The Exchanges

Q And the pillow, you just sent them a package with a Tempur-Pedic pillow, and what did it say? It said, here you go, here's a, here's a pillow for free?

A Yep, it had a letter on top of the pillow in this big box, and it said, this is the Tempur-Pedic Swedish neck pillow. It's, you know, the best thing since sliced bread, yada, yada, yada. It's yours free, if you order four. And if you don't like it, all we ask is you let us pick it up at our expense. So, we got 25% of them to buy four pillows, and that was the major breakthrough that turned us out of the nosedive And so all of a sudden from that 500 chiropractors, we had a 125 of them who were buying four pills a month, and we were selling it to the chiropractors for 49 dollars. So we did about 300,000 dollars in sales that first year, all in the last four months of the year, pretty much.

AI assessment note: “it had a letter on top of the pillow in this big box, and it said”

Q You mean, like, go walk, like, walk to the mall and find a store that would sell your pillow?

A Right. So we're walking through the mall, and she said, oh, there's Brookstone. They sell pillows. Go show them your pillow. I said, okay. So I went there, and I showed the, some, you know, eighteen-year-old kid the pillow, and he's, uh, he didn't know anything, and he said, well, I can give you the number of headquarters in New Hampshire. I said, oh, great. So he gave me the number of headquarters, and I called him the next week, and I got into, uh, to the purchasing department, and he said, oh, you need to talk to Steve Rich. So I left a message for Steve Rich, and I sent him a pillow, too. And so I would call Steve every day for weeks and weeks and weeks and leave him a message. And finally, I don't know, two months later, my secretary comes in and says, Bobby, there's a Steve Rich from Brookstone on line two. And I said, I think I'll take that. And, ah, he was calling me to tell him to stop calling him, because he had a note on his desk every day, Bob Trussell, Bob Trussell, Bob Trussell. Tempur-Pedic. And, ah, I said, ok, but all I ask is one thing, make sure you took that pillow out of the box, because you can't tell by looking at it. He said, oh yeah, it's very nice, but we sell seven pillows and we don't need any more, And, um, yours is, would have to sell for a lot more than our other seven pillows. I said, okay. So we hang up. 10 minutes later, the secretary comes in.…

AI assessment note: “Right. So we're walking through the mall, and she said, oh, there's Brookstone.”

Q And so, when you were out of cash, how did you continue operating?

A Well, um, we had a container coming over, and it was 75,000 dollars, and I called Michael, And I said, we have a problem. And he said, what's that? I said, the container coming next Tuesday, I can't pay for it. And he said, oh, ok, let me call you back tomorrow and talk to Doug, his, um, partner and brother. So next day he calls back and says, ok, here's what we'll do. We will swap that container for 10% interest in your company. Hmm. Tempur-Pedic. And, uh, I said, ok. Because I was in no position. We, we weren't going to make the, uh, 10,000 dollar, uh, minimum, and I was out of money, and he could easily have just pulled the plug on us and said, okay, sorry, it didn't work. We're going a different way, but he said, I'll swap that for 10% interest in your company, and I said, great.

AI assessment note: “We will swap that container for 10% interest in your company.”

Q on this for a moment. You, you were, I mean, you and, and Michael had only known each other for a couple of days when he agreed to give you this contract, but over the, you know, over the course of time as your business really started to grow and you had to run this together, uh, was there tension or, or did you actually continue to get along great?

A There was a lot of tension and stress and we got along great. I mean, uh, he was very exacting and, uh, He had his own ideas of how to market, and sometimes I didn't agree, and we would kind of have it out. So there were some, ah, stormy days, but we trusted each other, and one thing I learned about him is if you do what you say you're gonna do, no matter how it turns out, you're gonna be alright. And the same with me and him. He would always do what he said he was gonna do. So we had a very close, ah, working relationship And yeah, it was difficult. We had a lot of ups and downs.

AI assessment note: “There was a lot of tension and stress and we got along great.”

Q So how did you pay your bills? I mean, you, your, your business goes bust. You owe the bank. Two kids, a house that you have a mortgage to pay on, another house that you are living in. How do you, what do you do?

A Well, um, it wasn't easy because I would go to my office, and my secretary would say, Bobby, uh, we haven't paid the rent in a couple months, and the landlord was just down here, and they're, they're going to turn off the, um, electricity, and then I would go home, and my wife would tell me the, the same thing, you know, the, uh, Gas company called, and so I, um, really didn't know what to do. I would, um, get in the mail, I would get, um, pre-approved credit cards going, you're pre-approved for a 25,000 dollar line of credit, you know, and I would say, you're really stupid, but I would, I would take them up on it, because, and we would charge groceries onto the credit card. Always figuring that, you know, things were going to turn around. But this was the period of my life where I fell back onto my roots, uh, my Catholic education, and I had started going to Sunday Mass with my wife when we got married. She really, you know, moved me up quite a bit, but, you know, I was still kind of going through the motions, um, so I kind of rolled up my sleeves and went to church and started going to weekday Masses and, um, literally just prayed that Guy would show me what to do, and I said, it doesn't have to be in the horse business. You know, I just decided, ok, if people come to me with ideas, I'm just gonna say yes.

AI assessment note: “I would take them up on it... and we would charge groceries onto the credit card.”

Q reflect on this for a moment. You, you were, I mean, you and, and Michael had only known each other for a couple of days when he agreed to give you this contract. But over the, you know, over the course of time, as your business really started to grow, and you had to run this together, uh, was there tension, or did you actually continue to get along great?

A There was a lot of tension and stress, and we got along great. I mean, uh, he was very exacting, and, uh, he had his own ideas of how to market, and sometimes I didn't Agree, and we would kind of have it out. So there were some, uh, stormy days, but we trusted each other, and one thing I learned about him is if you do what you say you're going to do, no matter how it turns out, you're going to be alright, and the same with me and him. He would always do what he said he was going to do. So we had a very close, uh, working relationship, and yeah, it was difficult. We had a lot of, Ups and downs.

AI assessment note: “There was a lot of tension and stress, and we got along great.”

Q So how did you pay your bills? I mean, you, your, your business goes bust. You owe the bank. Two kids, a house that you have a mortgage to pay on, another house that you are living in. How do you, what do you do?

A Well, um, it wasn't easy because I would go to my office, and my secretary would say, Bobby, uh, we haven't paid the rent in a couple months, and the landlord was just down here, and they're going to turn off the, um, electricity, and then I would go home, and my wife would tell me the, the same thing, you know, the, uh, Gas company called, and so I, um, really didn't know what to do. I would, um, get in the mail, I would get, um, pre-approved credit cards going, you're pre-approved for a 25,000 dollar line of credit, you know, and I would say, you're really stupid, but I would, I would take them up on it, because, and we would charge groceries onto the credit card. Always figuring that, you know, things were going to turn around. But this was the period of my life where I fell back onto my roots, uh, my Catholic education, and I had started going to Sunday Mass with my wife when we got married. She really, you know, moved me up quite a bit, but, you know, I was still kind of going through the motions, um, so I kind of rolled up my sleeves and went to church and started going to weekday Masses and, um, literally just prayed that Guy would show me what to do, and I said, it doesn't have to be in the horse business. You know, I just decided, ok, if people come to me with ideas, I'm just going to say yes.

AI assessment note: “we would charge groceries onto the credit card. Always figuring that, you know, things were going to turn around.”

Q Yeah. It's an amazing product and amazing business. Um, Bobby, you have, since you have kind of stepped away from, from Tempur-Pedic and that world, um, you have really leaned into your faith. You publish a book about, about the, is it the scientific proof of God?

A The book is called The Logic That God Exists, and so when all this, all this happened to me, uh, I just was trying to find a, a way to support my family, and I ended up in this mattress thing, you know, CEO of a public company on New York Stock Exchange. I said, Lord, I said, you know, when you give, you give gratuitously, and so my, my goal now is just to give back for that, and then just in any way I can, and so, uh, the book, uh, kind of, Sprung out of notes I had taken over the years from various, you know, lectures and thoughts that I had, and books I've read, and what I observed in the culture out there is that there was a general weakening in the belief in God, and so, you know, as a Catholic, you know, I, I go to church, and the priest is trying to get people to go to confession, and go to this, and go to that, and the sacraments, and all that, and I was realizing that We're trying to get people to go to step B and C in their faith. They're still stuck on step

AI assessment note: “The book is called The Logic That God Exists”

Q Yeah, that's a good question, Bobby, right? Because This is sometimes can, can, it's, it can just expand and, and, and set a business on a rocket ship or can actually tank a business if you expand too quickly. Bobby, um, he's got a very successful restaurant and a fish market, and it would make sense to start thinking about expanding, but when do you know?

A Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my gut reaction would be to open up another location or two. I mean, that's what restaurants do, right? They get a template that works, and they reproduce it in other locations, you know, often in the same city, but I would think that, um, that would be the way to go. The other thought would be as far as how do you know which one's getting legs. What we did is we threw a Mud at the wall to see what would stick. And, um, generally speaking, if it's a, if it's a good one, it'll let you know early on. I remember, uh, when we tried things, uh, we got, uh, several chiropractors, and we sent them these, uh, overlays, which were three-inch mattresses, and so we tried selling it at truck stops, uh, because we thought it'd go good in the back of the cabbers for the semis, and that, we didn't sell any, and, but then we tried the pillow, and that, when I took it to a chiropractor, uh, He said, oh, this is interesting. And by the way, we sell pills. We don't sell mattresses. And I said, well, how would we, um, distribute it? And he said, well, if you could find a way to have somebody show it to them. And I said, well, what if you mail them one? And he said, well, it might work. And then that's what we did. We mailed them. We mailed the 500 chiropractors and 125 of them. Took up our offer of, uh, of which our, which was, this pillow is yours free if you order four, so no…

AI assessment note: “generally speaking, if it's a, if it's a good one, it'll let you know early on.”