204 | MBA vs Lessons From Building a Brand | with Brenton Hutchinson

Chase Clymer  

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Brenton Hutchinson  

anybody these days can take master classes by listening to podcasts like this.

Chase Clymer  

Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game. 

On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating real results. 

I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.

Let's get on with the show.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. 

And today, we're welcoming to the show the CEO of LowTides Ocean Products, Brenton Hutchinson.

Brenton Hutchinson  

Hey Chase, very nice to meet you. It's great to be here.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. I'm excited to chat with a fellow lover of the beaches. 

For those that don't know about the brand, can you quickly let us know the products that you guys are bringing to market? 

Brenton Hutchinson  

Sure. So we are going into our third season of production right now. We are the first of its kind beach chair company that has created beach chairs from upcycled ocean plastics. 

So essentially, we take upcycled plastic from the environment and reuse that to make beach chairs.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. So where did this idea come from?

Brenton Hutchinson  

Yeah, so we grew up at the Jersey Shore. I've spent literally my last 38 years heading down to Sea Isle City, New Jersey. 

So we have ingrained in us a love for the beach and all things ocean and bay. And it sounds very cliche, very corny, but I was actually reading a National Geographic Magazine, Memorial Day weekend, I think four summers ago now. 

And I happened to pick up Nat Geo on my parents' coffee table. And it is the now infamous or famous cover of a plastic bag coming out of the ocean mimicking an iceberg. 

And at that time, I had some idea about the issues with plastic in the environment and pollution but never really gave it a second thought. 

That afternoon, I happened to open up the the article read and understand what plastics were doing to not only environment, but specifically our oceans and how the plastic that's in the ocean is getting digested by our fish and even our birds, and how that's creating issues with a lot of different chains as far as food or whatever. 

But I took that, read that article, and I spent some time that we can... Thinking about, "Well, this is an issue, how do we go about fixing it?" And I had been introduced to Ecom a little bit through my dad who had just written a book and was selling it online. 

And he was coming back and saying, "Hey, I just sold some books today. And this is nice and easy. I sold it through Amazon." 

I'm thinking "Man, it'd be great to have that passive income. I can hang out on the beach and sell a product while I'm relaxing." 

I was already in rentals as far as real estate. It's kind of my background. So I have some rental property. So I'm all about passive income. And I started thinking about the problem being plastic in our oceans. 

"How do we fix that? Well, what if we took that plastic that's in the environment, take it out and make something with it. What is that product?" And I started kind of thinking of... 

Brainstorming literally on the beach: Clothes, hats, balls. And I looked down. It happened to be a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend. 

And I saw thousands and thousands of these chairs. And I thought about the fact that my beach chair that I've had for the last 5 years. 

It had a hole in the armrests where I couldn't put my drink anymore because a cup of water fell out. And I think it had flowers. 

That really didn't appeal to me, it was just a purchase because that's all there was. So problem - solution: Taking plastic out of the environment, making a chair out of it, but then making it cool and relevant and a piece of our personalities.

So that weekend the idea was born. I pitched it to some friends and family that night on the deck after a couple of drinks and it was getting some traction so I started the process literally that following week.

Chase Clymer  

Awesome. So how long does that process take from like ideation to your first sample? 

Brenton Hutchinson  

A long time. I am... I come from real estate, commercial real estate, which I still work in today. So I have zero idea or background in manufacturing. 

Manufacturing, bringing a product to market, manufacturing overseas, the marketing that goes into it. So the first test was finding, essentially, an engineer to build the product, which I never knew how hard it was to do. Now, I would have... 

Now 2 years - 3 years later, I would have searched [for an] industrial designer and probably would have saved myself a year and a lot of money. 

But at that point, I took it to a "Bring-Your-Idea-To-Life" type of company, which was a bad idea, by the way because they weren't specialists in that type of production. 

So I really, I want to say a good year before we had some sort of a working sample and we introduced it to Kickstarter. And it was a really, really frustrating process. 

A big learning curve for me, but I can tell you that I was happy I had gone through it, because right now we have a product that I feel is worth the money that a customer would pay for it and something I can be proud of.

Chase Clymer  

Yeah, it's always such a journey to build these things. And how about... I'm curious. 

Sourcing the plastic and that whole process, I'm assuming that made it a little more difficult.

Brenton Hutchinson  

Very. Again, you come up with these ideas like "How hard it can it be to A, build a beach chair but B, find this plastic. Everybody's gotta be pulling this plastic out of the environment. 

You have the 4ocean guys that are building bracelets with their stuff. So it took me probably about 9 months and a trip to Mexico to find the plastic that we ended up using in our first season of chairs. 

I personally traveled to Mexico to visit the sites where the collections were taking place and where they were breaking down that plastic and the pellets that you can reuse. I felt it was important not just to... 

Not just selling this plastic as part of the marketing [or] the message, but I needed to know where it came from. 

I didn't want to be in a position where down the road, somebody says "Hey, that's not necessarily what you're selling." And this stuff, that type of product is not... 

You can't just Google it and pick it up at your Home Depot or anything to that effect. It was tough sourcing. Since then it's gotten harder as the problem has become much more public. 

And there's a lot of groups out there. Most people know about the problems with plastic and in our now. 

So it's become a little easier. But when I started the process, I think there was one company in the entire world that I probably found that was able to get me what I needed.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. So you've got this product --and you alluded to this a bit earlier-- and you launched on Kickstarter, can you share a little bit about how that journey went?

Brenton Hutchinson  

Yes. So Kickstarter was a big learning experience. In hindsight, what came of it was a brand. I figured out how to build a brand, build a website, and create an email funnel. 

I learned social ads and spending and how that all kind of comes together. 

In hindsight, I would have not done it again. It was a really bad experience for us. I quickly realized that the demographic that Kickstarter caters to is not our demographic. 

So we have these grandiose ideas that we're going to hit our 30 days and we're going to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. We set a low goal. We did everything right. We went into production of a video. We spent a lot of money on social [media]. 

But our demo being women 35 to 65, think about it, who buy beach chairs for their family, their husbands, their kids, they don't know what the heck Kickstarter is. So when we would have conversations with family and friends that "Hey, go on Kickstarter." 

They didn't understand the whole process of  "Well, yeah, you pay for a product but you don't get it right away. It goes into production, and then you probably didn't get it a year later. You're essentially hoping and working with the company to make a product come to life." 

So, at the end of the day, again, a lot came from it so I'm grateful for that. We did hit our goal barely. It was $30,000. 

It was really embarrassing, now I think back on it. But it was a great learning experience. Would I do it again? No. But that's because that's my product. 

Somebody that maybe caters to a different type of market or demo might have. Yeah. And I know there's companies out there and groups that have a ton of success.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. So once you learned who your demo actually was, and this is probably post-Kickstarter, how did you find those customers and scale the business?

Brenton Hutchinson  

So one common misconception I had was: I create a website, I put it online, and they will come. It's crazy to think that I actually had that idea at one point like, "Hey, I'll just put these beach chairs up. 

Obviously, people are gonna love them and they're gonna buy them." And there's... I learned that through very strategic marketing is how you find your customers. 

And my co-founder, who happens to also be my sister, who has spent a lot of time with me at the Jersey shore. So she has the same love. She is all things marketing. And we are heavily involved with social and influencers and local type shops that speak to that demo. 

Those boutique-type retailers now that you know, have the women coming in on a daily basis, they see our brand online. They either can buy it online or now in retail. 

We're in our second season of retail. So it was important to get the mommy influencers because we sell kids chairs as well. 

So you can imagine the visuals: A kid and a beach chair. A good looking beach chair and a good looking little kid. It lends itself to some easier marketing. 

But we also developed a really strong email distribution list that isn't full of fake emails. We spent some money to make sure that we're trying to get that segment of the market into our funnel so that we can consistently give them updates or products to buy.

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Chase Clymer

You mentioned that this whole time was like a learning experience. And you've learned a ton about Ecommerce and marketing and all that. 

Do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs looking to get into this space and learn how tos of Ecommerce

Brenton Hutchinson  

Listen to podcasts (laughs). I would not be in this position, this company would not be w

here it's at, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for getting really obsessed with Ecommerce podcasts. So I have my undergraduate, I have my MBA, the kids these days... Kids? 

Anybody these days can take master classes by listening to podcasts like this and learn all the ins and outs of how to create that email distribution list, how iOS is going to affect your spend and your targeting, which by the way... 

I was listening to one of your episodes earlier. And it's funny, in hindsight, everybody's like, "Oh yeah, iOS really screwed things up." 

Prior to that, everybody was like, "Oh, Facebook we'll figure it out. We'll get around the iOS. Don't worry about it." And then everybody's worlds went down and the first couple months after that. So it's a big learning experience. 

There's so many facets of Ecommerce. Shopify. There's Shopify podcasts out there to learn the ins and outs. If you can find it and afford it, some consultants to work with through the process. If you have friends or family like myself... 

Our CFO is a friend that I've had since high school in college. We brought on a customer service person that --which by the way is very important-- that is younger and loves the brand and has been with us for a few years now. 

People that believe in your product, that mission, you need that to support any type of Ecommerce business. You can't... 

Unfortunately, you can't do it by yourself. You got to learn, you got to hope that your team that you're building around you is going to be able to make you successful.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. And it's interesting that you say that you have an MBA, you went to business school, you learned a lot about business in general. But diving in and starting your own business was eye opening. 

Brenton Hutchinson  

Oh yeah. I might as well not [have gotten] my MBA. (laughs) Yeah. And I listen to a lot of stories and people were like "I was profitable day one." That sounds like the greatest thing ever. Because let's face it, it's very hard to be profitable on day one in business. 

You learn [about] income expenses... NOI sometimes in real estate. In my case, profit. It's hard. There's a lot of expenses you're not taking into consideration. 

Especially on the Ecommerce side, let's face it, to get eyeballs on your brand these days is very difficult. 

So, the MBA didn't cover any of that stuff. It certainly didn't cover manufacturing in China during COVID. 

So again, there's just so many hurdles that get thrown your way that if you're not really committed, if you're not invested, --also, unfortunately, financially, that becomes a big hurdle-- you're not going to be able to to last very long. 

So it's not to say I've done that. It's been a lot of growing pains and  a lot of learning. But it's cool. 

You enjoy the smaller successes as they come, so it's worth it.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. I see a lot of people in the Twitterverse telling young entrepreneurs: If you're thinking about college or starting a business, you're gonna learn more in the 6 months starting a business than you will in the 4 years of college.

Brenton Hutchinson  

Yeah, but you're missing out on the experience, right?

Chase Clymer  

Yeah, the college experience was fun. 

Brenton Hutchinson  

Well listen, my dad told me one thing, when I was growing up. A few years ago. I started hiring people for my real estate side of the business. 

And I kept thinking, "Oh, what, what's the reason for this college degree." I knew people who were very smart and successful who didn't necessarily have a college degree. 

But he told me one thing, which always stuck with me. You can study... I went to a Jesuit school so it was 3 courses in theology and 3 and philosophy. Am I ever going to use that? No. 

But what a college degree shows people is that they're trained to think, and to stick with things, and to follow through. So if you're able to do that for 4 years, you know, that would... 

To me, that's what college is about. You learn to grow up and be mature, and start understanding how to think and bring ideas to life and follow through on them. 

So as far as not going to college, I would certainly do it again. There's no (laughs)... If I could. 

And it was a great experience. So I think I think it's every person. Everybody has a different preference and ways of learning.

Chase Clymer  

I'm not knocking it at all. And to your point as well, I'd double down on it. People go into college, you also learn interpersonal skills, dealing with people, working on a team, working in groups, working with people that aren't contributing. 

And then just the entire networking factor of college is infinitely valuable for your life, and for business, and health, and wellness, and all of that.

Brenton Hutchinson  

Completely agree . I went to St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. People that I work with joke and they say "Brent only hires people from St. Joe's", which is not true. 

But a good contingent of who we're working with on a daily basis are St. Joe's grads, because I know that they came out of  a good university. They understand. You know, how to think and learn and grow. 

And yeah, I think I've had the best of both worlds, to be honest. But it's interesting what podcasts and Audible have done to my life. Never a big reader. 

Audible has really been a godsend. And then podcasts, man, you can learn. Anything you want to learn, there's professionals out there talking about it.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. So what is coming up for LowTides? What's in the future for the brand? 

Brenton Hutchinson  

Sure. So this is our third season of production, we call it. It's our third summer we've had products on the market. We have our tall chairs which come 15 inches off the ground that are hitting the shores this summer, they actually previously sold out. 

So we're excited about that. So we have our tall chairs coming online. We're also going to redesign our Season One and Season Two low chairs and kid's chairs. So we'll have that hopefully coming out by the holiday. 

We're also starting to add accessories to our product. Beachpac to essentially clip on to the beach chair. 

We're looking at some abilities to attach some shade cover that would attach to your beach chair. 

And then I think really the sky's the limit from there. There's so many plastic type products that we can incorporate this ocean plastic into and extend the brand. 

So the goal is to continue growing, continue working and getting into retailers... 

We're doubling retailers from last year to this year. So a lot of good things are happening.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. And if I'm interested in these products, where can I find them?

Brenton Hutchinson  

Sure. Our website is lowtidesop.com. So LowTides OP as in Ocean Products .com. 

Or you could go to our handle in Instagram which seems to be the best place for a lot of people. @lowtidesocean is our handle there.

Chase Clymer  

Absolutely. Brenton. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.

Brenton Hutchinson  

You got it. Thank you, Chase.

Chase Clymer  

Alright. I can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. 

We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes. 

Make sure you head over to honestecommerce.co to check out all the other amazing content that we have. 

Make sure you subscribe, leave a review. And obviously if you're thinking about growing your business, check out our agency at electriceye.io. Until next time.