Forging Independence Through Innovation The Story Behind NULU Knives with Douglas Katz
Are you ready to revolutionize your kitchen experience? In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Douglas Katz, a West Point graduate, disabled army veteran, and innovative product designer who’s on a mission to make cooking accessible to everyone. Doug shares his inspiring journey from military service to creating the NULU knife, an adaptive kitchen tool designed to empower people of all abilities.
From Battlefield to Kitchen: A Veteran’s Quest for Inclusivity
Discover how Doug’s personal experiences as a disabled veteran and caretaker for his elderly father sparked the idea for a revolutionary kitchen tool. Learn about the challenges he faced and the insights he gained along the way.
The NULU Knife: Redefining Kitchen Accessibility
Uncover the innovative design principles behind the NULU knife, including:
- The concept of force transfer geometry and how it makes cutting easier for everyone
- How the knife adapts to various physical limitations, from arthritis to tremors
- The potential impact on independence and quality of life for seniors, veterans, and others with physical challenges
Building a Mission-Driven Team
Learn how Doug assembled a talented team of professionals, many of whom are veterans themselves, to bring his vision to life. Discover the power of shared purpose and how it drives innovation in the adaptive technology space.
Beyond the Kitchen: A Vision for Inclusive Design
Explore Doug’s broader mission to revolutionize adaptive products across various industries. Find out how the NULU knife is just the beginning of a larger movement towards thoughtful, user-centered design for people of all abilities.
This conversation is packed with insights on innovation, perseverance, and the power of purpose-driven entrepreneurship. Whether you’re a cooking enthusiast, a caregiver, or simply someone interested in inclusive design, you’ll find inspiration in Doug’s story and vision for a more accessible world.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how one man’s personal challenge led to a potentially life-changing solution for millions. Tune in now and start Giving A Heck about adaptive technology and inclusive design!
Connect with Douglas Katz:
Website: https://linktr.ee/dougkatz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DOUGLASMKATZ/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d.m.katz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaskatz/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nuluing
Connect with Dwight Heck:
Website: https://giveaheck.com (Free Book Offer)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/give.a.heck
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwight.heck
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Giveaheck
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@giveaheck
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-raymond-heck-65a90150/
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@giveaheck
X: https://x.com/give_a_heck
Chapter Summary(Full Unedited Transcript follows)
00:00:02
Introduction to Douglas Katz: West Point Graduate and Adaptive Product Innovator
Douglas Katz, a West Point graduate and disabled army veteran, is introduced as an adaptive product innovator. His mission is to change lives in the kitchen through the creation of the NuLu knife, designed to empower people of all abilities to cook safely and confidently.
00:01:52
Doug’s Origin Story: From Military Service to Entrepreneurship
Doug shares his journey from growing up in Ohio to attending West Point, serving in the military, and transitioning to corporate America. He discusses the challenges he faced and how his experiences led him to create the NuLu knife, inspired by personal health issues and caring for his elderly father.
00:10:51
The Importance of Character and Genuine Leadership
Doug emphasizes the value of character learned at West Point and how it differs from corporate America. He discusses the importance of being genuine, embracing vulnerability, and the positive impact of aligning one’s work with personal passions and values.
00:45:13
The NuLu Knife: Innovative Design for Adaptive Needs
Doug explains the innovative design of the NuLu knife, introducing the concept of “force transfer geometry.” He discusses how the knife addresses various needs, from those with disabilities to seniors and children, and the potential impact on promoting healthier lifestyles through easier food preparation.
00:57:46
Future Plans and Expanding the Adaptive Product Line
Doug shares his vision for expanding the NuLu product line, including plans for different handle variations to address specific needs. He emphasizes the importance of designing with input from the communities they serve and the potential for creating a range of adaptive products beyond knives.
Full Unedited Transcript
[00:00:02 – 00:01:17]
Good day and welcome to Give A Heck. On today’s show, I welcome Douglas Katz. Doug is a West Point graduate, disabled army veteran, and adaptive product innovator on a mission to change lives in the kitchen. With an extensive career spanning the military, telecom and lending, Doug has brought his problem solving skills to a new frontier, adaptive technology. Inspired by his personal experiences as a disabled veteran and as a caretaker for an octogenarian, Doug set out to create the NuLu knife, an adaptive kitchen tool designed to empower people of all abilities to cook safely and confidently. Doug leads a talented team of professionals, most of whom are veterans, as they work to make independence in the kitchen accessible to everyone from seniors and veterans to to anyone facing physical limitations. Join us as Doug shares his journey, the story behind nulu, and his passion for designing tools that support independence and dignity at every stage of life. I’d like to welcome you to the show, Doug. Thanks so much for agreeing to come on and share with us some of your life journey.
[00:01:17 – 00:01:19]
Thanks very much, Dwight. I appreciate it.
[00:01:19 – 00:01:52]
I appreciate it too. For the listeners and viewers, hang on, you’re going to enjoy this conversation. Our pre conversation prior to hitting record, that was great. Fantastic. If Doug and I lived close, we become good friends. He’s. He’s an amazing guy. You’re going to love this. You’re going to love this conversation. So, Doug, as I mentioned prior to recording, I like focusing on a person’s origin story. It helps us relate, it helps us to connect to people. So do me a favor, share what you feel comfortable with from your earliest recollections to where you are today.
[00:01:52 – 00:10:51]
Sure. So moved around, I guess a lot. Like I grew up in Ohio. I was born in Ohio, moved away from there when I was young to Grand Rapids. So I call Grand Rapids, specifically East Grand Rapids. My. The town I grew up and I guess my hometown. And you know, it was a great place to grow up. Right. And allowed me to sort of reinvent myself. Kind of going from middle school to high school, became a lot more athletic like a lot of people do. Got in shape and that kind of thing and really connected with the military. It’s funny, I was just working out in my gym in the basement and Red dawn came on and I’m like, I was watching the original, not the crappy new one. And I was like, okay, like every once in a while I have these epiphanies and really when I was younger that was, you know, we just started to acknowledge some of the Vietnam stuff. Right. So there’s Platoon and there was Outlaw Full Metal Jack and all those kind of movies. And that really drew me, that type of one, service and purpose, but two, action and excitement. So I was fortunate enough to have a really, really good guidance counselor. And you know, I joke that maybe it was a year that a lot of people weren’t applying to West Point, but I got in. And really, I think that was the first kind of watershed in a lot of ways. It’s a really transformative place. And I would be remiss if I didn’t say, go army, beat Navy. Tomorrow’s the big game. Hopefully. But tomorrow, yeah, tomorrow’s a big Army Navy game. But that was a place that, you know, the reinvention in high school is one thing going there. It’s a really good system at breaking you down, obviously, but then also empowering you. And the degree that I look back over that as a really seminal developmental component of who I am, it’s a constant thing and it really does. And I’m sure other service academy graduates would echo it. It really does bring out the best in you. Right. It’s almost like. And my West Point friends will appreciate it’s like super soldier serum. Right? Like it makes you the better you. And so was having my four years at West Point, which was a great time. That’s where I learned rugby. You know, it’s like just a lot of great things. You meet great people, but you also learned the importance of character. And you and I talked in the pre interview a little bit about like corporate America and the differences. And the one thing we didn’t touch on was character. And it’s not to say that there aren’t people out there without character in corporate America. But it’s valued so much at the academies that your word and what you do and how you treat people is the currency by which you gain friends and by the way that you’re successful, you know, along with academics and military and all that. So after the academy it was. I was at a very interesting time at West Point because it was. And you had said you were a history buffet. It was. I graduated in 93, so 91. We go to Desert Storm and. Right. So that was something where, you know, you get there and you’re like, oh, am I even going to get deployed? Like it’s Cold War. And then all of a sudden it’s like Desert Storm and then the wall goes down. So I came into the military at a very unique time. They were downsizing. Many of my friends got out legitimately before their five year commitment. The military didn’t need them. I stayed in. I, I was living in Colorado. It was a great lifestyle. So I did my five years and got out and then moved back to Chicago with what I thought was the plan, right? Go into corporate America, do your thing and you know, just. It’s like all the recruiters said, hey, it’s just like the military, but corporate, you’ll make more money. They were right on the money side. They weren’t really right on the other. So kind of wandered a little bit, did the real industry for a while, which was actually really cool, and then moved into telecom and lending after that. My ongoing joke with everybody was pick the industry I go into and then short it in like a year and a half because I survived the telecom boom and the 2008 collapse to the housing market. And through those times, I think it was really, you know, you have kids and you, you develop and always had side hustles and, or was trying to get stuff off the ground. And then, you know, eventually I in it’s about eight years ago, I had open heart surgery and that was congenital. I still have a bad valve, but I had a aneurysm that popped up. And although statistically, even though they were cracking my chest open and doing all that stuff, statistically there’s a small chance something can happen, but it’s a chance something can happen. And I think that in many ways was another watershed. Getting married, kids and all that. For everybody, it’s a shared experience of gained responsibility and, and, you know, servant. Servant leadership to your family. But looking in the face, the possibility that I couldn’t get off the table, right. Like if something happens was a real big watershed. And I think that changed a lot. At the time I was working at a startup. The guy who ran it, he just, he and I didn’t agree on a lot. I don’t agree how he treated people. And I got there and I basically said fu. And he said, so what are you going to do? I said, I don’t know yet, but I’m not going to work for you. And in retrospect, it was very much a time of saying, I’m done playing this game. And it was sort of the first movement from, you know, what I think corporate America wants you to be and the genuine component of who you are. And I think everybody needs to figure that out. The sooner the better. It’s something I’ve been really trying to do with my kids because I think that that drives where you’re going to be more successful in life. And when I Started to look and say, well, wait a minute, I should be doing something else. I stayed in lending, but I was always ideating on some different businesses and none of them worked out right. And it’s funny again, you and I were talking early on in the, in the, in the pre conversation about understanding failure and really looking at it as a failure to meet your objectives, not a personal failure and that you can learn from stuff. So I think I picked up a lot more from those experiences and failures than I thought I had. And then this came around and I was lucky enough that the big change, we moved out of Oak park, where we lived in, which is close to the city. We were just ready to move. We wanted more space. And my father at that point had migrated to Illinois from Arizona, but he was in a facility and it wasn’t going well. So we’re like, the hell with it, we’re going to move. And I ended up moving about an hour and a half north of the city and lucked out because one of the things that was sort of, I was like, I don’t care what the house looks like, just give me a workshop. Because around that time my wife had given me a gift of learning how to make knives. So I’m like, I really want to workshop. I really want to be able to start building stuff. And that was sort of it, right? That was the bolt of lightning. Because around that same time I was having some major upper extremity issues. You know, I was living with an 88 year old father and I was looking and I was kind of like, okay, well I can’t really cook because my arm’s killing me. I got my shoulder rebuilt about a year ago. I said, I can’t really swing a hammer and make a traditional knife, so what can I do? I need something to do. And out of an old circular saw blade, because I tend to experiment with cheap steel, I created the first nulu. And really that’s been where my passion has been, where, you know, discovering the opportunity to be innovative, entrepreneurial, impactful and have fun. Like those were not mutually exclusive, but they rarely were in the same basket. So that’s where it started. And I had a really, there’s a couple of other products that we’re going to be bringing to market later that are different than the nulu as well as our roadmap for that. But it really got me on the path of saying I need to be creating things. I really like making things that make things better for other people. And that’s kind of it. That’s where I found myself. We just finished our Kickstarter, or we are in about a day we hit our number, which was. Which was good. And now it’s hopefully off to the races.
[00:10:51 – 00:13:46]
Wow, what an amazing origin. I wrote, I always write notes and I put down the fact that you talked about service and purpose. You talked about action and excitement. The biggest thing is sometimes people, when they find out what, who they’re who or what they want to serve, whether it’s a product or it’s a service they offer, could be anybody, even like financial planning. I’m not necessarily selling them a product that’s physical, but I’m selling them a product and a service. But at the end of the day, when I got into this industry, if I didn’t have that passion and then take action and have excitement to go through it, I would have never gotten anywhere. So our personalities are so important for us to continue to persevere and move forward, to pull back the curtains and see what corporate’s like. And again, I’m not here to pick on corporate because you can have small businesses that are like that. Even with the gentleman you talked about that, he said, you know what? F you, I don’t like the way you treat people, etc. Etc. You were bold and your personality was able to say, you know what? Yeah, it’s a risk. I’m going to step away from this. This isn’t what I want. I want to treat people differently. If we continue the norm though, wouldn’t you agree? If we continue the norm of what the rest of the world does, it never changes. It’s just like the learned behavior. I like how you brought up about your kids and teaching and learning. When we teach our children stuff, that learned behavior carries on with them into adulthood and then all the outside societal influences. But our learned behavior, we teach our kids or we’ve learned from our parents is going to adjust our sale more than any societal norms. But unfortunately, when you get into corporate or you get into businesses that are all about the numbers, people get swallowed up. They get just totally disintegrated. And I see it, they’re automatons. They’re going to work, go home, get paid. They’re caught in a hamster wheel. They stop thinking they’re not as creative because it’s all about, as we talked about in a pre conversation, holding onto your job. And I have a. I wish I would have had it pulled up. I’d read something to you, I’ll have to send it to you. And I literally Say it at workshops that I do in front of small groups or big groups. And it literally talks about the fact that when you don’t have money issues, so you got. Doesn’t mean you’re wealthy, but you don’t have money issues, you’re not threatened by your job, you give better advice to your management, you give better advice to your employees. You are healthier at home, in your home environment, you don’t get as sick as often, you sleep better and people are listening, are probably going, well, that’s all fine and dandy. How do I do it? Take a baby step, reach out, do some personal, take some personal development, go on.
[00:13:46 – 00:17:09]
And I think part of it is like honesty. Like it’s personal honesty, right? Like I had to get to the point of saying I’m not a coat and tie guy. I’m not, you know, I have tattoos, I like to swear like I’m not. But you know, it’s interesting. The epiphany that I came to one day was. And it makes me think about the guy who used to run T Mobile. I think his name was John Laguerre and he was a total iconoclast, right? And I look and I’m like, it’s really interesting. You look at these companies and many of them, unless it’s financial services, right, like you’re not going to see Citigroup or one of these big companies run by like a really, really kind of like a character. But all the other ones you look at like who’s being lionized now, like the Elon Musks and, and all these guys who are iconoclastic individual, really, really, whether you like them or hate them, they’re really driving with their genuine reflection of who they are. And I think to some degree you’re seeing that register more than it ever has like in even on the Internet and things people like, people they think are genuine. And it’s interesting when you look at companies and everybody under the people in charge, like the top guy are often tend to be a little bit more stayed, you know, kind of like old school company things where they got the guy in charge or gal in charge who’s very sometimes bombastic. Other things, right? They’re ultimately very much themselves. And it’s just an interesting switch that I never really picked up on when I was in corporate America. And again I look at say maybe I had it wrong. Maybe if I had said if I brought this energy to some of the other things I did and said the hell with it, if I lose this job, it was the wrong company. And some company will look and say, this is the kind of person we need. But instead, again, you fall into. It’s almost. I’m a big movie guy. It’s almost like Shawshank Redemption, right? Where they talk about someone being institutionalized and you look at it, and for me, the interesting thing has been since I’ve left corporate America, my wife went into corporate America and, you know, we’ll talk about some of the things that she’s going through at any given time. And you look and you’re like, wow. Like it is a, a common occurrence across all these things where you’ve got people either unhappy or all the way to despair, right? And they basically don’t feel that there are options. Now I think, you know, you’re in Canada here. I think some different options and things like healthcare and other things would allow people to be more entrepreneurial. I think right now the system is kind of rigged against people because people are working for benefits. Their compensation is consistently getting, you know, whittled away either through cost of things going up or just they’re not getting raises. And then they look and they say, well, geez, you know, benefits are really expensive. And they get stuck in that, that jail of. It’s a benefits jail, right?
[00:17:09 – 00:17:36]
Well, it’s not even just benefits. It’s just. It’s wanting that two weeks paid vacation, four weeks paid vacation. They want, they want simplicity in their lives and what they’ve learned or been taught when they were growing up, what they’ve seen around them with their uncles and aunts, their parents, you know, oh, okay, we’re taking two weeks off in the summer. We’re gonna do, do this, okay? You can go to the dentist. You can go and get this health care stuff, like you said, with health benefits.
[00:17:36 – 00:17:36]
Right.
[00:17:36 – 00:18:41]
But one of the things I wanted to interject, though, is I wrote down here, you talked about West Point, right? The Super Soldier. I wrote beside it, personal development. How many people could utilize. Like, yes, it sounds harsh, what you might have gone through, but you said West Point broke you down and then built you up, right? Broke down the negativity and broke down the things that aren’t serving you and built you up. Personal development’s all about that. And how many people do you talk to? They throw those words around, but they really don’t understand what personal development is. It’s about breaking down the barriers of your mental and emotional and your spiritual even mind and developing it into something that’s always on the climb, that’s always reflecting like we talked about having reflection and. And having the ability to be grateful and realizing mistakes are life lessons. They’re not mistakes that you can build yourself. So I really like that comment about West Point and. And the personal development part of it. If we took corporate America through West Point, how much better would it be?
[00:18:41 – 00:22:08]
Well, it’s got about a 30% attrition rate. Um, but I think what it actually speaks to more is, like, I, like a lot of people, when I was in the military, did tobacco. Like, I dipped tobacco. And I quit one day, right? And I quit because I had made the investment and the decision to do that. I think that the one advantage that the academies have is a. Is a sequestered student body. Right? Like, so you’re there. And I. And I say this jokingly because it’s not. But, like, I remember they were describing, like, what they were doing to people at Abu Ghraib, and I’m like, God, it sounds like plebe year at the academy, because, you know, when I went through, they could withhold food, they could withhold. Like, basically they could use everything aside from hitting you with a stick to break you down. And that’s changed a little bit. But you have to be committed. Like, it has to be a goal that you’ve invested into to say all this crap is worth it. And I think a lot of people look at the entirety of the things that they want to change without actually personally investing in it and saying, okay, what is it going to take to accomplish? Whether it’s starting a business, whether it’s losing weight, whether it’s quitting tobacco, whether it’s any of this stuff, they’re not fully yet invested to say, hey, I am going to go through the hardship, because you’re going to have hardship with all of it. Right? Like, I look back at the academy, and it’s very interesting for me because my daughter is actually graduating this year from the Coast Guard Academy, and I’ve been able to voyeuristically watch her. Her, I shouldn’t even say from a voyage perspective, because we’ll have a lot of talks about, like, leadership and stuff. And it’s really interesting to see someone else go through it and go through the same steps. And it was high adventure during the time when, like, I’m like, she’s gonna probably make it through. She’ll be fine. And she would call, you know, just a wreck, and then my wife would be a wreck, and I would be like, this is how it’s. It’s working. The system’s Working like you’re okay. So. But I do think more people should experience adversity under the right circumstances. So like right before the podcast, my son walked in, just got back from college for the, for the holidays and he went through a big transformation his junior of high school. He played football. Never had played a down in football before, but that was his transformation. And you know, he was willing to put in the pain to say, okay, this is going to be what gets me in the right footing and in the right direction for what I want to accomplish. And I just don’t know how many people embrace that, scope it to say this is going to be uncomfortable. Whether it’s uncomfortable getting in front of people to present or it’s uncomfortable, you know, with any kind of rejection. Like, boy, I’ve experienced more rejection as an entrepreneur than I ever have. But it’s, it’s getting in the right mindset to say that’s the price that you have to pay for development. And it’s amazing how many people don’t think that way. And I think to having raised kids, you know, my youngest is going to be 16 in May and you look at the push that there’s been and you know, I think it’s waning. But to remove adversity for these kids, you know, make things easier so that.
[00:22:08 – 00:24:24]
But it starts at you though, it starts at the parents. It’s. In order to help our kids go through all this stuff. I’m hearing the same thing from you, is that we have to be strong, resilient, and in order for our kids to observe and do like your daughter through, you know, the Coast Guard or even your son, they’re seeing, we have to lay down the path that they follow, including them seeing the good, bad and the ugly to, for them to see on the outside that we can develop and change. So your, your kids have both you and your wife, you have, they have the yang and the Yang. You’re, you’re more grounded because of your experiences, but your experiences are still helping your children. They will to the day you pass away. Your kids still come to you. My kids still come to me, my 38 year old. Right. For advice, but it’s because the foundation of their childhood was about development and growth. And that’s what I’m saying you did for your children and still are doing. Most people don’t realize the foundation of growth in all of North America. Canada and the US are a lot alike. We may have differences between healthcare and stuff, but we’re, we’re brothers and sisters and at the end of the day, the family unit is where it has to start. The foundation. Whether you’re couples or you’re a single parent, do the walk if you want your children to do the walk. You know what I mean? We have to take onus and responsibility for our children. And you’ve done that. And your kids are thriving. They’re going through their character building moments. You’re still going through your character building moments. And one of the things I loved about it, communication. Like you said initially, you’re a voyager of your daughter, but then you corrected yourself. Actually you’re really integral, integrated. You talk, so congratulations. And those listening. It’s the foundation of our family that’s starting to erode in North America that is causing a lot of our problems because our kids come into the corporate world or just maybe a job at retail, maybe they’re fresh out of high school. They don’t understand all the different nuances, the personality conflicts. They don’t understand that some things that are said aren’t directed at them. They aren’t taught to be people watchers and understand body language and tonality. They’re not taught that not everything’s personal to you.
[00:24:24 – 00:26:22]
Yeah, sometimes. And they’re not. You know, and I’ve been trying to teach my kids to advocate. Right. Like it’s one of these things where I think, because there was. It’s hard to put a finger on. Right. I think that the world definitely has the pendulum swing one way and it will swung the other. And with my kids again, I tended to be more authoritarian when I was younger. You know, I can, I can tell you when we had my son, when my older son, my middle child was in middle school, he was kind of a disaster and I had to kind of light him up every once in a while. And there’s some performative aspect of it. Right. Like I did learn in the military that there is a performative piece, especially when you’re a junior cadet or whatever, where you’re like, holy shit, that person’s scary. And then you’re like, oh, it was just. They were scaring me on purpose. And I think that’s kind of the parenting, parenting path I’ve had, right. Where you know, I used to have to really light them up and then, you know, and, and at some point you got to look and say, listen, you’re 14, you’re going to leave the house, you can do whatever the hell you please. All I can hope is in the marketplace of ideas that the ones that I give you, that you consider because many of them are based on mistakes or wisdom that I have. And ultimately, they should keep you out of trouble. But I also found. And it’s interesting, one of my kids said to me one day where I said, listen, you’re leaving the house. I can’t. I can’t tell you what to do, but you own the outcome. And they were like, damn it. Right? Because all of a sudden there’s. They understand what trust means and what accountability means. And that’s a very, very, I think, important thing. And it’s. It’s so, so far served me well. I mean, they screw up like any kids. But I think when you’re like, hey, you know what? Ultimately, if I give you something to push against by dictating, I always love these parents that are like, oh, yeah, you know, my kid wouldn’t get away with that. And like, they are. They’re just not doing it in front.
[00:26:22 – 00:26:25]
Of you, right, like that they stop communicating with you.
[00:26:26 – 00:26:27]
That’s exactly right.
[00:26:27 – 00:26:31]
So if you give them a hard. If you give them a hard ab close, you’re gonna lose them.
[00:26:32 – 00:27:32]
100. 100. And I think it is. It is very much, you know, become a big fan of Scott Galloway, and I’ve been listening to a lot of his stuff lately, and he said something really, really, really, really. That really hit me. It’s like you’re a shepherd. When you’re a parent at a certain age, you’re no longer doing certain things, right? You’re. You’re helping shepherd them along and make good decisions. And frankly, you know, I’m going to go full circle. Corporate America, I think some of the time there’s. That there’s an aspect of. There’s such a fear of failure for subordinates that the leader won’t necessarily allow subordinates to make mistakes because they have to, and the leader should own the mistakes. It never ceases to amaze me how often leaders that I’ve seen take credit for success and burn people on failure. And it’s a really, really bad way to lead. It’s a bad way to run organizations. But sometimes it’s the predominant thing out there. Well, it’s prevalent.
[00:27:32 – 00:28:36]
It is very prevalent in North America. Very much so that it’s my way or the highway. When things are good, it’s me. When things are bad, it’s you. And it’s. It’s terrible, but it is what it is. All we can do is, Doug, you and I can work in our own sphere of influence, starting at our family unit and then work our way out where we’re helping and supporting like you are veterans, but it’s also supporting you, giving you functional products, connections, communication skills. Your communication and connection skills are going to grow the rest of your life. Because why Doug wants to change. And one of the things, one of the things I wanted to mention too, you. You talked about your wife and the supporting of her wanting to, you know, you ended up getting a house, you wanted a shop, you wanted to, you know, make that first knife use. You know, you looked at the circular saw, you looked at, you know, using cheap steel. Whatever the case, you had to focus what you were going to do. Was your wife the biggest driver behind you creating that knife?
[00:28:36 – 00:28:40]
She’s been hugely supportive. She has been hugely supportive.
[00:28:40 – 00:28:52]
Who else has been key? And not just a knife, but just who would you single out? Or people? Maybe a couple people could you single out besides your wife that have always been supportive of you on this business venture that you’re going with?
[00:28:52 – 00:31:03]
Well, you know, I think that my family, all of them have been. And there were ideas that I don’t think I developed enough. You know, one little side jog I’ll take is find good resources. Right. I got my mba, but I really don’t think that I was as good as I am now until I went through an accelerator with my business. Right. It’s sort of a different actionable thing. So they were always supportive, but I think now it’s gone into overdrive with the family. But, you know, you had talked earlier about, you know, finding your tribe, and I think that’s it. Right. Like, my Academy network has been amazing and exceptionally generous, and I really should expand it beyond that because I think if you allow people to support you and allow them to be generous, they will. And I think there’s a. There’s an aspect of people being self conscious when they’re launching something new, and that’s the opposite stance they should take. So I did the. What is it? There was an episode of Seinfeld. That’s how old I am, you know, where George Costanza did everything opposite and, like, his life changed. And so with this venture, I was way more about, I want to talk to people, know what the hell they’re doing. And I had people gave me advice that that’s crazy. They’re going to steal your idea. No one’s going to steal your idea. Like, unless it’s a really, really easy service, they can’t recreate your passion, your, you know, all the things that you have. So I found a lot of supporters in my network But I didn’t really, I didn’t really look for that support. It was just sort of like, here’s what I’m working on. I had a guy who called me out of nowhere, another West Point guy who’s like, you know, I launched a couple of food companies. You know, they did pretty well. I love what you’re doing. Let’s just chat. I maybe have some advice for you. And that’s where it’s been really exciting. And I think, I can’t remember whether it was at the beginning of this or before. I think getting in groups of optimistic people helps too.
[00:31:03 – 00:31:03]
Oh.
[00:31:04 – 00:36:09]
Association is key because it’s part of their DNA. Right? So the way you and I were talking, we were like, boy, we would be fast friends if we were closer. It’s that same psyche. You go to, like, a networking event. And I can, I was just talking to my wife about this the other day, where I’m like, well, you go to a corporate event, it’s all people work for the same company, you know, and they really don’t want you out there because then they could lose you. You go to an event that’s small business owners or founders, and it’s a whole different vibe. And they know that giving support, it all kind of comes back because they’ll help you later if you help them. But I gotta say, and this just popped in my head as I was talking is one of the things I did after I gave up rugby was I took up aikido. And I. And I did that for many years, and I’m going to go back to it. But I also got into Zen. You know, I had a little bit of crisis of faith at one point during COVID And I guess it’s a crisis of faith that led to greater spirituality of looking and saying, hey, you know what I’m going to read? I’m going to read the Old Testament again. What the hell, right? So I read through it and I’m like, wow, you know, there’s some really nasty stuff about, like, wiping out entire races of people, men, women and children and like this, you know, And I talked to some of my friends and talked to the rabbi, and he was like, well, it’s interpretation. I said, you know, if there’s that much interpretation, it’s really not for me. I like simplicity. So I started venturing out into reading other stuff. And I’d always read, you know, I’m, I, I, I’m curious like you. So I’d read about other religions, but I really got into Zen and What I liked about Zen was a concept of ego death. And I think it’s an impossibility, but it’s a great aspiration. That’s what helped me get support, is no longer feeling that this was an a, an exercise in stroking my ego. It was a matter of creating something that I was invested in that I feel could have good impact and legacy and not feeling that I was lesser by getting help. So I called, I called one of the guys from Forged in Fire who I had watched some of his other videos. Super, super supportive guy. I even called some of the CEOs of Big Knife companies. One of them is now my president and he’ll be my president coo probably when he, when he moves over. I think he’s finishing something right now at a company. But like the CEO of Buck Knife, super, super supportive guy. And actually reached out months later and said, hey, I may have an idea for you for manufacturing. Because manufacturing our knife has been the nightmare. So I think it’s not about who’s going to support you, it’s creating the landscape to where people can support you, where they know what you’re doing. Right. Like I look back at my other old businesses, there was a little bit of ambiguity in what my business model was, but there’s no ambiguity in this. And people go, now I know how I can help you. So I think it touches on your communication comment earlier where you have to be able to communicate effectively, but it can’t be that one way communication. You have to be able to receive and allow people to help you. And that’s been the biggest thing. I have ended up building my team with people who I reached out to in some cases for advice. My attorney is an 87 grad from West Point and I was reaching out to him to ask him an IP question. He loved the project and decided to join on. But I had reached out to him initially for support. So I think it just comes down to it’s a numbers game like anything else. Right. You’re in the financial services industry as well and you know, you got to talk to this many people to get this many things happen. I think it’s the same kind of thing. And I think it’s okay to be vulnerable to talk to these people and say, here’s a problem I’m having, like, I just can’t figure this one out or how would you approach this? And that has been amazingly transformational when it’s no longer about you and it’s more about the project. And in, in the case where I AM now it’s sometimes hard to lead other really, really good leaders, but now it’s way more about making the entire thing successful because people have believed in me and supported me. You know, it ends up an interesting cycle actually of saying, you know, no one there, there are not everybody’s full time yet, but they’re still putting in effort, they’re putting in sweat equity, they’re putting in money in some cases. And I look at it as my job to they’re supporting me. I want to work them into a full time job with my company. So the support thing is interesting. I think it’s a matter of just getting out there because you just never know who you’re going to click with. You really don’t. And then that all of a sudden someone invites you to something else and you meet more people or they’re like, here’s who you got to meet. And then you build this network of supporters. And I don’t think it’s something to be chintzy about, like, I don’t know, supporters, more supporters.
[00:36:09 – 00:36:59]
Your supporters are based on you, your personality, your drive. And they keep on wanting to jump on board with you because you articulate what you’re looking for. Yet they might know there’s risk, right? Them getting involved or them giving away information. But you’ve created that tribe. Back to that word. You created it. You’re still creating it to a point where your belief system has become their belief system. And naturally you’re the leader. People don’t realize how easy it can be to become a leader. Just be who you are going to be and believe in what you want to believe. But then go out and take the action. Show that you’re willing to be vulnerable enough, but you’re also confident enough. You can be vulnerable and confident and not scare people away.
[00:36:59 – 00:40:02]
Well, and I think being truly vulnerable is a manifestation of confidence in some ways, right? And like vulnerable can mean a couple of different things, obviously. But I think like when you’re like, hey, I’ve got a problem and I am, I am actually like, I am outwardly telling people I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, right? Like I don’t know what I’m doing in that case. And that’s hard to do, right? It’s hard to do when you’re like, okay, well if I’m doing that, is somebody who’s part of my organization going to feel differently about it or you know, is. Is could it impact me in some way? And I think at some point you have to say, the hell with it, right? Like, ultimately, there’s always going to be a million reasons not to do something or not to go in a particular direction or not do something a certain way. And at some point, you have to go with. Especially when you’re older. And this is. This is definitely why I like having a team that’s all over 50, I believe. I think they all are. Is, you know, that they know stuff, right? Like, it’s a much easier way to delegate and run an organization. But I also am perfectly comfortable with any of my people snapping back at me. Like, I remember we had an early meeting and we were trying to figure something out. And my problem is I’m add, so I have ideas coming all the time, and my team likes it, but they’re like, okay, this is what we’re doing now. And then, you know, but they ground you. They ground me, but I. But. But what’s interesting is there’s also respect. And this is the first time I’ve heard this is with this company is we have to ground you, but we can’t do what you do. And that was a very, very uplifting thing. They’re like, don’t worry about the details. You hired us or brought us on with equity to do that. You ideate. You go out there and spread the gospel. And this is where I think it gets back to that genuineness to say, all right, what am I good at? And this is the one drawback from the military, I think, is that especially the service academies, is you do feel like you can do and learn anything, right? Like, you look and say, if I have a manual and I have to do this, I can do it. But it also sometimes creates a. An environment or philosophy that, hey, I’ll do everything myself. And this is the first project I’ve stopped doing that. I am just finding the people who know how to do it. And I am being what some people I think have told me is overly generous with equity. But I also look at it and say, you know, I’m 54. I don’t have that much time. Times better than equity. But also, if this is successful, I would rather have an initial successful project where I’m empowering people and valuing them and giving them equity commensurate with what they’re adding, as opposed to always having my eye on that. Because then I look and I say, if I can do this once, especially with this team, I can do it again.
[00:40:02 – 00:41:04]
And that’s why you’re focused on the needs of many, not just the needs of you, you’re, you’re, you’re a true servant. Right? And I believe as a faith bearing person, God wants us to serve others. Right? How do, how do we expect, how do we expect an ultimate power, whether you believe in God or not, to want the universe or whatever, to serve and give you the things that you believe you deserve. If you can’t help others get what they deserve or giving away too much equity. I’ve heard that lots from people like different companies, startups where I’ve talked with people and oh, I’ve been told by my I should only give 5% and I give them 10% or whatever percent number you want to use. But at the end of the day you’re changing people’s lives. We can change society but somebody has to step up, not be greedy like a billionaire and literally change others lives. Realizing that time is our asset. I like when you said that time is our asset because life is in session. This is not a dress rehearsal.
[00:41:04 – 00:44:09]
No, no. And you know, it’s as a total side note, everybody should, you know, I, it was unexpected that my dad lived with us, but I think it represents a very interesting aspect of understanding the finite time we’re here and making the most of it, right. He was 88, he had a great life. But then you start doing the math, right? I’m okay, I’m 54 and if I live to 88, which would be great, then great. I got about 34 more years, which sounds like a lot, but every year it ticks away and who knows how productive I’ll be in my 80s, right? So you’re right, it is about time and I think that you sort of owe it to give back if you can. But it’s interesting you touched on something with servant leadership and you know, that was a big part of the academy. But it’s when you start to, then you know, if you look at all the plots of like the great, some of the great cultures, I got very close to Japanese culture because I did aikido for like 10 years. Then you look at Bushido, right? And Bushido and the samurai. Samurai means servant, right? So you look at all of these things and it was always either servant to a lord in some cases, but it was servitude to somebody else. And not necessarily, you know, slavish servitude. It was being part of something bigger than yourself. And I think that there is, I think a lot of that is being manifest today in what you’re seeing politically on, on both sides. But I think that it’s really important to get beyond yourself to. To. To really, really feel like you’re making a difference. And you can still be selfish. Right. Like, I. I don’t think. I think people tend to look and they’re like, well, if I do that, then I’m never gonna live for myself. No, I think if you do that, then it’s easier to put aside time for yourself because you don’t always feel like that you have other stakeholders. You can say, I’m gonna go out in the garage for three hours and make a knife, because I’m doing all this other stuff the rest of the time. And I think that people need to embrace that is. You know, it’s. You know, I can tell you the best joy in the military when I was in the military was when your team did well and you could say, no, it was Sergeant so and so, or when you’re able to call anybody out. And I know that was in corporate America, but not to the same degree. And I think that more people should understand that. Is that. Never take credit if you can, as a leader. Because here’s the thing. If you’re not taking credit, everybody’s already giving you credit. You just look like a douchebag when you’re like, oh, no, I did everything. But it’s not true. There’s no way to get there that way. So I think that more people need to understand that to look and say your best advancement is going to be on the shoulders of the people that are supporting you, not on their backs. And that really needs to change because I think there is a leadership deficit, at least in a lot of America.
[00:44:09 – 00:44:37]
Oh, absolutely. We are. This has been a great conversation, but I want to spend the last 15 minutes here just discussing the knife itself, because we could go on and on about leadership principles, and we could have a podcast just on that. And I’d feel bad because. Not. Because it wouldn’t be a great podcast, but we’d forget to talk more details, make sure the listeners. Yeah. So we can obviously have another podcast in the future. I have no issues.
[00:44:37 – 00:44:40]
I’ll always come back, man. You can tell I like talking.
[00:44:40 – 00:45:13]
Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that. So at the end of the day, the looking at the knife, the design is fantastic. Obviously, all I can see is pictures. But at the end of the day, people don’t understand what I’ve adaptive and assistive technology is even required for because they’re so focused on their own little world. They’re focused on the fact that they’re not Needing something like that. So, you know, when you talk to them about things like that, what has been your response throughout that process?
[00:45:13 – 00:53:29]
This is one of the things I wish I had more answers on because I think there is very much a visceral connection to the traditional knife. You know, we were talking about warrior cultures. You know, the, the crusaders, you know, their sword had a cross, right? The way the cross, the hilt looked like a cross and it had a certain connection. Samurai believed that they were really connected like that their sword sort of had a life. So I think there’s this connection with knives and the way we have to talk about it. And it was. Been an interesting trip because we, it worked. And then we’re like, well, we just can’t say that. So we started playing around with some ideas about geometry. So we’ve created a term we call force transfer geometry, which basically is the transfer of force from your body to the blade. And I have to say, martial arts and some of the boxing that I did in, you know, I, I only did it as a, as a, as a phys ed class at the academy, but my nose got a nice little flattening with that. But it’s about force transfer, right? It’s about being efficient so that you don’t tire out. But when you’re landing a blow or whatever you’re, you might be using a weapon, when you’re, when you’re doing it, you’re doing it in an efficient manner to cause the most impact and effect without tiring you out. So I started playing with those ideas. There was a knife called the Ulu out of. It’s. It’s in, it’s in like Alaska probably a lot in Canada as well. The, the Inuit cultures made this knife and it was called the. Everything that women used it and it just worked. And we were like, well, we can just go on that. We really couldn’t. So there’s a white paper that I drew up on why does it really work? And it is a circular thinking, right? If you’ve got a regular knife, it’s a line, it’s a linear geometry, which means that if you’re cutting something, it’s putting force on your elbow, your wrist, your shoulder. You maybe have to saw with our knife, with the Nulu, basically it’s direct transfer from here in your hand to the blade. And the way we differentiated, and it’s. What our patent is based on, is we also added cutting surface. Because now if you’re thinking in terms of a circle, the best kind of knife you could have is optimization of an arc along that circle to where, when you’re gripping the handle, you’ve got all these radii along that surface where the user can then transfer force. How they. We have a joke. We say, how do you nulu? Because there’s ways that I use it. But my daughter was home for Thanksgiving. She started using it a totally different way. And I was like, whoa. So we. We had to retrench, and we had to retrench on our market, too, because we were looking, we’re saying, okay, it works for people who are injured or who have a chronic issue. But is that really. Is that really how we’re defining the market? So we stopped and we look back, and I think in the back of my mind, it was subconscious military thinking, right? Because in the military, you have task, condition, and standards. So if you’re doing something that you’re graded on, what was the task, what are the conditions that you do the task, and what are the standards in your pass or fail? So I started thinking, I’m like, okay, what we’re really talking about here is performing a cutting task under whatever conditions, right? Whatever conditions. Your individual situation is to a standard, cutting it to a certain level. And that’s when we start to look and say, well, wait a minute. There’s a confluence of symptomatic manifestations for ms, Parkinson’s, arthritis. It could be grip strength, it could be tremors, it could be all sorts of things that impact it. So we defined the market that way. It’s sort of like a sedimentary rock of, like, all these different conditions. But that’s when we stopped and said, okay, well, then let’s take it and apply it as a scale and not a binary definition of able or disabled. And if you then look and say, okay, an 8 to a 10 is you can do the task with very little pain or any other issue, but anything under an 8, you’re somehow inhibited either through pain, discomfort, whatever. Well, that’s then when I started looking at it, saying, okay, then if you make this the task standard, you could argue that elderly seniors and kids are by definition, for cutting tasks in the kitchen, disabled. They cannot use a knife the way an adult person in the kitchen could. So where we want to get with the adaptive. Adaptive is, hey, you have a need, and that need can be met by this. So you could otherwise maybe not prepare food or you decide not to because the pain is too much. Then there’s this, this. This. This point where it can. There’s that need part. Then there’s like this one band. And I’m trying to think of the best word to put it where you’re trans, where you’re sort of evolving from need or from benefit to need, right? So and then beneath that you’ve got a group that would just benefit from it, right? That won’t get repetitive stress injuries, that won’t get all the things that are problematic from using a regular knife. So we think of adaptive, assistive, adjacent, adaptive. We’re going to first go to the markets where the people look and they go, I get it, right? Because overcoming that predilection of what a knife needs to look like, that thinking makes people refuse to potentially accept the technology that would better their life. But somebody looks and says, I like to cook. It’s getting toward the holidays. I want to make a holiday meal for my family. They look and they say, I’ll do this, I’ll buy this knife and I’ll try it. Then we’re hoping to move to the assistive side where part of our market is the sandwich generation. Because they’re looking, they’re like, wow, I might have a 70 or 80 year old parent that would do well with a knife, but God, you know, I’m starting to hurt a little bit too. So they get one for themselves, but they’re gifting one. But also that group has grandkids, right? They’re starting to get grandkids and they look and they say, oh, youth is another place. So we’re going to try and do, is another military term. We’re going to try and envelop to where, if we start kids on using it and we have adults, the people who are aging into our market, they’re not our long term market, right? They’re eventually not going to be. They’re gonna, the mortal coil will unravel. But for the young kids, if we can start them, especially with, with a, a big push now toward nutrition and better ingredients stuff, if we can start them younger, we’re hoping that that’s the knife that they use as they get older. And there are certain, like I love a good knife, right? Like I love a good field knife. We’re gonna make a sport version. But for in the field, you need a good, good knife. Like you know, a field craft knife. If you’re, if you carry a knife around, like a, just an edc, like an everyday carry knife, we don’t replace that. So there’s places in the world of blades where a regular knife works better than what we have, where we’re looking to really define Ourselves is in particular cutting tasks, starting in the kitchen. We even took the tip off of it. And we were playing around with that. And the interesting thing is that came about, we were talking. We’re working with all these adaptive offices in the U.S. each one of the states has an adaptive office that reviews and gives guidance on adaptive products. And I don’t know if the provinces in Canada have it. I would guess they have the same thing. But one of the people we’re talking to said this would be great for the vision impaired. And we’re like, we’re not going to really position it that way because there’s risk and things like that. They said, no, no, no. They said the control provides a good way where they know exactly where the cutting is. And the lack of a tip makes it a lot safer. Right, Because.
[00:53:29 – 00:53:30]
Oh, absolutely.
[00:53:30 – 00:54:37]
So it’s been an interesting. An interesting evolution, but that’s where we’ve now elevated the business to wanting to start a venture studio where Nulu is a product and we can roll out other products in a market that I think is being very, very, very much ignored. The design that’s happening in adaptive stuff is kludgy. You know, they’ll take a normal knife and they’ll just put an ergonomic handle on it. And it’s like, well, are you really solving the problem? You’re not, because the dynamics are the same way. So we’re hoping is that nulu is wildly successful, but we can bring what we learned to the greater adaptive space and get better at designing one beautiful products that are well designed. My designer is amazing. He’s a friend I’ve had for years, and I was kicking myself for not reaching out to him. When I started this, I ran into him at a party and he was like, that’s really cool. Let’s work together. And that was history, but awesome. Really nicely designed products that people want to use that are for the adaptive space.
[00:54:37 – 00:55:31]
I think it’s great though, that. And then we’re gonna get close to wrapping this up. I think it’s great, though, that you’re focusing, because my mindset, as you were talking, was thinking, what about the kids? What about preventing stuff before they get to that challenge? What about having healthy. But it’s. It’s like that in everything. We won’t get too deep into the rabbit hole with that conversation about ergonomics. Even working on a computer, even standing and sitting too long, right? Where’s your screen at? Where’s your eyes at? Everything about our health is so pushed away until it becomes an issue. So we’re always trying to fix the issue, throwing things at it, medication, rehab, whatever, when, if we thought about it and we’re proactive, we’d have a much healthier society, less people needing health care, you know what I mean? It’s just, I just love that.
[00:55:31 – 00:55:37]
Well, that’s been a big part of our push in the senior market is aging in place and I focus on.
[00:55:37 – 00:55:44]
That all the time, keeping people at home. My parents are alive, they’re 83. I don’t want them to leave their house. I don’t want.
[00:55:45 – 00:55:52]
And it’s one of those things where you realize, and I think we’re realizing now as a society, how much nutrition is part of everything.
[00:55:54 – 00:55:57]
Eating out of a box or using. Skip the dishes, sorry people.
[00:55:59 – 00:56:02]
I’ll eat stuff out of a box. But yeah, but I don’t mean, I.
[00:56:02 – 00:56:31]
Mean every day though. I’m not saying we can’t, we can’t treat ourselves. I do too. I’m saying people that spend seven days a week, 365 days a year eating unhealthy. We all eat unhealthy to a certain extent. Going to a drive through, eating this, eating that. But I’m talking giving people the ability to eat healthier is so much better. You get to a point like myself, I don’t want to go outside or go out to eat. When my kids are growing up, I’d rather cook for them, come home, you.
[00:56:31 – 00:57:15]
Know what, actually like pizza night. My kids like my pizza better and stuff like that. So I think we are hoping to jump a little bit on the inertia of anti inflammatory diets for people with immune deficiency issues. Better diets for seniors. Right. Like that makes such a difference in not only their health but their purpose. Right. Like it sucks to be dependent, right? When I had my shoulder done and when I had my open heart surgery, I was dependent on people for a long time. It’s not fun, it’s not good. You lose your sense of worth. Because if you’re dependent on somebody, you’re not doing other stuff or you’re giving people hope.
[00:57:15 – 00:57:16]
You’re giving people. Hopefully.
[00:57:16 – 00:57:18]
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:57:18 – 00:57:46]
I can imagine this whole journey for you. You guys having online workshops or people can go live while somebody’s cooking and using the knife, depending. And having people do YouTube videos where they can go watch depending on their specific troubles and challenges. Somebody with this type of injury showing how they’re using it. Somebody else that’s just a senior with mobility issues showing how they use it, showing how like wow, I’m excited for you.
[00:57:46 – 00:59:16]
Well, we’re also hoping that one of our tenets of our business is to design with the input of the communities that we’re designing for. So what we’re hoping is we’re going to market like anyone else, single product, but we foresee different handle variations. Right. Because if you’ve got. So for me, my biggest issue, I have a boxer’s fracture here from just a stupid thing I did. I got mad, I was fixing the refrigerator and I punched it. So that was bad. So I have a boxer’s fracture which creates a lot of arthritis. Fine motor skills are tough for me, but just, you know, brute. Like there’s a video I have on my YouTube channel where I was testing out a machete that I made and I chopped through a 4 inch log. Well, I can do some of those, you know, less fine tasks. It’s. It’s the fine task. So what we see is maybe there’s someone who has grip issues where finger grooves or finger holes will help them, where a different material might help someone else. So what we’re trying to do is figure out the best way then to align our roadmap then to get even deeper in the different communities from a, again, a symptomatic perspective. Right. There are going to be certain symptoms that certain maladies that all have tremors. Well, is there something we can do to help people with tremors? Is there something we can do to help people with weakness? So we’re going to design in that direction to really refine it and help people out even more.
[00:59:16 – 00:59:59]
Wow, that’s exciting. I’m so glad there’s people such as yourself and your team, people that are going out and making a difference in the world because people always say, well, I can’t make a difference. That’s BS One person at a time. You were the one person and then you went out from there. That family support have taught your family to be very independent and understand mistakes or life lessons and move on. You’ve taken and parlayed your whole employment history from the military to going forward to where you’re at. And it’s always about serving others. Yes, you’ve had some challenges, punched a fridge, whatever. We all do things that we’re not.
[00:59:59 – 01:60:57]
I wish that was my only one that was really proud of. I went to the hospital, right? And of course I had nothing to hide, but I was like. And I caught it right on the hinge, like the worst place you could hit it. And I got to the hospital and they’re like, so how did you hurt yourself? And I didn’t even think anything of it. And I was like, ah, you know what? I was trying to fix the refrigerator and I just got pissed. And I. And they’re like, well, you know, because people, I guess, like, if people beat their wives or whatever, you know, they’ll go and they’ll. They’ll have that same fracture. And I was like, wow, I’m glad I was honest. Right? Because they’re like, if all of a sudden you’re like, well, it was nothing. Then they start asking questions. Or if you say you fell because there’s no way to. The only way they could have happened is, like, punching something. I’m like, yeah, I’m a dumbass. I punched my refrigerator and shattered it. Like, it was gone. But that, that, that. That was not one of my military disabilities. But it definitely speaks to. Everybody’s got stuff wrong with them. And what. They start to embrace the stuff.
[01:60:57 – 01:61:01]
Because you courageous. You’re courageous because you’re willing to be honest.
[01:61:02 – 01:61:02]
Yeah.
[01:61:02 – 01:61:11]
And you’re not too worried about what others are going to say to you. It may affect you, but you’re like, hey, I was a de. I was a DA for a while.
[01:61:11 – 01:61:24]
Once the tattoos went below the elbow, I stopped caring what people think. Right. I was like, at that point, you know, I’m done. I’m done caring. And. But, you know, I hope people get something out of this. I hope people do.
[01:61:24 – 01:61:25]
They will.
[01:61:25 – 01:63:04]
I love how you run this podcast. And I really do think that change starts with the person wanting to change and positive change as well. Right. Like, you got to decide that you’re going to do something different with if it’s not working. And for me, the biggest thing. And I’ll end on this is I had a friend who once mentioned the huge impact of small changes, and that was in the context of him understanding the knife. But I’m looking at this now for me, and I’m saying one for young. For young people. And I’m trying to instill somebody. Kids save money, so you have options. But the degree that moving out of industries that I don’t like and organizations that I didn’t like, and now being in something that creates happiness, I’ve lost weight. I’ll go to things with friends I haven’t seen in a while. They’re like, holy shit, man, you are so happy. Like, you were in such a good place. And I’m like, it’s amazing when you get out of toxic environments. And, you know, I think if somebody can’t make the change now. Try and make your environment a little less toxic and do what you can to start to build the muscle memory so that when you can move, you’re not running from something, you’re going to that opportunity that’s going to value you as that genuine person. And I just, I don’t think there’s enough out there. Right. Because their whole corporate America’s whole goal is to keep you there for the least amount of money. Right. So ultimately people got to own it. And it’s great that you’re a coach, that you do that and that you help people, because I know you mentioned that earlier. I lucked out. My chief marketing officer, moonlight says a corporate coach. So she keeps me in line. She was, she was like, you know, I’m a coach, right. So I’m going to be giving you some advice. And I was like, no problem.
[01:63:05 – 01:63:08]
The worst person is somebody that closes their ears.
[01:63:09 – 01:63:10]
Talk.
[01:63:10 – 01:63:10]
Right.
[01:63:10 – 01:63:12]
So, Doug, Doug, if you had to.
[01:63:12 – 01:63:18]
Give our listeners one last closing message, what would you tell them in regards to giving a heck and never giving up?
[01:63:21 – 01:64:39]
Yeah, I guess continuing the thought that I was talking about. Right. Like ultimately you’ve got limited time on earth and understanding that working toward retirement, in my opinion is sort of like a slide toward, you know, accepting a lack of relevance and impact. I mean, you can involuntary and do things like that. So make the most out of the time. If you’ve got an idea, find the people that will help you develop it. Like change your situation if you want to change it, but do it in the right way. And you know, I think more people could do it than realize because they’ve been told they can’t do it, they don’t. And then when you talk to them and you say you can do this, then it’s amazing how people rise to that occasion. So becoming your best self, I guess. Right. Like, the only way to do that is being in a job that you’re passionate about. I don’t think that your passion can always make you money, but at least be passionate about the job you’re doing. And as you talked about on the servant side. Right. Like helping people is a good thing. So I think that was a lot of different things. Maybe it all goes back to character. Right. Become a personal character, become a personality. Want to be around, but don’t do it at the expense of who you are. People. You’ll find the people who want to be around you.
[01:64:39 – 01:64:45]
What a great ending message. I appreciate that. So time is up. I want to respect your listeners in Your time.
[01:64:45 – 01:64:47]
Thank you so much.
[01:64:47 – 01:64:50]
Yes. What’s the best way people can reach you, Doug?
[01:64:51 – 01:65:49]
I am on LinkedIn and on LinkedIn is kind of a broader bio. I do some writing. So there’s some articles, white papers, appearances on podcasts like this. They can always go to newloo knives.com. there’s not much there right now because we’ve been focused on the Kickstarter, but we’re really focused on social media. So that anything new, Loo, Knives or me, they can find me on what, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. I do have a YouTube channel now that I’m doing a lot of demos. So if they put in the name, they can find me. One last story. This is a really funny story. So I was looking for potential strategic partners, and if they put in Doug Katz, they may end up finding. There’s out of Cleveland, where I was born, there’s a chef who’s named Duck Katz who is like, who actually volunteers a lot. And so it’s. I’m not that duck Cats. I’m a different duck Cats. I’m actually hoping to do something with him later on because I just think the optics of that are so awesome.
[01:65:49 – 01:65:50]
Cats on Cats.
[01:65:50 – 01:66:04]
Podcast Cats on Cats. Yeah. So that’s awesome fun and thank you for the ability to tell my story. I really do feel fortunate and I love the ability. If it can help one person, then, then great.
[01:66:05 – 01:66:13]
Appreciate it. I usually ask people if there’s any last final words, but you’ve given me a lot and I really appreciate this conversation.
[01:66:13 – 01:66:17]
Is we are expecting our first inventory in February, March. So.
[01:66:17 – 01:66:18]
Wow.
[01:66:18 – 01:66:26]
The Kickstarter is still live. The tariffs that Trump wants to throw into there is throwing a little bit of a monkey wrench into our works.
[01:66:26 – 01:66:30]
But because the cost just gets passed on. But we won’t even get into that.
[01:66:30 – 01:66:49]
Well, yeah, and I’m hoping it’s not gonna be that bad. But if people want to know more, we are going to be adding more to the website. They should be able to pre order. But if anyone has any questions or if there’s any people in the culinary space that want to do an evaluation, we have prototypes we can send them. We’d love for people to evaluate it.
[01:66:49 – 01:67:13]
Wow. For those new to the show, whether you’re watching or you’re listening, go to giveaheck.com go to the top where it says podcasts. You will see a picture of Doug and I will. You’ll have all the show notes in there, which includes all his social media links as well as his website. So that you can easily not worry about, you know, driving off the road, trying to write down things about him.
[01:67:13 – 01:67:14]
Drive off the road.
[01:67:14 – 01:67:29]
Or, you know, just go to giveaheck.com one stop shop for all the information, including the completely unedited transcript if you want to read specific things that Doug and I discussed. So I appreciate you, brother. I’m going to wrap up the show now.
[01:67:29 – 01:68:02]
Likewise, man. The joy was all mine. And I got to end with go army, beat Navy. Wait, I did that wrong. Go Army. Go army, beat Navy. I’m sure Navy people will make fun of me that I couldn’t point to that, but it was the mirror image. But it should be a great game. Teams are great this year. So if you’ve never watched an Army Navy game as an extension of what we were talking about, these are, I think, the best of us out there. They play their hearts out, beat each other up on the field, and then serve in the same military. And they’re just great people. So definitely it’s a great watch.
[01:68:02 – 01:68:06]
Awesome. So thanks so much for being on Give It. Doug.
[01:68:06 – 01:68:09]
I appreciate your time so much and have a great weekend.
[01:68:09 – 01:68:18]
You bet. I appreciate your time and sharing some of your experiences so that others, too can learn. It is never too late to give a heck.