advocates the Golden Rule of treating other people as we would want them to treat us, along with karma, and its application to business, including through providing good customer service.
[51:24] Tammy and Thomas and Zach present this episode’s Projects of the Week.

Transcript

Zach Smith: (00:00) Funded Today Nation, welcome back to the Funded Today podcast, and we’ve got a really good for you today. We’re bringing on someone from outside our company for the first time, one of our past clients Tammy Rant of TushBaby Kickstarter success and Shark Tank fame, but before we introduce her remember “to dial in your customer service skills” by learning from our very own David Garber in last week’s episode number 29 as Sam Walton always like to say “take care of people, and they’ll take care of you”. And remember “Franklin and his squeaky wheelbarrow” I really loved when David relayed that story and now for today’s special guest. Have you ever wanted to listen directly to an actual Kickstarter rating raised over six figures $100,000 on a project. What about learning the ins and outs of successful parents and landing the deal on Shark Tank. Or are you just curious about the life of an entrepreneur, if so today’s episode is literally going to rock your world. Let’s get started.

Announcer: (00:50) The Funded Today podcast is brought to you by fundedtoday.com. Funded Today, is a premier marketing and video agency from start-ups to Crowdfunding, to Amazon and beyond. Funded Today has helped their clients generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. If you’d like help launching or growing your business visit www.fundedtoday.com to speak with one of their experts.

Zach Smith: (01:17) Welcome back to the show, I am Zach Smith.

Thomas Alvord: (01:20) And, I’m Thomas Alvord.

Zach Smith: (01:21) And just another quick reminder that you can still download our “Ultimate Crowdfunding Success Guide’’ at fundedtoday.com/guide. Now for today’s guest, she has such an amazing story. First off she’s been called a Kim Kardashian doppelganger, Tammy began her first business at the ripe old age of seven years old collecting golf balls, cleaning them and selling them back to prior owners, but her entrepreneurial drive did not stop there. She would sweeten cherries by dipping them into honey and sugar and selling them to older ladies around her neighborhood. I guess they just couldn’t resist her chutzpah at shameless audacity. She once served wine to Oprah herself became a master sales person at Salesforce for four years transition at LinkedIn for another six, all the while remaining the top 1% of the entire sales division of these massive companies, I guess we probably should have considered getting her in our company Thomas. But the entrepreneurial spirit called her back to starting her own business. Tammy Rant couldn’t find an easy comfortable way to carry her kids, traditional methods caused arm and back pain shifting her kids from hip to hip every few minutes. Strapping carriers were too complicated and wraps and sacks were too hot and sweaty. So Tammy created “TushBaby” an ergonomics safe strapless hip seat baby carrier. Together with Funded Today she raised over a $124,000 on Kickstarter over $100,000 more than her initial goal of just $10,000 and now here we are today, Tammy we are so excited to have you on the show, how are you doing?

Tammy Rant: (02:43) Thank you, I’m so excited to be here I’m doing great.

Zach Smith: (02:48) Very good, so glad to have you. What we want to do and we haven’t ever done this before, but I thought it would be pretty fun is I want to start out with three fun facts about you, and so the first thing we learned was you almost didn't graduate high school tell us a little but about that story?

Tammy Rant: (03:05) I was definitely a late bloomer academically, growing up I just never really cared it's kind of a weird thing that I have like from elementary school, all the way to mid high school to my sophomore year in high school I literally just didn’t want to learn, I didn’t care, I drove my parents absolutely crazy, they tested me for literally everything that you can imagine thinking like something was wrong, like why was I failing all my classes and I would pass the test but then I just didn’t like they’d send me home with homework I just didn’t do it, I just didn’t care. I don’t know I had no drive, and no motivation, like I didn’t care to go to college, I didn’t care about any of it, and I don’t know what happened but I’ve never heard of anyone else and I would love to know if this is happened to anybody, but I haven’t come across it yet that literally had a complete personality shift in their teens like I literally just became a different person in multiple different respects.

Zach Smith: (03:58) Fascinating.

Tammy Rant: (03:58) Well, one of them was academically and I just started caring. My grades were so low that I wasn’t going to graduate high school I had to I take summer classes to make up credit, I had to take college class to get extra credit during my junior and senior year, and I just, yes I just starting caring and applying myself extra and I won an award for going from the lowest to highest GPA overall.

Thomas Alvord: (04:17) Amazing.

Zach Smith: (04:21) Most Improved Student Award.

Tammy Rant: (04:21) Yes, and then I went onto UC Santa Barbara eventually, and Graduated Cum Laude there. So I like started I went from the extreme of not caring to like if I didn’t get straight A’s I was losing my mind. So, it's weird how I happened but then I became much more and type very miraculous and above every aspect of my life that is important so whether it be like trying to be the best student, or launching the best product it became a little bit of an obsession for me which can be dangerous but it seems that I’m either -- I can never be like middle ground I’m either like not carrying enough or like will care a 100% too much, so that’s kind of where I am at like ended up graduating obviously, and I never thought definitely my family all these we never thought I would ever be a CEO of a company things happen in weird ways right.

Zach Smith: (05:15) Yes, that’s very interesting, we talk a lot about “psychology and motivation” on this show and it sounds like you can’t seem to pinpoint why this change happen but it was sometime in your late teens.

Tammy Rant: (05:26) Yes, it happened probably about when I was 16 is when I started caring in and then it took me a long time to catchup like I had to work really hard because I didn’t learn very much in elementary school, middle school, and early high school I didn’t know a lot like from a fact said point or like knowing that their history and I just had to write like when I went into college I tested as English as a second language, even though it was first language when I went to -- yes it’s crazy but I learned and I like had to work extra hard to make up for all that lost time but I did it which is pretty cool.

Zach Smith: (06:03) So, I guess the takeaway is that you can change it doesn’t really matter when or where or why it definitely has to come from within at some point but even if you are bottom of the class I’m not going anywhere in life you can make the change.

Tammy Rant: (06:20) Yes, I literally was the least likely person in my family to be successful, I’m surrounded by Doctors and Lawyers and very smart family, it is very successful and I was the one that was like “God that’s so sad about Tammy like she is just I was least likely”.

Zach Smith: (06:35) Love it.

Tammy Rant: (06:37) It's weird how I worked out, so yes.

Zach Smith: (06:39) I love it, that’s very cool. All right fun fact number two, and this one kind of hits on with me because I am recently the owner of a Toy Goldendoddle so I’ve started to get a lot more into dogs then I have ever had been in my earlier life, you’re obsessed with French Bulldogs tell us a little bit about that?

Tammy Rant: (06:55) Yes I love -- I love all dogs.

Zach Smith: (06:57) Okay.

Tammy Rant: (06:58) But I have a soft spot short face Boston Terriers, French Bulldogs, but yes I was part of the French Bulldog Rescue Network for a while where I would take foster dogs I hope to do that again, when you know -- I don’t have three kids five and I have time to take care of another dog I have a French Bulldog right now. Moving forward I’ve learnt so much about the breeding process, and buying dogs I will always adopt and rescue a dog, I just love them so much I just like.

Zach Smith: (07:26) I think I saw some t-shirt that you wore once about a dog baby or multiple other something like that I forget what it was.

Tammy Rant: (07:31) I’ve had bulldog shirts I had and 1Zee’s for my kids with my dogs printed on them like that’s that a women’s problem.

Zach Smith: (07:41) Yes this obsession definitely goes a lot bigger than maybe some dog lovers I would say, so very cool.

Tammy Rant: (07:46) I’d love them they’re just so innocent and sweet and they always love you back, and they don’t question you, and they’re just the best that is the best grateful.

Zach Smith: (07:56) And hind side I’m kind of sad I never got a dog until 32-years old because I agree with you it's been a real nice experience and made me a little bit more softer kind of ironed out some of those rough, rough parts of me as an entrepreneur.

Tammy Rant: (08:09) Great.

Zach Smith: (08:10) So the last for you, your born in Scotland and this one kind of hits on with me as well, because my wife has ties to Scotland in terms of her genealogy so, you moved to the States California or when you were about four.

Tammy Rant: (08:20) Yes my outage from Scotland, my mom met my dad visiting Scotland, she ended up marrying him and having her kids there, so every three generations in my father’s family are all Scotland and my cousins are goldsmith there, and then my parents separated and we moved to where she was from, she is originally an immigrant, she was in Egypt but she moved here when she was eight to Dublin, California which is in the Bay Area, and so we moved back, and when they separated my mom raise three girls -- I have three girls now she raised three girls on her own. My dad has been definitely in our lives but he is in another country but he is definitely communicates with us pretty much daily and helped out a lot but he was in another country, so my mom did majority of it on her own.

Zach Smith: (09:09) Did you ever go back to Scotland or does he ever come to California?

Tammy Rant: (09:11) Oh! Yes my dad comes to couple of times a year -- we I used to go every year not twice but it has slowed down a lot like since having kids which is harder but I am going like actually this July to Scotland.

Zach Smith: (09:22) Oh! Good very cool.

Tammy Rant: (09:23) Yes, and I’m taking my eldest daughter with me she is five.

Zach Smith: (09:26) So you probably travelled a lot extensively considering I mean when you go to Europe usually you go to a lot of different places over there or?

Tammy Rant: (09:31) Yes, I mean as a kid I would go on my own I mean I was travelling to Scotland like I’m in airplane by myself when 17 years old, I would go there and it was just kind of limited to where ever my dad would take me, which was always within Scotland.

Zach Smith: (09:45) Yes.

Tammy Rant: (09:46) As I got older my sisters moved to London and then I would visit them and we would travel around a bit, so.

Zach Smith: (09:50) One of the most beautiful places in the world.

Tammy Rant: (09:55) Yes, we live in Glasgow which was it's very industrial, there are definitely some beautiful parts of Glasgow but I love Edinburgh -- there is lots of obviously historical buildings and castles, and lots of landmarks that are beautiful in Scotland so I definitely love to go.

Zach Smith: (10:13) Well it's all starting to add up now that we have done these little facts about you the whole idea of your entrepreneurial drive, how you created TushBaby, so what we want to do now is kind of what we did on the very first episode of our podcast Episode One tell us about your start, I know we kind of briefly talked about in the introduction but how did you get your start, how does TushBaby come to be, get us to the point of okay I’m going to raise money for this now, let’s do a Kickstarter campaign?

Tammy Rant: (10:41) So, when I was a little kid like you had mentioned before I was like had ideas for things but like didn’t have the motivation to do anything, and then my second daughter was about eight months old, she was getting really heavy, she wanted to be held all the time, like literally I put her down she start crying arms up up-me, up-me all the time, and I was thought myself carrying her on my hip everywhere I went, and my husband has a bad back and so it's hard for him to hold her for a long time but then we’d be like okay like brought the carrier so we are like fling out the carrier and then two minutes later she want up and you have to undo the whole thing and take it off, and I find myself putting the carrier on around the house, and like when I’m running into a store and it just take so long often like you need another person to buckle the back, and it just was hard to deal. And so along time just when we use it then I’ll be still struggling with the baby on my hip and holding like my arms could hold her and pulling her up and her hips are not align because her legs are dangling and I was just thinking that has to be a better way for this and I started searching for things and could not find anything. So, I was like whether there is just something underneath to hold her weight up on me, and then I came up with few different ideas and then I spoke with my sister-in-law and had her to start drawing up designs and then I started asking around people like I started reaching out to are there like baby products, like just asking how did you get started, how did you find manufactures, and how did you find out about like the regulations around babies and I just get advice from people that have done it and then send manufacture to them, and started sampling and that’s kind of where it all started. I knew that I was on to something because I couldn’t find the solution.

Zach Smith: (12:28) I love those stories it reminds me of the very first campaign we ever worked with at Funded Today, where “The RooSport 2.0” and same type of thing, she was a marathon runner, she didn’t want all of her stuff bouncing running up and down, she didn’t want to wear a fanny pack, she didn’t want to have other things like that and it seems like and this is probably a takeaway for all of our listeners at Funded Today Nation “invent something, that solves a problem that you’re dealing with, and it's solves like 90% of the problem right” I mean the rest of your story and we’ll talk about on this episode is a pretty huge success where because you invented something that was not out there that solved your personal problem it was also the problems for 1,000 of other people as well and so they resonated with what you had created to help them and their problem too.

Tammy Rant: (13:11) Right, well what actually happened was I started doing research on once we got to the prototypes done and started doing pattern research and found out hip seats in general actually did exist. Nobody knew about them, I couldn’t find one as a consumer for my girls so essentially didn’t exist to me like it didn’t exist to people that needed it because nobody knew, but they existed in other countries and so what I saw and at that point was a market opportunity to bring it to the United States be create a brand because there was no brand name that anybody knows that makes a hip seat or a bit most people know and then the third is that I perfected it. So everything that I could find was a hard styrofoam uncomfortable like seat that you put on that just bulky and heavy.

Zach Smith: (14:02) Well, I love the name to TushBaby like you immediately get the idea that this is going to be a soft thing, a tush it's like a very kind of saying like the bottom of the baby or something right?

Tammy Rant: (14:13) Yes right.

Zach Smith: (14:14) It builds soft and gushy and sweet and how did you come up with that name?

Tammy Rant: (14:18) We actually wanted to be “hip baby” because like hip baby or your baby cool baby and.

Zach Smith: (14:24) Well that’s cool.

Tammy Rant: (14:23) I loved it but then we ran into some trademarking like we were going trademark search and found out that there was other baby carrier using parts of the weren’t enough that could be confused. So, we started brainstorming and a big part of choose you have find a website domain it's available for the name as well. So we had all the code names for the website domain doesn’t exist like it's already there and we can’t buy it so Tush was one that came up and originally I was like let just call it Tush, tush.com or we can call it tushy.com, well don’t go to any of those websites. We were like let’s throw a baby on there and see a “TushBaby” happen to be available so that’s how we came up with name and back to how we perfected it like we saw that there was a problem with the existing ones even though no one of the problem that nobody has or knew about them but the second is that you when you’re carrying your baby you’re also carrying a diaper bag, or a purse of something else because you always like you have stuff with you, with the baby diapers and wipes, food, pass so that’s when we came up with putting storage in it like underneath the seat instead of a bulky insert you can actually store diapers and wipes you put extra pockets on the sides, did a lot of market research.

Zach Smith: (15:42) And I want to talk about that for a second too because I love how you did that, this isn’t just hip seat for your baby you’ve integrated some other key components to eliminate the need for a diaper bag or a purse or some of the other things a mother or father carrying around their baby would have deal with and you’ve made them easily accessible which was a great way to we’ll just call it accessorize and already really good invention to make it even more valuable and more useful and take advantage of things that probably didn’t add too much of the cost of the product but made it even more functional and able to kind of remove some of the things that you normally have to carry around which I thought was brilliant as well.

Tammy Rant: (16:17) Well thank you. I have three kids and I’ve tried every product you could imagine and the baby carriers even the strapped ones it's I think they’re starting to do it now, but never had I seen anything where you could carry I mean like this should always have been like a pocket on the strap at least so you can bring your keys like you are going to the park, and you bring your keys in your wallet or whatever you need, but little the advantage of having hip seaters or is it kind of storage under the seat where you can bring so much more well -- at least in ours when as we created a storage.

Zach Smith: (16:49) I like the idea of the way you and talk about this a lot and I’m not a medical professional or anything but explain the idea of the ergonomic position of why is this is the best way to carry your child?

Tammy Rant: (16:59) Well, there is a couple of reasons both that benefit the parent and the baby, but for the adult first when you stand holding a baby without it on your hip people will be like “Oh! I have hips, that’s why hips are for” but it's really bad for your body when you’re holding them on the way of your hip you tend to slip to the opposite side, and put the weight on the opposing hip, and it's really bad for your spine and it can cause long-term problems it can also like my cofounder -- she is the cofounder now but she -- we partnered up during my Kickstarter actually, she found in and pinged me but that’s a whole other story, she had carpal tunnels from carrying her kid, so there was lot of health associated issues with your children and it helps with TushBaby you can stand with a proper alignment, you can stand straight without having to pop out your hip, and it evenly distributes the weight and absorbs some of it, so you’re not carrying all that weight on your body, and then for the baby when you carry your baby on your hip or in some carriers which is why is why you have to be careful their legs are dangling often they like they basically the hip must be parallel with the knee so the thigh should be like a straight position parallel between the knee and the hip. When they’re hanging down that’s not proper hip placement or placement with the alignment so you’ll see a lot in carriers now a lot of them have become a lot more conscious of that and meet their carrier that they are ergonomically sounds that the babies legs are in the correct position, especially for bad hip dysplasia for the child that already has it, it can make a whole lot worse.

Zach Smith: (18:35) Do you ever had a trouble with a like a wriggling child or child that’s like trying to kickback or something I know sometimes like when I carry my puppy it will kind of stick it legs out and kind of push away from me?

Tammy Rant: (18:48) It happen but when it's your own kid -- for me like I’m always carrying my baby she asks for pick it up I have some stored like videos of it, on the Instagram she’ll go find it and bring it and TushBaby, TushBaby, she loves to sit on it, so and my kids when I put it on they start fighting over who gets to go on it they love it they want to makes their not and that’s where I came from majority of our customers, but it does happen from time-to-time where a baby doesn’t like some babies don’t like full strapping carriers and a lot of them TushBaby and they love that it's a solution for those children. And vice versa there are some kids that might not want to sit on it it's very rare but.

Zach Smith: (19:23) Its soft right it's like a memory foam type of seat there.

Tammy Rant: (19:25) It's kind of memory foam on the top, I mean it's hard underneath that to support the weight of the baby. The times when it's I’ve seen kids they don’t want to be hugged by that person not necessarily.

Zach Smith: (19:35) That makes sense?

Tammy Rant: (19:37) TushBaby, so on Shark Tank we handed this baby over to a stranger and the baby.

Zach Smith: (19:41) Was it mister wonderful?

Tammy Rant: (19:45) It was Robert, so we gave it Robert and the baby was kind of pushing off like I don’t want to be with you, and I was like oh great this is it but so then I can (audio dip) we had two babies out there and I brought a friend of a friends baby because my baby is not chill, and I was like this baby will go to anyone I mean sure it will be fine, that wouldn’t go to him, so then we gave him my baby and my baby was totally fine, and of course you didn’t show that part they just showed the part of the other baby.

Zach Smith: (20:11) Yes good old TV editing. Well let’s talk about this for a sec, you’re story is really interesting and we’re going to talk about Kickstarter some of the tips and tricks and takeaways that you had from there, but you actually and correct me if I’m wrong, you applied to Shark Tank and kind of got an 11th Hour, you’re on the show like you’ve thought you were out of it and then you weren’t and when you learned you were on the show you hadn’t really sold TushBaby or done anything and you said well let’s figure out how to make some money because I know if I go on to the show and I don’t have sales and I don’t have some data, then the chances of me being able to impress the Sharks are going to be a little bit difficult am I telling that story right?

Tammy Rant: (20:51) Yes, that’s right I had applied to Shark Tank and I didn’t hear anything back and four or five months later they called me, out of the blue while I was in bed sick with Hyperemesis Gravidarum I might be pronouncing it wrong it's called HG.

Zach Smith: (21:06) Throwing up all the time nausea.

Tammy Rant: (21:09) Yes, 20 times a day I had a pump in my stomach, I was on bedrest, that’s when they called me back.

Zach Smith: (21:15) Pregnant too right. Pregnant I mean at the time.

Tammy Rant: (21:16) Yes I was pregnant, and that’s what it caused it, they said we need an audition video and I was like Oh! My God how am I’m going to do this, I had someone come over and do my makeup and my hair I had my sister will writing script and I found a videographer, and we just I had one day where we did it and I pretended to be okay on camera and then we cut and throw up -- Oh! Sorry that was the Kickstarter video but the audition video, no hair makeup, I looked awful I seriously can’t believe that I made it through that video.

Zach Smith: (21:45) So, that’s the strategy then gave yourself the raw craze, look at me I’m going to be good for TV type thing.

Tammy Rant: (21:51) Yes, maybe I mean the first the first video I was okay and then we had to add some to the addition video on the second time I looked terrible because I was sick up throwing up between takes but we got it in and we got through and but they don’t really tell you until right before like literally I didn’t get the green light that I was recording till two weeks before, but I knew we were progressing, like I knew every time I talked to the producers it was okay we’re going to talk again must be connected whatever however many weeks couple of weeks but they never really you status but I knew things were moving, and I knew that if walked into Shark Tank with zero sales I was going to get eating alive so I thought I mean to do a Kickstarter campaign, and also I was going to eventually do that anyway because that’s how I could bring my products to market I needed the money, I needed to raise fund so I can produce it so it just lit the fire under me to get it done a lot faster. Yes, when I had and launch the Kickstarter literally from the moment I decided to do the Kickstarter to the daily hits that met was less than four weeks.

Zach Smith: (22:53) That’s impressive, that’s impressive in and it of itself.

Tammy Rant: (22:55) I mean it was rushed which unfortunately it feels like everything I do is rushed, it's always whether it will be we’re about to sellout TushBaby’s and we are trying to get manufacture done faster, and like we’re always in hurry like needing things done and it just kick that bassinette which is probably my fault but in this case it was just yes we’ve got to put this together and we need to make it go.

Zach Smith: (23:14) Well, let me give you a little positivity because you actually might be on to something the famous General Patton George Patton said “a good plan violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan executed next week”. So, maybe by you doing everything that you’re doing and always feeling rush, you’re taking massive action which is better than hoping everything is going -- the stars are going to line and then launching and maybe that is a little bit of the reason why you’ve had such good success so quickly.

Tammy Rant: (23:42) Thank you and hopefully you it has to really do with the details, it's hard so if that is helping me in anyway so that’s a good thing.

Zach Smith: (23:50) We could even learn from you, launching in four weeks is fast, I don’t think we’ve ever been able to launch a Kickstarter campaign faster than maybe five or six weeks in terms of the filming the video, getting the page design, all I mean there is a lot of components to getting a good Kickstarter setup as well, but I’m sure that I’m sure you could talk about so.

Tammy Rant: (24:02) Right, yes it was actually three and half weeks so.

Zach Smith: (24:06) Great.

Tammy Rant: (24:07) So.

Zach Smith: (24:07) Yes, that impressive.

Tammy Rant: (24:10) Yes and you guys were a big help to that because.

Zach Smith: (24:12) No, I was going to ask you yes what’s it like working with Funded Today, I know you worked with Shannon, one of our Client Specialist.

Tammy Rant: (24:17) I love Shannon, she is so great.

Zach Smith: (24:18) She is great.

Tammy Rant: (24:20) What was so helpful was when I was putting together if I had the time I would said but shoot the video with you guys, have you guys do all the copywriting, but I didn’t have time at point to do that we’d already shot the video when I talked to Shannon, but we were in editing and I started realizing, you guys sent me some tools I was like what makes the successful campaign and what they like in the videos and so we edit it in a way to make sure we hit those but it's luckily we had recorded most of those, but had I before I might have done things little differently to make it even better but it helps so much and helped with the copywriting I mean edits we made and like for reward levels and it was just so, so helpful, it was an amazing experience working with Funded Today because I talk to other people, I actually have a friend who is launching a Kickstarter and they signed with a different company that does something similar to you, and had an awful experience and she is launching in a couple of weeks and I just switched over to Funded Today I won’t mention her name because I don’t know if it’s okay.

Zach Smith: (25:17) Very cool 

Tammy Rant: (25:17) Sure, I’ll tell you who she is later but she switched over to you guys last week and she is getting ready to launch and just because her experience is so bad I was like you got to go to Funded Today because you guys kept me in a loop with everything, we had an ongoing communication and you were proactive and reached out to me, and I never felt like I didn’t know what was going on which was her biggest problem and she doesn’t care for them to respond, she doesn’t know what’s going on.

Zach Smith: (25:41) I mean it be kind of crazy right, how long did you run your campaign for you can run anywhere between like 30 and 60 days.

Tammy Rant:  (25:46) 30 days.

Zach Smith: (25:46) 30 days, yes so fast one, I mean that’s a lot of time even 30 days to kind of look at things day-to-day I mean you’re kind of fully invested in this idea are people coming to my idea, are people backing it, tell us what that kind of looks like for that 30 days of craziness I guess you could call it?

Tammy Rant: (26:03) Well I had to do 30 days because I spoke to Spark Tank seven days after it ended I knew that I had to be done with it and like know my numbers before I walk in there, but yes that 30 days it’s tough -- the first day you put it out then you’re like okay like you just submit, and like post on social media and ask all your friends and family to do it and you just kind of watching the sales come in, and they’re all basically like the family but then you realize that your network only extends so far and you could have the best campaign in the world but “if you look at the eyeballs on it it’s not going to be successful”.

Zach Smith: (26:35) Well I love what you said there too so you started with your network and you leveraged the people that you knew to help you bring this thing to life and then your network was exhausted now what?

Tammy Rant: (26:44) Well that’s where Funded Today came in so you guys were putting ads in front of people and getting me a lot of sales that way so you were promoting it on social. I could track my sales so I kind of watch it on a daily basis and see like this is how many sales I got today from Funded Today and this is how many we’re not through Funded Today, not was everyday it's more and then eventually just became only but it's getting sales through Funded Today and then a couple of media outlets picked us up.

Zach Smith: (27:13) Daily Mail Post kind of started it all off.

Tammy Rant: (27:13) Right Daily Mail Post they shared it and then it kind of went from there like it went good housekeeping, Cheddar, Insider, Fatherly, Women’s Day, Redbook like it just goes on there were so many media outlets where it’s was going viral, it got over 70 million views, so that obviously really helped the campaign be successful just getting that visibility to it, but yes it’s kind of combination of things too I mean even before it went viral we were doing really well from what was going on from the ads that were been.

Zach Smith: (27:49) That’s kind of what we found happens, you have a successful campaign and then you reach certain metrics or a tipping point and then all of the different things that you have done to build it up to that point lead to that virality for a little bit because of what you did to create it so it’s not like virality just happens organically, virality happens because of all the hard work which you put in beforehand.

Tammy Rant: (28:10) Yes.

Zach Smith: (28:11) Tell us a little bit about what you learned from your Kickstarter, whether its “man shipping is crazy, or I wish I would have done this” or any tips, tricks, takeaways you have for somebody who is thinking of doing the Kickstarter campaign and they want to what you did I mean you’re among the top 1% of all Kickstarter campaigns ever launched in terms of how much you raised and then when you factoring the virality and then to top it all off with a Shark Tank success story I’d say most people wish they were you, so why shouldn’t they wish they were you or, why should they wish they were you or what are some things you would offer to somebody who is hoping to do similarly?

Tammy Rant: (28:44) Gosh invites for Kickstarter I would say do a lot of research before some of the things I wish I had the time to deal was some sort of Lead Generation Campaign with Funded Today where you guys helped me before I launched have a list of people that were interested, and that way the moment we launched we would have had that much more sales right away which can be hugely impactful just for the overall growth of the campaign, if I had had the time to do that I would have done that. The other thing to watch out for is that you can get copycats when it did go viral we got a lot of obviously with the 70 million views. Manufactures oversees it just kind of lookout on the Internet and they didn’t know that was necessary to Kickstarter or just the fact that for posting it, but they find something that’s successful copy and since then about with 35 ever so have shown up on Amazon, and they’re starting like retarget our name on social, and they’re selling a knock up and they use our videos and then they say buy here and you buy it and you think you’re getting a Tushbaby and you get this the cheap bulky foam into one that aren’t Safety Certified and aren’t tested for chemicals, and so it can be dangerous and it’s also just you know.

Zach Smith: (29:56) Have you been able to fight that at all?

Tammy Rant: (29:58) A bit I had several removed -- I’ve had several removed but each one it’s a long process so some of them are there, I even worked the time because they’re not so much but the ones that are doing well because they’re really savvy when it comes to ad target using videos all that those are the ones and they’re infringing on our IP I definitely report them and go after them, but it’s literally like at least one a day that infringes, then the ad gets removed and then they just redo it and then if the page gets ticking down then they create a new page, so they were relentless, it’s a whole job in itself to go after and, so did it on the Kickstarter that’s just any successful product thing.

Zach Smith: (30:33) It’s something you have to face, do you think having patents or patent pendings or anything like that helps or?

Tammy Rant: (30:39) It’s tough I mean it depends on what they infringe on we have multiple design patents pending right now, if they made it look exactly like Tushbaby and had our logo on it that would be an easy thing to go after but when it looks different enough but that’s hard to go after, but when they’re using our video and it looks similar or even different that’s something we can’t go after, and then with the utility patent stats we have pending one so until that is that become specific thing that we change until that is a privilege not much we can do until they start copying that, but it’s definitely a problem and it’s a problem I can hear from a I mean a group of Shark Tank people like all other companies that were on Shark Tank and we communicate often and it’s a lot of -- almost all of them have had the issue with infringement IP and probably.

Zach Smith: (31:28) Probably being on the show and exposing that to millions and more people that makes the problem even bigger.

Tammy Rant: (31:34) Definitely.

Zach Smith: (31:35) Interesting.

Tammy Rant: (31:36) Definitely, definitely.

Zach Smith: (31:36) What about shipping I mean you have a really successful campaign, you’ve got people all over the world that have purchased your Tushbaby, is it difficult to figure out logistics I mean you are not Amazon you’re a brand new entrepreneur who started this amazing business how do you handle logistics, supply chain all I mean we never talk about this on the show but I kind of wanted to bring it up with you because I’m sure you’ve dealt with a lot of that by now?

Tammy Rant: (31:57) Yes I mean when I started this I knew nothing, like nothing and I still I am learning everyday but I knew nothing about how to ship a product, or how to package it or what labels it means, and what like I didn’t know any of it. And I learned so much since then I found fulfilment center that was shipping it and actually I was really unhappy with them for various reasons that I won’t get into and ended up moving to a new fulfilment center who is amazing, but what they do is they pack and pick it, so every time we’re getting order on our website it automatically triggers it to the fulfilment center who will pick it the same day, put it in the box and ship it out and they charge us a fee for doing that but then you get discounts on the actual shipping cost.

Zach Smith: (32:38) Very nice.

Tammy Rant: (32:39) but it comes out about the --do it myself but in the volumes that we’re selling like there is no possible way, I could do it myself I mean that’s something that I couldn’t have a business without so.

Zach Smith: (32:51) And now you got to focus on the more important and more fun aspects of your business anyway when you have somebody handling that side of things.

Tammy Rant: (32:59) I already have the time I can’t imagine dealing with shipping that would it’s a job in itself and more than a 1% job.

Zach Smith: (33:05) So, who did you find do you mind saying who it is do you like using?

Tammy Rant: (33:08) Yes, they’re called Deliverr, D-E-L-I-V-E-R-R so two RR's and the cool thing about them I have free two day shipping on all orders on my website.

Zach Smith: (33:18) So, you are -- so you did figure out the Amazon thing?

Tammy Rant: (33:22) I somewhat they’re models very much like Amazon and they have the ability to get really good rates for two day shipping so I’m paying for two day shipping what I would at any other fulfillment center for ground maybe even less, yes I’m able to get it out in two days.

Zach Smith: (33:37) And was it just a connection you found through trail and air research connecting with people on Shark Tank?

Tammy Rant: (33:41) They actually reached out to me and, and then and since then it’s down like a lot of other companies that are using them, yes they’re definitely racket ball they’re growing their newer company but they’re growing really quickly and have some really cool programs and things that they do, so I’m very excited to have them and have found them and they’re really good too like they’re reliable if you get orders they ship out the same day every time. As long as it’s before certain time a day they guarantee that they’ll ship out that day and it always does and they have a really good interface so you can see what’s already shipped and what’s delivered and what’s in progress, and when it will arrive without having a quick and tracking numbers it’s all right there it’s really cool.

Zach Smith: (34:17) Yes that’s awesome, that’s a good resource for our listeners because I think we can ask that question quite a bit so thanks for sharing on that one.

Tammy Rant: (34:23) No problem.

Zach Smith: (34:24) Alright now if I can switch gear just a little bit let’s talk about Shark Tank. You were going to be on Shark Tank you had a really successful Kickstarter, millions of people have heard about your products but now you have an amazing story to tell when you get into the Tank what happens? Give us the Shark Tank experience and along the way kind of share I wish I would have done this, I wish I would not have done this, and maybe that sort of thing and of course let’s talk about the magic of TV and how it only is about a 10 minute episode, but you’re probably were talking to for 45 minutes to an hour and all the editing and all the stuff that happens with Shark Tank, because I think a lot of people think Shark Tank is this reality TV but reality TV is not really reality it’s still quite a bit different so as much as you’re at liberty to talk about we love to hear and I think you will probably get a lot of our listeners following up with you to ask about Shark Tank, because I think it's an exciting thing, it’s one of the most popular shows on TV and it’s been running for a long time?

Tammy Rant: (35:20) Yes that’s definitely number one question it's about Shark Tank it is such an experience I mean it was so cool, and it's still like one of the best experiences that I’ve had in my life, I had a lot of fun and a lot of anxiety, and I was still very sick in my pregnancy I wasn’t as bad as I was early on but I was still like I threw up right before I went out there. It was very scary like I just was shaking the whole thing the you see I'm show you walkout.

Zach Smith: (35:47) You didn’t seem that nervous, you seemed confident like when I watched it did you memorize that pitch?

Tammy Rant: (35:52) I did memorize the pitch I came out there like which you could kind of tell in my voice when I’m doing the pitch that I’m shaking once the pitch was over I felt much better, a lot of the nerve that the anticipation will lead up to it, and then once and like any public speaking that you do.

Zach Smith: (36:06) Oh yes

Tammy Rant: (36:07) You do it’s always so lath or but then once you’re doing it you’re like, you’re okay.

Zach Smith: (36:11) And now they’re filming you seven days after your Kickstarter is over and then when did the episode air after that?

Tammy Rant: (36:17) January 6th, so they filmed me in June of 2018 so it’s been almost a year and then they aired it in January, and that’s a thing so you don’t know if you’re even going to air so even you don’t know you can fly out there and you -- oh! Yes I to film but then you don’t know if it’s going to air or not, I met a couple other people onset didn’t air.

Zach Smith: (36:38) And did they get a deal to people like that get deals sometimes even though they don’t air?

Tammy Rant: (36:41) They can -- yes, you can make a different it's still not air yes.

Zach Smith: (36:44) Oh! Interesting very cool

Tammy Rant: (36:46) And so I just didn’t know what was going to happen so all of it was just, so much of work to get there doing the Kickstarter like really accelerating my business and launching much faster than I was anticipating. Although pregnant and working a fulltime job other than this so it was a lot and I was, I just so wanted it to air because it was if it didn’t it was like everything felt like it was for nothing other than a learning experience which is not discounted but I really wanted did -- obviously to air.

Zach Smith: (37:14) What do you think made your episode air that others maybe don’t air because of?

Tammy Rant: (37:18) I think mine was pretty dramatic in the sense that like I wasn’t answering them as quickly as they wanted they backed out, what they didn’t show is Lori said she wasn’t going to make an offer and then I talked her into it.

Zach Smith: (37:31) Oh! Nice, there is some negotiation skills there too that they left out they didn’t want to show you dominating The Sharks with some negotiation talent?

Tammy Rant: (37:39) Pretty sure we’re staying there like for those reasons it’s just too early for me so I guess she didn’t actually say she was out, but there is a longer conversation around that didn’t all get shown but they did show the piece and she said that but, but it just was really nerve-wracking and scary, and you know that it can either make or break your business. So if I walked on there and they said this is a horrible idea it’s terrible like that can ruin your business so I was scared I was hoping that they would object more actually, I wanted them to say why does it have strap so that I can explain it like straps are great for certain situations but there is many of that’s it not grateful I wanted them to say what age ranges can you use it for.

Zach Smith: (38:21) I love that you wanted that because there is a negotiation tactic where you want somebody to say no a bunch a times so that you can get them pass those objections to yes and then there is nothing else that they can object with so it’s interesting you thought that way a kind of fascinating.

Tammy Rant: (38:34) Well I want them to do it for a negotiation so that I could address any concern they had but I also figured that viewers to hear it, because all things I’m sure they were thinking why don’t you just carry them on your hip like why and then I could explain the benefits to you.

Zach Smith: (38:47) But they were sold, I mean they were sold on your idea, pretty much Daymond John was like yes $200,000 10% let’s do it right was it that quick.

Tammy Rant: (38:53) Yes those offers came very fast which was part of the reason why I didn’t answer them right away and that’s what it was a little misleading is its without going to saying too much it’s like there a lot happened before and it was why aren’t you take this offer but I knew that we needed more time in there to have a show.

Zach Smith: (39:12) Wow, that makes sense, so you know you had to build up some more drama and create some more interest in there.

Tammy Rant: (39:16) Not necessary like more drama I just knew that if I walked in there and I did my pitch and then I accept an offer right away it probably wouldn’t air because nothing there wasn’t a very much.

Zach Smith: (39:25) That’s a smart takeaway I love that.

Tammy Rant: (39:27) I just, I felt like I need more time and also did want to hear from Lori who is the who I wanted to partner with it was pretty obvious on the show it wasn’t that I didn’t want to partner with the other two, I definitely would have love to make deal with them, but I wanted to hear what Lori said because based on my research she seemed like the best fit for me it was a very risky move and if I hadn’t got an offer from her, I would have looked really stupid and I would have been really upset with myself.

Zach Smith: (39:52) Oh! Is it as dramatic as it seemed or you potentially not going to get an offer there.

Tammy Rant: (39:56) Oh! It was very dramatic and when she made the offer I was little relieved and I honestly like with all the offers laid on the table even if they had it backed go I still would have taken that offer, and people think maybe that’s stupid I gave up 10 more percent for the same price but I really felt like she was the strategic partner that would get us to where we need to be -- where may they have less ownership and less of the pie, but if it’s a bigger pie it still equals more and I just thought she was the one to get the bigger pie.

Zach Smith: (40:26) Shameless self-promotion for Funded Today but I love how you took that deal and said that Daymond John deal because like you said there is a lot of other agencies out there, it sounds like your friend hired one that maybe is so particular, but there is agencies that will do that, they will be like 5%, 10% we’ll make it happen and obviously Funded Today charges 20% to 35% in that range, but you get what you pay for sometimes and if you’re trying to target the right strategic partner like you did with Lori it can sometimes make all the difference for your business, so I think it was smart for you when I watched the episode I knew what you were doing and I wasn’t necessarily fooled by the TV magic so I thought it was great.

Tammy Rant: (41:00) Well, thank you yes and I was saying I heard a lot of amazing things about Daymond and I know so much more now when I did that in this network with Shark Tank people and knowing what I know now I don’t regret at the time I still would have taken that deal with Lori but I will say that I’ve heard amazing things about the other two as well so I mainly not wouldn’t have put so much emphasis on having to have her if I were to go back but I don’t regret it.

Zach Smith: (41:24) Yes that makes sense. I was actually going to ask that what would you do differently, what do you regret, what do you -- would you do Shark Tank again if you could do it all again would you get on the show again?

Tammy Rant: (41:32) Yes, I would, if I was launching a new product I would definitely -- it’s a great experience, it’s great to have a partner with the Shark it’s a great complexity but it would be, it’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of stress but obviously if I had the opportunity to do it again yes I would definitely do it again.

Zach Smith: (41:51) And then what I was wondering can you do it again, it’s an interesting thought have there ever been somebody who has been on the show a couple of times for different inventions?

Tammy Rant: (41:58) One of the guys actually filmed with he lives down the street from me ironically I met him on the set and he had been on it before, he just aired a couple of weeks ago and he has a motorized like buggy board type called time mirror board and he was on it and they told him the first time he was on it, it was the worst pitch they’d ever seen or get a good cargo experience and he went back on totally redeemed themselves got an amazing deal with Robert they gave him even more money than he asked for, for the same kind of equity so he did really well. There’s a couple that, there’s another one that came back, there was one guy that was on three times for he is like -- like wine business and each time they like hated him so much.

Zach Smith: (42:42) All three times.

Tammy Rant: (42:45) He then loved his

Zach Smith: (42:47) Now you know the answers to all of these questions because and again tell me if I’m wrong but you watched every single episode of Shark Tank and you did that before you jumped on the show so you could kind of see what you’re in for.

Tammy Rant: (42:58) Yes, so I -- when I was in bed sick with hyperemesis gravidarum I was on bedrest and I wasn’t working at the time because I was so sick so yes I just started doing research, I started watching from the beginning I already watched them, I was obsessed with Shark Tank I told my husband 10 years ago I’m going to be on that show one day and he didn’t really actually believed it but I was like I just need a product that I could be on the show, I just started watch them and saw a lot of them I already seen but I started taking notes and writing down every single question that the Shark asked, so that when I went in I could be prepared for every question that I ever seen on the air I’d be ready with an answer to whatever it was they’re going ask.

Zach Smith: (43:34) Do you believe in the idea that I mean it sounds like you said this a long time ago I’m going to be on that show one day, I’ve heard that from a successful entrepreneurs where they said I’m going to do this one day, I’m going to have this one day, do you believe in that sort of mindset thing and then mind over matter and it eventually happens because at first you thought it.

Tammy Rant: (43:51) I think if you keep your goal in your head and you work towards it, it happens, I don’t think you can just like imagine something and it’s going to happen because you keep thinking about it, you have to get stuff as well but I think staying positive is a really big part of it I do believe in the secret they call secret that positivity really like it sets the way the process happens and I think that I mean you have to back it up with the work to you.

Zach Smith: (44:19) I love that, that’s great.

Tammy Rant: (44:20) It was like obviously I could say all day I want to be on Shark Tank but if I work it creating a product and launching a business I’m not going to be on it, but it is funny, it is ironic how many times I talked about that I was going to be on Shark Tank and that it actually happened, and in my head I never actually believed I would be on Shark Tank but I really wanted to be.

Zach Smith: (44:38) I was probably a lot like you even more so like you can’t just think something, you have to go about and do it but the older I get I’m kind of more inclined to believe the secret as well you think it, you think it because you’re always thinking, because you have all those positive thoughts, those positive thoughts leads to positive action and before you know what everything you ever thought you want it you have so I agree.

Thomas Alvord: (44:59) So what’s interesting is you said you want it to be on it and at the end of the day I think that’s all that ever matters, if somebody want something bad enough don’t do and not that like that’s how you thought about or you cared about but like you wanted to do so you did it right, if you didn’t want you probably never would have been on it even if you still had your successful business and everything and I think and I love what you said I didn’t believe I’d ever be on it but I wanted to be on it and I believe maybe the most important thing even more than belief is what right, even if you don’t believe you can do something if you want it really will happen and so that’s awesome that you did get on.

Zach Smith: (45:44) Yes, I think that’s such a powerful takeaway. Anything else you want to share about Shark Tank your experience there Tammy?

Tammy Rant: (45:50) What I would say is like if there is anyone out there listening that wants to create a product or thinking about doing a campaign but he’s been doubting it and just like it feels like they can’t do it and they don’t know enough they just have done it before I really encourage you to do it because I didn’t know anything and I’m not some like, I’m not some special, not as like thinking bad about myself like I’m proud of myself but I don’t have anything different than anybody else out there that has an idea that’s good that it wants to do something other than that fact that I just did it so I just encourage everybody to just like know that it’s going to be a lot of work, know that it’s hard and you have a lot to learn, but just not reaching out to people that have done it like learn about what they’ve done, even you might find out that maybe it’s not the best idea to do it don’t just because -- but at least explore it and just start the process because if you don’t then nothing is ever going to happen with it. At the very worst case scenario it's the most amazing learning experience you could ever have “I always tell my husband I pray that TushBaby like really takes off I mean it has in a sense but I hope it becomes this huge, huge company one day, and then we become very successful and my husband can retire” I hope that, but if it fails miserably the worst thing that happen is I learned more in this experience than I could have bought like going to get my MBA.

Zach Smith: (47:19) It’s funny you say that too because Thomas and I say that so much just do it, the whole “Nike Maxim” always seems to we lookback at all of the success that we’ve had and it’s really because we decided to do it and then we did it and we executed quickly and probably made a $100,000 mistakes along the way ,but we did it and your story sounds very similar to ours but we didn’t really think we were anything special but we did it, we got better and better, we became better and better at it and overtime here we are today just like here you are today and look at what you’ve learned and look at what you’ve gained from, and like you said it's so much more valuable than an MBA or going to college again and doing things what you learn as an entrepreneur I think “it's like the ultimate school to be a business owner”.

Tammy Rant: (48:02) It’s incredible I mean and not just -- but if I had an MBA I probably would have made a lot less mistakes along the way but don’t think of getting to the same point it’s a different road.

Thomas Alvord: (48:14) Yes, but I wonder if you actually had an MBA if you never would have done this I mean Zach and I actually like people who are not dumb meaning they like at least do the work, because sometimes when you have a degree it’s all everything becomes so intellectual and they actually don’t know how to work?

Zach Smith: (48:32) Or you analyze things so much that you faced analysis paralysis and you’re like well if I do this there is going to be a new copycat every day and this is going to happen and this is going to happen and you know what I mean you might over analyze and then you never take action then you never have this amazing experience and this great company.

Tammy Rant: (48:47) Yes definitely impossible, definitely.

Zach Smith: (48:50) Well, Tammy last thing I want to do and I know we talked about this a little bit before the episode but do you have something that resonates with you some sort of “quote or maxim or principle that you live” by it doesn’t have to be business related but what would you want people who are listening this episode to know that you think might impact their life positively.

Tammy Rant: (49:10) Something that I live by and I trying to teach my kids to live by is “Do unto others as you would want to do unto you” so treat people the way you want to be treated, be good, go good things I really believe in Karma I like really I know that like some people would be like yes definitely and some people are quite rolling their eyes but I like every single time I’m like okay I’m going to just do this good thing like when I could make some money there help someone in a way that I just know I’m not going to charge you I want to help you it always and I don’t do it for this reason, but I always like to see a return on that like immediately like that’s because it you know like it’s just like it’s the weirdest thing like we started donating products to people with disabled children, special needs families.

Zach Smith: (49:56) And I love how you’re doing that with your product, you’ve kind of found a special little market for, Specially Need Children who the TushBaby really, really resonates with.

Tammy Rant: (50:04) Yes and it really like it’s such that late walkers and people like can’t carry their kids, and do you have all these extra medical expenses like they need something I’ll carry their kid and they have to spend more money it's like I just generally want to help people, and we started donating and the day I decided to do that something crazy happened to me where I like ended up coming into some money that I was not a ton but like enough there was just gave away the amount and then it just like literally in my personal life received a money like it was weird so.

Zach Smith: (50:36) Love it.

Tammy Rant: (50:36) I just like to see a connection with being good and having a comeback and likewise being bad and it’s just like I just really feel like I try to look at situations and things like how would I want someone handle it if they were me that I was on the opposite end and I try to do that and also try to provide the best possible customer service and do everything I can to keep my customers happy, and in my personal life too just like not so and I always didn’t make the right choices or be the best or I’m the best like I try to like keep that in the back of my head when I’m going for situation then I try to teach that to my kid, my kids.

Zach Smith: (51:13) I love it, I mean it's the “Golden Rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you” thousands of years old and anytime you can find a maxim or a truism that has lasted that long it must be meaningful and you know it must work so, that’s powerful, thanks for sharing.

Tammy Rant: (51:28) Well, thank you for having me.

Zach Smith: (51:29) Yes we had so much fun having you on the show today, before you go we have this little segment of our show called The Funded Today products of the week segment and since you’re a very special guest I’d love for you to make TushBaby the product of the week and then Thomas and I will share our products of the week as well, so Tammy TushBaby where can listeners learn about it, what’s your website.

Tammy Rant: (51:52) tushbaby.com or we’re also on Amazon for anybody out there who has children that like to be held or just if at any situations where you need an easy on/off situation you don’t want your baby strap dangling to your chest and hot cumbersome carrier we’ve got the solution for easy click hip carrying comfortably carry your kids and all your things, yes I would love anybody’s feedback, I would love, love you to checkout TushBaby and try it out, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised it's one of those things that you never maybe need it until you started using it and then you can’t go without it.

Thomas Alvord: (52:29) Now Zach let me a second what she just said and we haven’t done this before but I’m going to actually have the TushBaby be my product of the week. So, I actually backed and pledged for a TushBaby as well and I typically don’t I think I maybe back three or four campaigns total, you’d think I would have backed more right where we’ve worked with over 3,000 campaigns, but I did back and my brother who also works at Funded Today he had got in I think three or four like one for me and then for a couple of other of my sibling who are married and have kids, and we were at the Salt Lake Zoo two days ago, and my kid right now my youngest kid he is a year and a couple of months and he is a daddy’s boy and he always wants me to carry him right, the story you were sharing earlier where your kid when not that you set them down and they would just cry if you didn’t that’s exactly how my kid is, and I legitimately I actually turn to my brother Tevin and I said we forgot to bring the TushBaby, I need the TushBaby right now. So, it really is an awesome product.

Tammy Rant: (53:43) Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Zach Smith: (53:46) I’ll have to get myself a TushBaby too my wife is pregnant in her second trimester so I will soon be a father as well so.

Tammy Rant: (53:54) Congratulations that’s so exciting.

Zach Smith: (53:55) Thank you. And my product of the week will be Tammock that’s T-A-M-M-O-C-K. This is a free standing hammock tent how when you’re out camping and you can’t find two trees that are close enough together to setup your hammock Tammock solves that problem, they love to adventure outdoors, they love hammocks but traditional hammocks are limited and this hammock is pretty cool picture I think Tammock comes from tent and hammock I think they combine the word together so you’ve got a tent, you’ve got a hammock and you can set this thing up anywhere there Kickstarter is live there is only a week left on it, it looks pretty amazing “picture your hammock right at the edge of the beach or right at the edge of a secluded lake or right on the top of a mountain” that’s the type of thing that Tammock will be able to solve so no trees, no problem Tammock solves it check it out and that is our Funded Today product of the week segment. Once again I want to give a special shout out to Tammy Rant for being on get Funded Today with us such an inspiring story and I think you’re just getting started Tammy so we’re going to have you on again next year to see how your story continues to transpire and inspire. And next time because we had such a good time with Tammy we’re going to do it again with another past Funded Today Client Rob and maybe some of the other guys at Acculavolt are going to start by. Let us know what you liked about this episode, what do you want to hear from our next guest and definitely let Tammy know what you thought about things as well we love to hear from you I’m sure she would as well and I promise you’re not going to want to miss next week so until next Wednesday and remember don’t wait until tomorrow get Funded Today.

Announcer: (55:28) Funded Today is the Worldwide Leader in Rewards Based Crowdfunding on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Combined they have raised over $200 million and counting for thousands of new ideas and inventions worldwide. If you got an idea for a new product or invention visit www.fundedtoday.com to speak with one of their experts.

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