303. Pivoting Businesses and Mindsets: An Entrepreneur Shares His Journey with Ethan Barak

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This is happiness solved with America's happiness coach, Sandee Sgarlata.

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Hello and thank you for joining us today. I'm so happy you're here. Happiness solved is the place where we explore everything you need to become the best possible version of you. This is Sandee Sgarlata. And today I've got some exciting news for our dedicated listeners.

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We've just launched our exclusive members only portal. This is your ticket to a world of additional content designed to deepen your understanding and engagement with the happiness solved mission. To learn more about all of the exciting benefits, stay tuned until the end of the episode where I will explain in greater detail. For those interested now, head over to happinesssolved dot supercast.com. Today is another amazing conversation, so let's get started.

00:01:10
Ethan, Barack, such a pleasure to have you on my show today. How's everything going? I know you're calling in from sunny Arizona, but you're from Florida. How's everything going? Thank God.

00:01:21
It is a beautiful day here in Arizona and thank you so much for having me on, for having me on with you. It's a pleasure to be here.

00:01:30
Life is good. Thank God. Thank God. Right? You have to thank God because, or whoever, whoever that is for you, because that's what keeps it going.

00:01:40
That's what keeps it going, keeps it coming back to you. All right, so for the audience, Ethan Barak is a Florida based entrepreneur and investor in several different product markets such as interior design, medical supplies and real estate. You just launched nude pleasures. We're going to talk about that. I'm going to.

00:01:58
We're just going to leave that hanging there. We're going to get to that later. Let's leave it up there. Yeah, let's just leave that up there. Nude pleasures.

00:02:06
We'll let everybody like, ooh, what's that? Best for last. Best for last. That's right. That's right.

00:02:14
All right. So, Ethan, how did you get to where you are today? I love to hear people's stories because that's how we learn and grow. How did you go from being in, because interior design, medical supplies, real estate, I mean, those are very different markets. But kudos to you for being able to, to be able to have your hat in different areas.

00:02:34
I think that's fantastic. Yeah, it's definitely, definitely been one, one hell of a journey and I can't complain. It's been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of roller coaster rides, as most entrepreneurs experience. But thank God, you know, a lot more wins than losses. So brought me to where I am today.

00:02:54
In regards to different marketplaces. Let's see. So, interior design actually is a based on a family business that I grew up with. My dad started and has still and is currently running for the last 20 years, I think 22 years. And I went into business with him, and we were doing very well together.

00:03:17
And then surely COVID hit, and we had just actually moved our company over to Texas. We were doing very well there. COVID hit, and in the first two months of COVID we were, like, dead. Can't go in anybody else's home, right? What are you gonna do?

00:03:34
Yeah, nobody. It was crazy. Nobody was worrying about decorating their house at that moment. Although there probably were quite a few, but not necessarily. Yeah, but not the masses.

00:03:44
Not the masses. Um, so I had started doing business in, like, smaller business in medical supplies, pretty much right when COVID hit, I had actually sold masks to China. Um, we have an office there, and we supply them with masks, and they just started selling them there. And then my office there actually decided to then put together a whole container worth of medical supplies and ship it over to me in Dallas. And I just started hustling.

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A lot of my friends that lost their jobs, they were actually, like, selling masks on the street, like, you know, like, as water bottles on the side of the street. And it was like I was keeping them employed, and they were making good money hustling like that and just selling one mask at a time when nobody could get them. And then pretty soon after that, I just started getting calls from, like, government officials and, like, local municipalities that they needed supplies, and it just got real, real crazy real fast. Thank God. It was a very wild west in a very good way kind of times for me.

00:05:02
I know a lot of people suffer during that time, and a lot of people didn't do well, but, you know, being an entrepreneur is also about seeing an opportunity and being able to capitalize on it for what you can. And, you know, thank God I was also able to do a lot of good things. My wife was working in the. As a nurse in the COVID ward in Baylor Hospital in Texas, and they weren't able to supply their units with masks. My wife was wearing the same mask for, like, two months until she finally told me.

00:05:32
Yeah, she finally told me, and I was like, all right. I'm just. I donated, like, $50,000 worth of masks for her unit, so I was able to do cool things like that. We donated to fire departments, you know, senior citizen living facilities. So it was good to be able to do that as well.

00:05:51
And then, you know, COVID slowly went away, and the supply chains started back again, the normal supply chains for most hospitals and governments. And there wasn't as much as a demand for smaller companies like me that haven't been in the game for a long time. So I took a little bit of a break from doing too much. I went into a little bit of real estate, and thank God, that's been very good so far also. And then just going out of Miami, I had a crazy idea of, some of my friends were, you know, going out and partying, and they, one of them took a, you know, blue, a blue pill and was smoking a nicotine vape.

00:06:47
And I just had a crazy idea of viagra vape.

00:06:53
Looked into it, and somebody actually tried to create that, a pharmaceutical company, and they got banned by the FDA. And then just thinking, you know, really deeply about things that have worked for me in the past for sexual enhancement is, I mean, weed. For me, it's pretty, pretty good at making, you know, the moment a little bit better. And so I thought about, you know, ways we can incorporate that along with, you know, other aphrodisiacs to give a very natural elevation for the body and the mind, to give a complete package of pleasure and experience for the user. That's how we came out with nude, and that's pretty much what a lot of my time is focused on now.

00:07:44
We launched about a year, about 1516 months ago. It's funny, we launched almost the exact same time that I had my first child. So that's crazy. So I'm basically raising, basically raising two children at the same time, which is awesome. Thank God.

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My son is very easy, and he's awesome. He's so cute. My wife is really, you know, she's a rock. She holds us down and she takes care of the house and a lot of things that I would not have mind or time to do. Wow.

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So it's pretty nice to have somebody that supports me like that also. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, so we're going to come back to new because I want to talk to or talk with you about pivoting. That's not so easy for everyone.

00:08:32
And you're pretty. You're pretty young guy. I don't know. I don't know. I think 31.

00:08:37
I was going to say, like 25. I was going to go a little bit older just because you have a kid, but, you know, anyway, how did you know? Pivoting is really hard for people. That's not so easy. And can you just talk a little bit about being an entrepreneur and what it takes to have that mindset, to go with the flow and be able to.

00:09:04
The way things are today may have to change tomorrow. And there's always, even if you're sticking with one product or one service, there still has to be changes within it. What tips can you give for that person out there that may need to pivot, whether it be completely from interior design to medical supplies, which is a pretty drastic move, or even if it's just something within their business. What advice can you give to help people? Be more open minded to that?

00:09:38
And is there any, like, tips that you could, you can give to help them? So these are great questions, and it is, you know, it's a tough answer, and it's a lot, it's a lot of work, of working on yourself as well. You know, pivoting is not easy. There's a lot of if ands or buts. There's a lot of.

00:09:59
There's a lot of question marks. You know, going into medical supplies, my first order was $1.5 million. And if. Yeah, and if I screwed up that order, there was no way I was going to be able to pay that back. And at that time, it was very hard to find, you know, trustworthy suppliers.

00:10:19
You were dealing with people that you didn't know, building relationships. People were stealing money left and right. It was crazy. And you just have to do your best. During that time, I would say 96% of my time was making sure that I wasn't getting screwed over in any deal.

00:10:38
Yeah. And I still, I still hold that true on most business in general is, number one, always do due diligence on any kind of deal, even. Especially if it's good to be too good to be true. Right. Um, market research.

00:10:55
I would also highly recommend for anybody trying to start a business or go into entrepreneurship doing market research. And proper market research will save you so much time and aggravation in the long run. Um, it's insane. And I learned that the hard way. Um, you know, pivoting is you have to stay pretty fluid and you have to listen to a lot of what your customers tell you and get customer feedback, um, especially when you're already launched.

00:11:24
I would also say that pre launching, especially on a product or even a service, definitely get reviews from talk to 2030 people that, you know, every single person is going to give you a different answer. Right. And every one of those 30 people is a potential consumer on the end of the day. So you need to ask them their honest and truthful opinion. You know, it can be family, but try and spit it out to a bunch of people, and that would really help you before you launch to correct anything that you might not foresee coming.

00:11:59
So I would say preparation is best. And having a ability to. In regards to the pivoting prior to anything, I would say meditation has been huge for me to keep a calm head. It's something that definitely helps me to make better decisions. Never make decisions on emotion.

00:12:24
It's probably the worst thing you can do, especially in business. And prepare yourself in doing as much research prior to any launch that you can. And that'll probably save you the most headaches you can ever imagine. Oh, such great advice, Ethan. Thank you so much.

00:12:43
Because you have to do research, and I love how you said to go and talk to people and as, like, the market research before you do anything, just to figure out, like, what will people want? Yeah, yeah, you have to. I mean, people are the answer. At the end of the day, it's everything that you're. I mean, as long, as long as your company is, you know, consumer based or even your brand as a, you know, as a therapist, as a coach, as a.

00:13:12
Whatever it is, you know, you have an audience. You have to do your research about what the audience is currently looking for in order to better, you know, serve them. And in business, you know, you're selling a product and you want to have that product speak to as many people as you can. And the only way you're going to know that is by talking to the masses. So.

00:13:38
Yeah, yeah. I mean. Sorry. No, go ahead, finish. Steven.

00:13:43
This weekend I was at a trade show in Las Vegas, and we've been out in the market for a year, and I thought, we've already perfected, you know, our first product that we ever came out with. I thought we perfected the packaging pretty well. And even this weekend, I got. Or yesterday. Sorry.

00:13:57
I got a brand new idea for our packaging, you know, for our vapes. They told me you should really make one of those sniff sense so that, like, on the outside of the box, you can sniff it, you can scratch it and sniff what the smell of the actual flavor, like, natural flavoring is. I was like, you know, that's actually not a bad idea. Some people would want to do that, so maybe we should. Yeah, but you never know.

00:14:23
You gotta get. You gotta just listen. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, I was gonna say that, like, for services especially so often, and I've seen this so many times, and I know I was guilty of it as well, especially in my coaching practice, I just, I wanted to give people what I knew they needed, but it wasn't what they wanted.

00:14:48
So sometimes you've got to give them what they want, and they're going to. Eventually, they're going to get what they need. They just don't know that they need it. Right. They don't think that they need it.

00:14:59
Correct. I mean, it's the same, same thing in business. I see a lot of, I see a lot of business owners that they think that their ideas might be the most perfect idea or, like, their way to go about it is the perfect way, but they don't, they don't care to listen to anybody, and, you know, it ends up being detrimental to that. To their business. Yeah.

00:15:24
So I think people just got to learn to listen and really accept that other people's opinions do matter very much. Well, yeah. And if you're going to go into business and you're going to spend all that time and an investment, have a mentor, have somebody that's done it before, surround yourself with people who have achieved the success that you want and that they're smarter than you are. Right. Correct.

00:15:52
They did it before you. Did it before you. They know something they did. And, yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, listen, I.

00:16:00
For me, I truly, I'll. I'll say that listening to Gary Vaynerchuk and Patrick by David have been, you know, inspirational to me in regards to. I'm so used to fast paced businesses for the most part that, like, growing a true brand overall is a completely different mission. And, you know, it takes a long time, long game. It's a very long game.

00:16:26
And, you know, I wasn't, I'm not gonna say I wasn't prepared for it, but I wasn't. I didn't think it would take this long to, you know, grow and how many things you got to change and how many hoops you got to go through, especially in our industry. Our industries got so many rules and regulations. So, like, having people that you can listen to even on, like, a podcast or going to, you know, there's, like, entrepreneur meetups and stuff like that. It's really, it's really cool.

00:16:54
And I think it really helps to get your mind right because doing it alone by yourself can get it. Can't get lonely sometimes. You know, a lot of people don't understand how much is on your mind at all times in order to, you know, make that success. So having other people that go through similar things and can teach you or guide you is pretty nice. Yeah, for sure.

00:17:20
Well, creating a brand, I mean, I think that you have to go into it with three to five years and be willing because most of the people who have achieved a certain level of success, they've been at it for three plus years. You know, it just, it just takes time. Takes time, takes time, takes patience. And it's a grind. It's a real grind.

00:17:46
All right, go ahead. It's rewarding. It's rewarding. It is rewarding. It is rewarding.

00:17:51
So I'm sorry. I'm excited to talk about our next thing. Our next. The last big part of this episode is your nude pleasure, which is the first ever vapor aphrodisiac. I was thinking when I read that, I'm like, well, that's going to make a lot of people happy.

00:18:11
Thank God. Talk about happiness solved. There you go. We're done. That's it, right?

00:18:17
Just, just get, just get nude. That's all you need.

00:18:22
All right, so you already told us how this came up, which I love. You're thinking about a blue pill and this and that. Yeah. You know, we have, sometimes we have these crazy, and I'm using air quotes, crazy ideas. How did you get this?

00:18:37
You know, because we all, oh, my God, I can't tell you how many times. Especially my son, who's 23, 23 right now, and he's always coming up with these amazing ideas. And it's great to have an idea. It's a whole different ballgame to actually implement it and to bring it into fruition. Like, how did you even begin?

00:18:58
Because like you said, that industry, there's a lot of regulars, and I think anytime you have a product, especially if people are inhaling it or ingesting it in any way, there's so many regulations. How did you even begin to get this thing off the ground? So it was definitely a bumpy ride, to say the least. But it was more of a bumpy ride because I didn't do my due diligence on certain people that I started with. That was my fault and my mistake.

00:19:31
I didn't listen to my own, you know, my own advice. And so that cost me in the beginning, a couple months time and, you know, some decent money. So. But going from there, I took over the project and, you know, I worked pretty closely with a chemist who knows about formulations and knows about breaking down certain properties of natural ingredients and cannabinoids. And we worked together for about eight months until we finally formulate.

00:20:11
We formulated a bunch of rounds, and finally we got a version that we found to be very good and do what we were trying to have it do. And then it was just, you know, giving it out to a bunch of people to try getting a bunch of feedback from, you know, end consumers. And something that we found incredible during that time was who our demographic was. And it was pretty crazy to see that almost 70% of women loved our product. Like, that was basically our customer base.

00:20:54
So that was my big question. I'm sitting here going. Cause you mentioned blue pal, and I'm going, okay, what about us? What about the women? Correct.

00:21:02
So it was astounding to see. And we kind of pushed our brand also. And, you know, we pretty much mostly have women on our team because women know how to speak to women, number one. And number two, we wanted to focus on women because of what you just said. There is no, there's not a lot of consumable wellness products for women that actually work at all.

00:21:30
There's a billion blue pills or pills like that, or things catered for men and testosterone boosters and all this stuff. Most of them are garbage and most of them and, or have illegal substances in them, and there's zero for women that actually work. So seeing that was pretty incredible. And then we geared our brand more towards women in general. And then once we started launching, everything that we basically thought we saw is what we is what happened.

00:22:07
I mean, women have become 70% of our, of our know, customer base. They buy for them and their partners, and it's pretty incredible. And then within women, we're even getting an even crazier response with women going through menopause. And from what I'm hearing is menopause is starting even younger age these days. And we've just been put into, like, these Facebook group chats of women going through menopause and all these, like, blogs.

00:22:40
And it's pretty incredible to see. We also get a bunch of emails from people, like, just thanking us for finally creating a product that works for them and helps get them in the right, you know, mind, space and place that they want to be in order to enjoy that ultimate moment. Yeah. Because for women, especially for women, I mean, women, it's all up here. It's all in your mind.

00:23:04
Correct. If you're. And, yeah, correct. So that's all I'm gonna say.

00:23:14
All, you know, but, yeah, so basically what we created is we took a patent pending blend of 14 natural aphrodisia X and we created into a high potent oil form that we mixed with a hemp derived cannabinoid called HHC to give a mind and body experience for the user so that we like to say, so that both heads are working together for your ultimate pleasure and performance.

00:23:46
That is our. There you go. Because that's really what it takes. That's really what it takes. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of women have been just writing us that, you know, even they write us, men have an issue that they can never.

00:24:04
It's very hard for men to admit that they want to try something that's going to help them, and then also, it's very hard for them to actually speak about it afterwards. So we get a lot of women that actually write for us on behalf of their husbands and or boyfriends and thanking us for, you know, giving them a different experience together that they've never, you know, had before. So it's pretty incredible to see it, and it's just nice to create a product that's so natural that people enjoy. And now it's just about getting into the masses and letting everybody, you know, be educated and learn about it and learn about the benefits that you can have. Yeah, that's incredible.

00:24:45
So incredible. And I was just thinking, it's no wonder, because I don't know how it is today, but I just know that years ago, I was reading something, and there was a stereotype that men were the ones that would have sex with a woman and just be, like, talking, talking, talking, when in reality, most men don't talk about that. It's the women. Like, when women, when we get together, we just, like, we just let it all out and we're talkers and we like to share about it. So it's no wonder that women are giving you that feedback, because I think that we're less inhibited.

00:25:29
I think that. And again, I'm talking in generalizations. A lot of men, their ego gets in the way. Correct. And I think that's the difference, is that not that women don't have egos, because we do, of course.

00:25:48
It's just, I think we're more apt to let our guard down a little bit from that perspective. Right. Especially with friends. Yeah, women definitely talk about it more, especially as, like, you get older, I would 100% agree. In, like, your teenage years or, like, you know, college years, men definitely speak more.

00:26:06
But then, like, as you get older and it's like, you know, you're in relationships, you don't really talk about it. I don't know, but women definitely do that. I know. I know my wife. So what type of science is backed, or is there any science, because I know that a lot of things.

00:26:27
It costs a lot of money to run a scientific study. Right. And so, yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that? The crazy thing is, when you have hemp inside a product, you.

00:26:38
You can pretty much almost not put any science out there. Okay. So instead. Well, you can't. Any scientific study that you do cannot actually make any direct claims at all.

00:26:51
So you. Basically, your study is worthless based off of current legislation. But we do have a science packet on a per ingredient basis. So every ingredient that we currently have in our product is. Is listed on our website and also in our patent with a whole science packet about what each ingredient does and how it actually is supposed to help you, because that does have scientific backing behind it.

00:27:19
Fantastic. We did. We did find our loopholes in the system, and thank God it does. The product works. People are having success.

00:27:30
People are having success. Um, I didn't know, like, a crazy statistic that I didn't know was that a majority of women have never experienced orgasm in their lives. They don't know what they're missing. I was shocked. And, well, and that.

00:27:48
But see, Ethan, that goes back to the mindset, because in order for women to reach that point, they have to completely let go on a. On a mental level, on a mindset level, they have to be completely engaged. And that's why a lot of. Yeah, they have. They have to close all 100 browsers on their.

00:28:08
In their head that are currently open. That's right. Because we do. We do have 100 browsers open at one time. And so you got to shut all those browsers.

00:28:17
Good way to put it. And totally be in the moment. And then I think it's also a lot of, you know, people are worrying about what the. What their partner is thinking. It's not.

00:28:26
Don't make. Forget about your partner. It's about you give yourself that pleasure. Yeah. Give yourself.

00:28:32
Try some nude pleasures while you're at it. Try some nude pleasures. We got vapor pre roll joints and gummies. So if we. We hit all markets.

00:28:43
I was going to ask because not everybody wants to inhale things. So you've got the gummies. So that's good. Correct. So is it.

00:28:49
Is it available where these products are legal in your specific state? Is that how so? Currently we're legal in 48 states in the United States. We do ship from our website as well. We are in a bunch of retailers.

00:29:08
Adam and Eve, shevibe.com. You know, we're in a bunch of smoke shops, also some convenience stores. So we're definitely making our way around, um, where I think we pretty much cover most of the adult stores at this point or we're getting in there lovers store. So you can definitely find us. We also have a map on our website that you can find a local store near you.

00:29:38
Okay. And what is the website for everybody to check it out? Nude nuud pleasures.com. Easy peasy. Easy peasy.

00:29:50
Enjoy your pleasure. There you go. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience before we wrap up today? Well, just thank you to you for having me on board. It's a pleasure to be here.

00:30:05
I'm sure all of your listeners will love this episode, and I'm sure they're going to thank you very much for the pleasures that will be had. Yes. And I'm excited. I'm excited for them all. Yeah, same.

00:30:16
This was by far one of my most enjoyable ones. And I think I literally just got camera ready for the day, so you're not able to really see the blushing underneath my makeup, so. Well, you look great, so it looks good. I probably was almost bright red at one point having this conversation because here we're having this conversation. I just met you on camera for the first time, so, you know.

00:30:44
Pleasure to be with you on here. So. And you know what? Kudos to you for just getting out there and talking about this. And thank you, because, you know, let's get real for a second.

00:30:55
Sex is one of the most important things your body needs. Our bodies are meant to have that experience. It's part of our DNA. It's. It's good for your mental health.

00:31:09
It's good for your physical health. Not to mention what it will do for your relationships. I didn't mean to make that plural.

00:31:19
Whatever. If you have a plural, then, hey, more power to you. That's awesome. Whatever floats your boat. Whatever floats your boat.

00:31:25
But, yeah, I mean, so thank you for putting something out there, especially for women, because that is, you know, as women age. And speaking about somebody who's already post menopausal, most post menopausal, you know, it is. It can be a real issue. And life is too short. Girlfriends and boyfriends out there, life is too short.

00:31:45
Enjoy. Way too short. Way too short. Enjoy every moment of it. Every moment.

00:31:50
You got to. You got to absolutely get a little. Bit of pleasure in life. Some nude pleasure. That's it.

00:31:57
Nude pleasure. That's what we're talking about today. Nude pleasure. I love it. All right, Ethan, thank you so much.

00:32:02
I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. And if you want some samples, be happy to send some out. All right, sounds good.

00:32:11
Have a good one. You too. Bye.

00:32:25
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