James Lacey: You have a vision of where you want to be, but you have to know your why you're doing this. Joining us today is David Hayford, the visionary behind TetherTug, one of the fastest growing brands in the e commerce space. Starting as a simple hobby, David transformed it into a successful business by taking an active role in every step, from the idea stage to customer satisfaction.

TetherTug thrives on innovation and creativity, both in product design and how they engage the market.

David Hayford: I think it's very important. You get with people who are not scared to tell you're missing something.

James Lacey: Stay with us for the full conversation to hear David's inspiring journey.

David Hayford: So Tether Tug is an interactive dog toy.

Let's see it back there behind me. How's that? A little better? It's actually a flexible pole, goes in the ground, so a dog can play tug of war with themselves. And the thing is, no matter how much you love their dog, they're high energy, they're young, you can't outplay them. You can take them for a three mile run, and they want to go for another three miles.

You throw the ball a hundred times, they want you to throw the ball another hundred times. And it's not for lack of love, it's that we just have too busy a life. You look at guys like me, a little older, we just don't have the energy to play. So what tether tug does is it lets a dog. Get out there, be healthy, happy and active and give them a better life.

So you can have a better relationship.

James Lacey: That's awesome. That's a win for both the dog and the pet and pet owners. Wow. Okay. How did you, what led you from having the idea or experiencing the pain perhaps and going to saying, you know what, actually I'm going to create a solution for this, or I've seen something like, what is the journey from that moment of concept to where you are

David Hayford: Interesting. It's really interesting. It's funny cause so many people when entrepreneurs, they have this vision of how they're going to change the world or how they're going to do something different. My old business partner, the guy who owns the patent actually on tether tug, we were making some wellness products in the pet space and also doing medical consulting.

He's a trauma surgeon, retired trauma surgeon. And he comes, we were doing some pet wellness stuff and it really We did that more to have something to do and he came in one day and he says, Hey, we're going to make a dog toy. My son came up with this great idea for a dog toy and we're still sitting around and we're looking at it.

And he says, we're going to put this pole on the ground. It's going to do this. I'm going to do that. And I looked at him and I swear, this is exactly how the conversation went. Mike. We're not making a dog toy. No. And he goes, no, we're going to make one. I'm like, dude, we can't sell the stuff we're doing. We can't do what we're doing.

Let's not distract ourselves. We're not making a dog toy. And because he was taller than me and he's a doctor. So he had more money than me. He said I'm going to make one and I'll either do it with you or without you. So he trauma surgeons are a unique group because they're, Smart and they're tinkerers.

And he, man, for a year, he tinkered with this. And I wanted to do this, wanted to do that. And we came out with it. And I think our first month we sold our first day, we sold 16 units. I remember that. But our first month, I think it was like 120 units altogether. Certainly not enough that we're like, okay, we're off and running.

We're like, and it was just a hobby. And then one day. It was like around Black Friday or something like that. We used to work with this company called Groupon, which is like Coop, or I'm sorry. It was Koopa, which is like Groupon, but it was for pets. And the guy calls me up and I'm like, I don't know.

The Black Friday goes, Hey, how's stock? I'm like, stock's great. We got tons. We had none. We had none. We were making them as we needed them. It was good because I have orders for you for about 125 pieces. Oh, okay we can do that and that's 100 and then our website had 125 and then Amazon had 125 and we came in Monday morning to a month's worth of production like.

Crap. So I got this doctor out there working 12 hours a day. We're making dog toys, but that was the day we went from being an idea, a hobby to being a company January, we flipped the calendar to January. I go full time into tether tug probably a year and a half later, him and I part ways and it's my wife and I, this is what we do now.

We've gone from, I don't know, doing, we're probably doing 200 units a month to now we do. 100 units a day. And we're still going. It's still, we've, we can't keep up. It's just, but it's been great. Working the dog, the pet business is great. Working with dogs is phenomenal.

James Lacey: That sounds like a dream, I think, to many.

That they get trained. They turn their dogs or their pets, not necessarily their own, but into a business. So you get to enjoy the best of both worlds, but that's, it really is okay. And how many years into this, are you, what was the, sounding that transition to where you are now, a hundred orders a day.

Back to the first day of launch, kind of 16 or first month. What's that timeline?

David Hayford: I think it's about eight and a half years now. And it's funny, James, cause I feel like we're an overnight success after eight and a half years. We've really in the last year and a half taken off and, the first.

Six and a half, whatever that was. It was a lot of dog paddling, a lot of what in the world are we doing? Why isn't this, and I've gone to some trade shows and I walk out of there and I was like, what am I doing wrong? Because. I know I'm better than that guy and people like our product way better than that guy, but that guy is at 10 million and I'm not.

So what am I doing wrong? And it's still a question. If you're an entrepreneur, you better ask yourself that every day. Now, what am I doing wrong? What can I do better? But back then it was what are we doing wrong? And I would ask anybody I could lock down tell me what I'm doing wrong.

And I got some good feedback and some of it sucked, but yeah.

James Lacey: But you asked there's that. You asked, yeah, you listen.

It's a, it's better to ask and get at least one out of 10 good answers, I think than it is to to just go up on your own way and be blinded.

David Hayford: Yeah. Yeah. Some of it was funny, cause you basically telling you, you have an ugly baby. It's actually, my baby was beautiful. It was that I was ugly.

You're like, the problem isn't your product. Your problem is you. Okay. What does that mean? Is it my hair? Is it my height? Tell me what it means. Sometimes it's your vision, my vision wasn't big enough was the big thing.

James Lacey: Wow that's interesting. What would you say to the person that is in their own kind of moment of walking out of a trade show or whatever, is the equivalent for them and saying, hang on a second, I know what I have is better than what they're doing.

And they're at a hundred X of what I'm doing. How do you. Stay the course. Or is there a shift? Like you said, you sort advice. Yeah. Is there any or is there any daily routines that you've learned? Is there any specific hack or is it simply perseverance? What would you say to that person?

David Hayford: So what? That's a great question.

Because what I learned, I've said we got into this kind of by accident. We fell into it, which yeah. I know that in and of itself is weird. But I didn't trust myself enough. I trusted what the experts in the industry said, and whatever that would be, like my marketing company, they would say, Hey, you're doing well enough, you're doing this, and that's all you can do.

When we very first started back before the coupon days, you were right after them and we would do 20, 000 a month in sales, which. Whether that's a lot or that's a little depends on what you want to do. And my marketing guy who worked in our building, MBA super sharp guy. He says, I said, why is it so slow right now?

And he says, I think we've sold it to all the dogs there are. Dude, we sold 4, 000, maybe there's 80 million dogs in the U. S., but that's what he saw. And I looked at him and I think he's smarter than me. Maybe he knows something, but that's crazy sauce, right? I, one of the things I'll preach now is you've got to make sure you get the right people on the bus and that's for anybody, anywhere they are, you've got to have the right partners.

The thing is the bus is moving. So the partner you got on the bus here. And as it moves, you might have to take that one off and put a new one on because that's as far as their skill set would take you. And as I always kept looking good, man, I just I know there's more here. I had to get that one off. I had my old marketing company told me.

Tongue in cheek. They said this. I don't want to make it sound bad. I want to say that bus drove over them, but you're delusional to think we can go a lot farther. No, I'm not. I'm not. Our row has right now is seven X. Why would you think we should advertise here when we're at seven X let's go here and maybe go to four.

But I questioned myself all the time. This is an expert. Do I believe them or not? And there's a certain time where, you know, The people who saw us just told us these incredible things. This toy has changed my dog's life. It's changed my life. People who were basically a one time purchase, like I'm on my third one because my dog used it for two and a half years and it finally wore out.

So we got another one. Name one dog toy your dog plays with for six years. There's none. And that's the thing I would tell anybody is you have to know, you have to trust your gut. And then as that bus is moving, be willing to trade seats with people, even though you like them, trust them, and they're smart, the bus may have, we may have gone past their stop.

James Lacey: That is a great analogy. I have seen that to be true as well. You just described what I think for many would be going through. Challenging times or challenges, and then like how to navigate those kind of, you're asking questions of the, from those who are supposed to be the experts in marketing and kind of still having to persevere through that.

And what would you say during those tough times or challenges? Is there anything that I think you've touched on this a little bit already, but is there anything that like really keeps you going or what is that? Yeah. What would you say about how to keep going during those times?

David Hayford: Okay. You see the white hair on my hair, on my beard here. For me, I don't have a choice. It's I'm too old to go get a job as a greeter at Walmart. I'm so far into this. I've got my houses into it. My, my 401 is into it. But I've always known what we've had. Was great.

I shouldn't always say, but once we got things rolling, I was like, this is great. I would go to a lot of this is a good tool for him. I'd go to a lot of consumer shows where I would sell directly to the audience and listen to their feedback. You should do this.

That's what you'd hear him walk by and go, man, that's a great idea. And a few people say it'd be better if it did this. But if you take your product and you go to a consumer facing show and they're like, Okay. I don't get it. You got a problem. So I've always been able to believe. And what also it keeps me going is my wife.

She's always, I don't know if any of you've seen the Sphinx is that the Sphinx is the the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. There's these big statues of the Kings and behind them as a woman holding up the King's feet. And that's how a woman's always pushing the man to go forward. And that's her. And she's had unwavering faith in me that, you're smarter than you think you are.

It's better than you think it is. And we always sang this song since we very first got married, wherever we are, wherever we go, we're going to be in it together. So she's listen, just go, I believe in you keep going. And man, that's great. That's great. And if you're ever, if you're thinking about getting into something like this and you don't have the support of your partner, I wouldn't do it.

I just wouldn't because it's going to have to be good for your relationship. It's better to save your relationship than that. Just maybe work on it until you feel like she or he is part of it.

James Lacey: That's hugely valuable advice, I think, to somebody. You even referenced having a business partner as well, and I've heard it said before that you can sometimes view a business partner like a marriage, and then you're speaking about, a literal marriage with your wife and the support that gives.

Is there, do you think there's pros and cons to having a business partner or just at least a support unit, whether it's your team or whether it's people around you, is there, how vital is that?

David Hayford: Okay. That's a great question. That's a great question because I said the guy who owns the patent, who started the company that he's no longer my partner because he couldn't see where it could go.

As a, as the trauma surgeon part, what a trauma surgeon does, you get in that car accident, you come in and you're all banged up. They just piece you back together, then turn you over to specialists. He loves the idea of creating. I like to invent, I want to get this company going. I want to get this done.

And then after that, he's I'm out. So we had a lot of problems because. As much as he was, he would say, yeah, I'd like to see it grow forever. He didn't care. He didn't care. I got him bought out with a new guy, my new guy. He's also helps. He's my supplier. He helps me keep my products flowing, but he is, he's got way, way more money than I do.

He's a little bit younger. He's probably five years younger than me, but man, he's a rock. He's just a rock. He'll tell me, you know what, Dave, I believe in you. I believe in the product. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't, and we can do this and we can do that. And the days that I want to just give it up and go to become a truck driver or something, he's no, we're okay.

And he doesn't, he's not my, doesn't micromanage me, but he's always there is as a rock to just keep guiding me one of the things. One of the things he did for me when we were just talking about the business, he, I said, so what are your goals? What are your dreams? He goes I've given my family a financial legacy.

I have money. I can do this. But what I want to do for them now is a spiritual legacy. I want them to know what they should believe in, where they should walk. And that's, that's deep. I've never heard that from anybody, but he's this is what I want for my people. And so he's been great.

He's been great. The guy's name is Kevin Gardner. He's, I couldn't have asked for anything better. I really couldn't.

James Lacey: That is really incredible. Especially, yeah, what you just touched on about spiritual legacy and it ties in really nicely. We're on the fulfilled podcast and we would like to touch on what is fulfillment and also to often ask, The type of question how faith has impacted your journey or what has faith had to do with your journey speaking about, as he mentioned, he's achieved a certain level of financial legacy that he can give his family and now spiritual is more, is there and is more important to be focused on what would you say for yourself as well?

How important is faith during the journey? It's

David Hayford: not at all. It's no big deal. You're wasting your time. No, it's listen, they say the last thing you ever want to pray for is patience because then God will give it to you, but it doesn't come, like bizarre. You take a journey like this and, you ask God to walk with you and reveal things.

That doesn't mean that it's easy. And. I probably went through my first five years of this doing a lot of cursory prayers, if you will, God, just, guide us, take care of us. Help me pay the bills. And this is an important point. A lot of people want to get in and have their own business because they think it's cool because they watch Mark Cuban on shark tank, or they see some guy on tick tock.

He's let me show you how to change the world. No I actually know Grant Cardone and I knew him when he was nothing, he's something big now, but I knew him when he was struggling and it was hard. And, again, an overnight success after 30 years. It's gonna be hard and a couple years ago, I basically had a nervous breakdown.

I was like, man, this is, I don't know. And my wife stood by me and said, all right, what do we got to do? And I don't know. I think today we're going to have to pay for our shipping on our own personal credit card. Okay, get over it. Let's do it. It's done. Now we're going to do that. So I think after that, I became a lot more cognizant of what I pray for.

Okay. What I consider success you do this cause you need a paycheck to live and things like that, but it's beyond that. It's so where my faith comes in now is I'll give it to you in a simple answer, James. It's always going to be okay. It's always going to be okay. Every day we wake up with our own stresses and you know what, the next day you're still there and it's always okay.

It may not be what you wanted, But it's always okay, I'm like, ah, I don't know how I'm going to do this. Next week it's fine, you're still there. What should

James Lacey: I do? Yeah that speaking of me and so I can Guarantee that is going to deeply impact someone, just the idea that those words can transfer to so many people, but just one person, going through one of those days where it is they're having a meltdown and that can just speak words of life and peace to someone is just incredible.

And yeah, I very much receiving that for myself. Is is there any. I think you, you basically touched on this a little bit not directly, but dealing with maybe negative feedback, like you're, marketing team or even maybe mistakes made again, along the journey of navigating how to do things, right?

Is there a main mistake that you remember that you had to learn from and pivot and in connection with that negative feedback that you've had to learn how to receive and how to move forward from?

David Hayford: The negative feedback is tough, man. That's My wife's done our customer service a couple of times and she's a real empathetic person and she's just literally will break down in tears.

She's I can't believe people are so mean. I can't believe they're so mean. And it's like that great sage, Taylor Kelsey, or some people call her Taylor Swift. She says, haters are going to hate man. That's just it. And there's just as there's bullying. Individually back and forth on Facebook, man, people get behind a keyboard and they want to just tell us that we're terrible and we're stupid and we're ugly.

And, our mom's dress is funny. It's brutal. I actually got an email last night. I read it before I went to bed and the guy said, David, what the beep? You guys need to get your head outta your beep. You said my toy was gonna ship and what the beep b I'm like, wow. And I read it again this morning.

I'm like, okay. I think he was being a little funny. You get somebody who's gonna hate, I just refund their order. I don't care if you get product or not, man. I just, I can't, my team can't have that. I can't have that. And as far as learning from mistakes,

there's so many. The biggest ones though, James. are when my team comes to me and says, you should fix this. When my team comes to me like, Hey, we're having a lot of people complain about this. You should fix it. And I listened to them. I'm like, eh, you don't know what you're talking about. They come back another two weeks.

You should fix this. And then I fix it. I'm like, oh geez. I'm glad I thought of that. That was a really good idea, but I, that's four or five times. And it's a joke in the company. Like I know you just trust me now but once I get my mind around it a little more, I'm okay, but it's, I tell you what, listening to your team, when they say you should fix this needs to be different.

Cause they're the eyes and ears are the ones we're putting in boxes. They're the ones who are handling it all the time. And they're my sister does our customer service now. And she's and she can talk to me this way. Don't be stupid. You need to fix this. All right. And sometimes it's because you're tired, you're overwhelmed, but it's like, all right, I'll take care of it.

James Lacey: It's funny. There's the consistent theme. It feels like of people the value of team partners, wife, just the not going alone. And actually one of the things I wanted to ask you was leadership. Can become a lonely place as well, because not everybody understands the pressures and the decisions that have to be made.

What would you say to, to dealing with that? Have you experienced that? Is there any? Anything you'd say to that?

David Hayford: Yeah. Yeah. It's a, so you guys can, you can tell from my story we're pretty small. I've got my wife, my sister, another contract person, one full timer, and then two part timers.

So it's seven people, but it's 20 hours a day, so I don't have the staff where you can come in and have this big staff meeting and let's brainstorm and things like that. And I live in a small community. My talent's 4, 000 people. I've joined a couple of peer groups. It's really tough because you got to find people who are like you, which means you're an e com company and you're at that level.

I even created one for some other pet companies in our area. It's hard. What I've forced myself to do is I joined like the chamber of commerce and I go to their events just so I get outside and have a conversation with people. And if you listen to them, they'll say, Hey, I really like that. Have you thought of in general?

After they said, I tune out, but I listen like that's a good idea. And then I'll say it to somebody and then they'll tell me you should really do that. You should really do that. And then six months later we do. I think it's very important that you get with people who are smarter than you are, right?

I think it's important to get with people who will are not scared to tell you're missing something. Kevin Gardner is really good at saying, I think you missed this one. I think you ought to do this. And he's so simple about it. He, it's not him being pompous. He's no, I wouldn't do that now.

And this is why okay. I listened to it, but it's, you have to make it, you got to get outside your walls, man. Because otherwise it's just this, you're just seeing trees and you, and before you know it, it's just you alone with one tree. You've got to get outside.

James Lacey: Almost like the difference between tunnel vision and then bird's eye view kind of thing.

You suddenly see so much more that was there, but okay, yeah. And then. Going around, getting outside of that bubble allows you to see that. That's really insightful.

David Hayford: You said it perfectly. Good job.

James Lacey: I'm trying to make it sound good. If, okay. I, there's just a last couple questions that I'd love to ask you and just see what you think.

And then, we can wrap it up here and maybe let you say any final thoughts that you have, but we've touched on, yeah, team and what it is to pursue all kinds of persevere challenges, et cetera. Just wondering, is there a favorite quote or piece of advice that you have that you would want to share?

David Hayford: It's funny. I'm like, I'm really big on quotes. I have. It's a little journals of them all over of things that really impacted me. But I think the thing I would share it, cause I, you mentioned this earlier is make sure the right people are on the bus and remember that the bus is moving cause it's going to change.

And a lot of people will start a business with a buddy, with a brother, put on the bus who you want, but be willing to make changes. And maybe talk about it on the front end because that's, I wish I was more confident in myself early on to say, okay, you're the wrong guy on the bus. Let's get somebody better.

And it doesn't mean you have to spend more money. It just means you have to go find the right people. And that's part of getting outside, going to a chamber. I talk to people about my business. I gotta find, I've got a really good marketing company now that's pet centric and that's, it's changed my life.

So look at the bus, see who's on it. And remember the bus is moving.

James Lacey: That's great. And I will I'll close, I think with one of my favorite questions to ask anybody. And that is, what does real fulfillment mean to you? What does it look like to you?

David Hayford: I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you two answers.

For me right now is peace. Is in all avenues of my life. That I'm doing the right things as a father, as a husband, and as a business owner. That I wake up in the morning and go, it's okay. It's always okay, but it's okay that I would be able to have peace, which means we're all going in the right direction.

That's a quest for me, spiritual peace that I take my time today to commune with God, that I meditate the way I wanted to. And I think for maybe some listeners though, if you're going to do this or you're in the middle of doing it, you've got to find your, the, why you're doing it. And I know that's a cliche phrase, but you can't do it just for the money.

What does the money mean? And if you say it's because I want to buy stuff, it won't, you will never be fulfilled because there's always a dude with more stuff, but you've got to say, I want to do this because I want this. I had a, an intern work for me. He says, I want to have my own business so I can create generational wealth.

Okay. So you want to make enough money. So your parents are going to be okay. And your sister's going to be okay. It's yes. That'll work for you. You have a vision of where you want to be, but you have to know your why you're doing this and it's not stuff. It's not the nicest car, the biggest house.

It's gotta be what is it I want to do for society. What I want to do for me. Because there's always more. There's always somebody else, man.

James Lacey: That's awesome. I couldn't agree more. That is honestly just such a such an awesome answer from both sides. Thank you. What more could anybody want than peace?

And then on the other side to that. Hard to come by these days. Exactly. I don't think there's. That's one of my, one of my favorite scriptures, I think, is like Psalm 1611, and it says in your presence is the fullness of joy, at your right hand is pleasure forevermore. And then I think prior to that, it says, you make known to me the path of life.

And I remember thinking that's everything right there. Just, just, I'll take all of that. But David that is yeah, just so much advice and wisdom that, that you've given. I really appreciate your time. Where can people find out more about the tether tug and yourself?

Go shop your products. Where's best to stay connected with you or just with Tether tug.

David Hayford: Tether tug is simply tether tug.com. So it's like tether ball, T-E-T-H-E-R-T-U g.com. And I'm David at TetherTuck. Anybody who has any questions, anybody who's on a journey, you just want to hang a little bit.

I'm happy to talk to anybody. That's awesome. Thank you so much, David, for your time. And yeah, that's it for the Fulfilled podcast today.

Thank you so much, James. It's been fun.

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