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B2B Breakthrough Podcast
Camera Struggles to Product Success: A YouTuber’s Lightbulb Moment
00:36:24
In this episode of B2B Breakthrough, host Ciara Cristo chats with Justin McClure, the creator behind The Mighty McClures and founder of QoS Ultra Light. Justin shares his inspiring journey from creating viral content to developing groundbreaking products. Learn how he overcame manufacturing hurdles, built lasting business relationships, sourced suppliers through Alibaba.com, and stayed true to his authentic brand. Whether you're a creator or entrepreneur, Justin offers practical, honest advice on persistence, partnership, and successfully bringing a vision to life.
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- [00:02]
Justin McClure
We all get into this very selfish. I want to bring my product into the world. Who can help me? Who can I use for that ability? But I think that I've realized that things will come back to you if you also treat people with, you know, some kindness and you're generous and you're curious.
- [00:20]
Sierra Christo
Welcome to the B2B Breakthrough Podcast. We're here to bring you all the best knowledge, insights, and strategies from e commerce experts, successful business owners, and the team@alibaba.com that you'll need to grow your business and achieve your next big breakthrough. I'm your host, Sierra Christo.
- [00:38]
Podcast Host
All right, today we've got Justin McClure, the guy behind the mighty McClures, one of the biggest family content creators online with 15 million followers and a casual 4 billion views. But here's what's cool. He's not just a YouTube wizard and storytelling pro. He's also jumping into the world of product creation with the ultralight. We're going to chat about going from viral videos to inventing how social media strategies actually work and how his family's adventures fuel his entrepreneurial fire. Justin, welcome to B2B Breakthrough.
- [01:07]
Justin McClure
Thank you. I was listening so well. I was like, wow, is that me? Who is that guy? You know, sometimes you've been doing this so long and you forget that, like, you have 4 billion views, you forget about these things.
- [01:17]
Podcast Host
Yeah, those stats are super impactful. And, I mean, taking a beat to really reflect on what you've already accomplished. Yeah, it's. It's. It can sometimes rock your world a little bit. Yeah.
- [01:27]
Justin McClure
My wife and I were talking about. We started in 2017 by accident. You know, we had a viral video that kind of went out of nowhere. And next thing you know, we were on Good Morning American in today's show, and people were like, who is this family? Let's see more of them. And so, you know, it's. It's a little bit tricky. So for us getting into other things, like other verticals, other products, it kind of shows people that you need to be business savvy. You can't just say, I'm gonna get in front of a camera and try to, like, you know, be entertaining. You have to have other verticals to really, really make it these days.
- [01:57]
Podcast Host
So, you know, you come from a production world. How does. How has that kind of informed your journey with your family and your channel and to. To kind of strategize that? Because, as you mentioned, you know, that's not a skill set that everyone has when they're Starting out with this. So what was it about your background that really helped you feel confident in pushing, pushing that forward with the mighty McClures?
- [02:20]
Justin McClure
Well, I think I've always been a creative person, so getting into the whole YouTube world, when this kind of started, it was something fun for me because I said, oh, I can work on my photography to take pictures because obviously in the beginning the pictures kind of boosted the whole profile. I can work on my video editing, I can learn Adobe Premiere, I can learn all these different things. So it was a real, a challenge on the creative side to not only be creative, but also learn the technology that went with that. I think it's important that people really have to love what they do because you can't do it long if you don't love it. So it's like we're almost 10 years into it, but we're still coming up with ideas to be clever and creative. It's like if you really love it, you'll do it forever. So in some ways I think I'll always be a creative. But in the past few years, getting into the whole production world has also, I mean, production as in product, supply chain, all these different things has been a whole nother challenge for me, just like YouTube was in the beginning. So that's been a big challenge in itself. But it's also been very fulfilling to learn these things.
- [03:24]
Podcast Host
Yeah. And I mean, so as you've been learning about the production world, the manufacturing world, has your family come along on that journey with you at all? Or I know that you've kind of got a built in focus group, a built in writers room. You know, as you talk about these creative pursuits, does that translate into the manufacturing world and everything that you've put into ultralight?
- [03:44]
Justin McClure
So it involves my family, but you know, in a very interesting way. Meaning, you know, here's the ultralight. It's a light that I invented. It's 2025. I came up with this idea, I think, in 2021, and I never would have came up with it if it wasn't for my family. So we're doing YouTube videos all the time. 2021, 2020. And I'm thinking to myself, why is there a light for the phone? Why is there a light for the camera that goes on top of the camera but you can't put a microphone as well? And then I have a, I have to have a light over here. There should really be a light that works with every device. I want something portable, works on a battery. And I looked and looked and looked and there was nothing out there like it. And then I had that light bulb moment of like, oh, what would it be like to invent that light? And then that's when it stopped there. Because I had no idea what the next step was. I had no idea. My family was very supportive because early on when I told them about the idea and other people, they were like, yeah, that's a great idea. Like, if that was out there, I would buy it. And so I was just really, really dedicated from that point. I said, I really would like to bring this light into the world because I really believe in it. Like, if only one person buys it, me, I want it, I want to be able to use it. So that was 20, 21. And then it was a couple years before, maybe it was a year and a half before I got my first prototype. And that was a whole journey of learning about how to get a prototype. And then probably the best money that I spent was on a industrial designer. And this is something great for everybody out there. I spent, I think it was $10,000, which I thought at the time was a waste of money. But I took my idea and somebody said, justin, you really should give this to an industrial designer. I gave it to the industrial designer and what they did is they made it. They made this before this, it wasn't sleek, it was like junky looking. But this here was something that could be manufactured, whereas what I designed, what I drew out, it couldn't be manufactured. So the industrial designer one, he made it sleek and modern and great. But the main thing is he sent me something that could be manufactured by parts. Then I was able to. That gave me so much legroom up on where I was because I was able to send that out to different potential suppliers and say, hey, here's the cad. This thing can already be manufactured. I'd like to get quotes. It gave me so much education on how to speak about my product. So I'm a big advocate now of people. If they think you have a good idea and you design something on paper, spend the extra money and get an industrial designer to enhance your product, but also give you something that can be manufactured.
- [06:25]
Podcast Host
That is a game changing piece of advice. It is, I think, you know, we, we spoke to another entrepreneur a few months ago, the guy's from Reiko, and we talked about the prototyping phase and how to get your product from this vision in your head, you know, into other people's hands. And, and that prototyping phase is very important. You know, it is good for you to take the moment and make your designs and piece things together of PVC and duct tape, whatever you need to get something in the works. But that extra step of talking to an industrial designer, now that's where, where it took it to this extra step of being able to bring it to manufacturers. So how did your transition from working with your industrial designer to people who are actually practically putting these pieces together, how did that transition work for you and how did you find the right partners to bring it to life?
- [07:15]
Justin McClure
My first prototype was aluminum. And I realized I kind of wanted like this Apple esque type luxury thing because I realized my product is very unique. Meaning if you have a unique product, you really can put kind of your own price tag on it if it has enough value. Meaning if the light was 399 or 199, if you wanted it, you wanted it. Right? But then I realized to manufacture aluminum was just going to be way too expensive. And so then I said, well, you know, let's get this thing injection molded. I started, I started getting quotes on that, but I didn't have a supplier. And this is important for my next step, which was meeting Daymond John from Shark Tank. One day, my wife is in my, our Instagram and she's like, just, you know, Daymond John is following you. And so I was, I got very curious. Cause I'm like, here's this light that I'm trying to invent. I have a, I have an aluminum prototype and I think I'm getting burned out by trying to contact suppliers. Then they're probably giving me bad quotes and I don't know what I'm doing. And so I was kind of hesitant to reach out to him. So I reached back about a. So I reached out in about a month. And I didn't say, damon, why are you following me? I just, I just said, hey, big fan of what you're doing, by the way. I invented this light and I don't know what the next step is, but I'm so passionate about it. I think it's a big game changer for creatives. And then he said he couldn't mess with it because of Shark Tank. I said, no problem. Then about a month later, he said, hey, can have your number, and gave me a phone call. Turns out his daughter, who was seven at the time, is a big fan of our YouTube the Mighty McClures, because we're family friendly and I'm, I'm white, obviously. My, my wife is Nigerian. And his daughter one day said to Damon Said, I like this family because the dad looks like mommy, because Damon's wife is. Is white. And so Damon started taking a closer look at us. So next thing you know, I'm meeting Damon face to face. I show him the prototype in person. He's like, whoa, this could really be something. What kind of. What type of help do you need? And I said, well, I only want your help if you want to help. So, long story short, that's when Damon put me in touch with one of his suppliers who does some of his Shark tank stuff. And that's when I got in touch with somebody who could be trusted, who I said, here's my product. I want to get injection molded. And then that's when they also looked at it, and they said, oh, we can make this a little bit better. We can do this thing. We can do that thing. We can make it a little bit better. And so meeting Damon, which is rather fortuitous, got me into that world, which, once again got me to kind of a trusted supplier. Fast forward until now, and we're about to have 2,000 units roll out of Ningbo all the way here to the US and it's time to sell this stuff. So important for people in MySpace, creatives, YouTubers, or Instagram, TikTok, whatever you do to not give up, because it can be done. It's not as complicated as you think. You just have to really, really focus on it, because it can be overwhelming. But if you really, really want to do it, I think I'm proof that it can be done. Because a few years ago, I had no idea about any of this. I just sought to really learn something every day. And I knew that, like, I wanted to see my light as a reality that people could buy and purchase and use and hopefully get the same value from that I've gotten.
- [10:28]
Podcast Host
Yeah, I mean, your story is such a huge testament to the value of building relationships in this world as well. I mean, it's. There's. There's so much that's fortuitous about the way that Daymond John came into your life. But, you know, you. You seize those opportunities. They come to you, and you. You have to take advantage of them in the most positive, constructive way possible and continue to build on them and find those, you know, the manufacturers who are able to support you and change the way that you approached injection molding and all of those processes. And, you know, so hearing the story from you and all that you've learned in that process, you know, what were some of the surprises to you along the way, or the things that really caught you off guard, that you were able to learn and grow from, that you would maybe pass on to another entrepreneur and say, keep an eye out for this.
- [11:21]
Justin McClure
I want to go back to something. You can go back about relationships, about relationships now. Daymond John's on Shark Tank now. The way I approach this, and this is important for me to say, because anybody listening is, I tried to add more value to Damon's life than he could add to my life. I went into his life and I said, His YouTube kind of sucks. I could help make that better. I could give some ideas over there. He needs some help over here with this company. Hey, Damon, you may come in as a fractional cmo. I'll go in there, wreck stuff up, make it better. So after a while, he got really inclined, I think, to help me more because I was just adding value to his life. And then he was just like, whatever Justin needs, you give it to him. Because he's proven his worth around me. So I think that's really important. How do we add value to other people? Because we all get into this. Very selfish. I want to bring my product into the world. Who can help me? Who can I use for that, for. For that ability? But I think that I've realized that things will come back to you if you also treat people with, you know, some kindness and you're generous and you're curious.
- [12:23]
Podcast Host
Yes, I think you raise a great point. You know, it's when I say take advantage of these relationships, it's. It's more about seizing the opportunity when it presents itself to you, but building it and.
- [12:32]
Justin McClure
And.
- [12:32]
Podcast Host
And really nurturing that. That connection. And as you've built and nurtured that connection, you.
- [12:38]
Sierra Christo
You.
- [12:38]
Podcast Host
You've learned a lot in the process. And so as you're learning about each other and the way each other operates, what were some of the. The learnings and lessons along that path that caught you off guard, caught you by surprise, that you. You are now in a position to continue adding value to other relationships in your life and say this. I did not expect this hurdle in this journey.
- [13:01]
Justin McClure
I would say the biggest thing in that way that I've learned is how long everything takes. It's like, I'm part of this whole, like, Kickstarter community with a bunch of inventors, and I think people get excited. They're like, I have this idea, and I want to bring it to market in six months. And I'm just like, listen, this has been four. Four and a half years. So in the beginning, Damon wasn't really excited about the light because he gets 400 products. But the, the biggest thing I think from him and through the suppliers and other things is just, you know, how much time things, things take, the patience you have to have for little changes. Even right now we're missing deadlines and I knew that we would when we did, I'm like, I knew we're going to miss them. Like nothing ever, never, never happens on time. I think also if you're really dedicated along the way you have other things you're doing. I'm not, I'm not just waiting around all day for your email of like, what's going on with it. Like, I got other things to do. I'm hoping for that email, but at the same time I'm going to go do these other things over here, you.
- [13:55]
Podcast Host
Know, and it's a testament to, to your passion. It really tests you and says, you know, if I can't make this work in six months amount, you know, if, if you have that kind of attitude towards building your product, this may not be the product that's going to take you over the finish line. And so to, to sit here and say, you know, even, even you saying, you know, this has been four years in the making. That's in the world of manufacturing and product development, that's relatively brief. I mean, there are some long lead times to bringing a product to market and you know, four years, it's definitely, you've put in the time to life.
- [14:27]
Justin McClure
Think about it. Let's, let's go back to YouTube. Even YouTube is not calling me for a video. Facebook is not calling me for a video. So a lot of people get into YouTube and they say, I'm going to be a content creator and they'll tell me this. And I'm like, you are out of your mind if you think in six, nine months you're going to be monetizing and making money from this. As saturated as it is, like two years minimum. And then, I mean, you kind of see the blood drain from their face. They're just like, oh, I thought I could do this quicker than that. And I'm like, we've been doing this a long time and we've got 4 billion views and we have never missed uploading in a, in a week. Like, like we, we upload every single week. Even when we made the best money that we've ever made, we didn't take time and say, hey, we're going to relax for two months. We kept making content. So I think when you keep that type of drive, you realize that six months will go by fast, a year will go by fast, and next thing you know, for me, the light four years. So I think with our career and relationships and, and inventing, it's that level of patience is required to be successful. It's not going to happen immediately, period. In life.
- [15:31]
Podcast Host
Yeah, you need to invest the time on top of all of the other resources. Time is, is the biggest resource that you can really dedicate to, to making your product and your business successful. You mentioned some of these, these hurdles that, you know, may interrupt the flow of a relationship and really just put a damper on the whole process. So what, what are some of the, the hurdles and the challenges that, that you're facing, even, even in this most recent phase that's making it challenging for you to bring ultra?
- [16:02]
Justin McClure
Yeah, there's a lot of hurdles and they're all like little fires you put out and then there's another one right around the corner. But fulfillment. So let's say that you invent something and you like, you put in an order and let's say, you know, my cost of goods on this is like $40 and I'm going to sell it for 189 because I'm marking it up, you know, enough to make a profit. And so, okay, then my cost of goods is 40 of them. If I'm getting 2,000 of them, that's $80,000. So you put in an order for 80,000 and then so they're going to come over on the ship or the airplane for me, the ship because that's cheaper. Where am I going to put it? Where am I going to put it? I just decided I want to do this myself. I said, I want to know that in the early stages, before it got too big, that I hopefully gets too big, that I did this myself and I outgrew it myself. So we hired my nephew who's 18, and I said, okay, well, I think I can give you a job in fulfillment. And so long story short is in we secured a lease and we're going to do the fulfillment ourselves, which required me learning about, you know, freightboarding and getting the product over here. X works versus FOB and you know, all these different things you got to. When I'm talking about freightboarding, people unsure is if you have something in India or China or some other country and it gets to the port. Well, at the port it's their, their country's done, China's done. So then you have to get it over into your country for me, and that's called freightboarding. And so then you got to deal with. With customs and duties and taxes and all that kind of stuff. So after learning about that, then I was like, okay, well, we got to get it all the way to this. To this fulfillment center, and then I got to learn about shipping. So that's been the biggest hurdle of the past probably month is just figuring out what to do with this product. But the good thing there is to segue into. We have two other products. My wife has a skincare line, which we're sourcing and we're using, like. And at this point, because my knowledge is. Is much better, I'm using Alibaba for a lot of things that I can really go in there now, and I can look at suppliers, and I can. I can vet them. I can see if they're credible. I can even look up their addresses. So the ultralight. And we also have my wife's skincare line, which I'm sourcing, and that's going to be, like, six skincare products. And I have another product that I've been sourcing for the past two years. So in that, I noticed on social media, there's a lot of people cleaning headstones. And I'm like, you know, there should be a kit for that. There should be a nice, compassionate kit for. For people who are grieving or want to clean a headstone. So I put together something called Headstone Helper. And it's like, it's got a cleaner and a journal you could write in to take your notes. It's got all the tools you would need and a towel and a backpack so that when you go into the cemetery or wherever that, you know, you have a little kit. So that's almost done as well. And we're dealing with 13 different suppliers because, you know, one. One supplier is doing the brush, one's doing the goggles, one's making the bucket because they're all so competitive. And so we're dealing with 13 different ones. And then we got to kid it. Now if you equip yourself with the knowledge, all you have to do is look around and have a good idea and say, I can make it happen. So now I'm not inventing things with some of the other ideas that I have. I'm just, like, going to Alibaba and I'm. I'm sourcing and I'm betting things out. And next thing you know, I can get it started because of all the knowledge that I've given myself the Past couple of years. Yeah.
- [19:26]
Podcast Host
You've built your own toolkit to figure out how to, how to piece it all together. So, you know, with that knowledge that you've accumulated over the years, what can you advise to someone starting out and dabbling on Alibaba.com trying to find their way around? What are you looking for as, as you're looking at all of these manufacturers? Like what, what are you skimming down your page just trying to figure out, is this someone worth exploring, is this someone worth vetting on how that helped?
- [19:54]
Justin McClure
First and foremost, I look for any, I look for who's credible. And I know Alibaba has some features there. I forgot what they're called now, but there's some features there that the Alibaba says, yeah, this, this is a credible supplier. So I will take a list of those. If you don't do your homework or you're, you're very naive or you're also desperate, you're going to make bad decisions quickly. So what I've realized is that you really have to take the time to learn a system like Alibaba. Let me give you a practical scenario. I have an idea for a hands free device, right? So I see people walking around my neighborhood and they're doing zoom calls, you know, they're doing zoom calls, walking around, holding their phone in front of them, right? I'm like, there should be something. We don't have to hold our hands anymore. And so I looked on Amazon, I looked on Alibaba and they have, they have something out there like it, but it's not what I would buy. So I found the best thing I could on Alibaba with a very credible source. And I contacted somebody. They said, yes. So first thing I said, give me a sample. They sent me a sample. And I said, then I started communicating with them. I said, if I get a thousand of these, I see that this is not in the market anywhere. So if I'm offering to get a thousand, then maybe I want 2000. If I do well with, with this, they'll, they have incentive to change this product for me because they're not selling a lot of them. So I said, okay, I'd like to have, you know, a bracket that kind of goes up higher so the phone can be up higher and I need some kind of stability. So when I'm walking, it doesn't move around a lot. And then they, they said, well, how many, how many would you be willing to purchase if we were to make these changes? What I'm saying, I'm negotiating, I'm negotiating. It's really getting that thing started and then you can have really good communication. Because the communication I've had over there, there have been no barriers. People are communicating clearly. Sometimes I have to stay up till, you know, 9:00 at night or whatever and that's fine. But it's been really, really interesting to see what you can achieve just by finding the right, credible, you know, supplier and then having, you know, the communication and then waiting for a sample and then just kind of like talking back and forth.
- [22:04]
Podcast Host
Yeah. The open conversation part of it is, is huge because you, you know, you figure out questions that you didn't know to ask in the first place and.
- [22:11]
Justin McClure
Yeah.
- [22:12]
Podcast Host
And help figure out, you know, they're capable of making a similar product. Well, yeah, let's, let's talk because I can help you. This goes back to what you were saying about adding value into a relationship because you are now, you know, showing them practically. I'm someone, I'm your key demographic for this product. Here's what will make it better, here's what. And you have, have a better working relationship moving forward because of that added value. And what's really helpful about this conversation and about all conversations like these with suppliers is it, it also helps reinforce, you know, really practical problems that people are dealing with in terms of quality control issues. It, it really helps get to the root of the problem as, as humans as that, that, that relational connectivity is, is what is helping you figure out how to solve these little, little tweaks, little problems with the product itself and pushing it be something that, that you, you can both benefit from because you, you're developing a long term relationship with this partner to really push things forward.
- [23:08]
Justin McClure
Yeah. With the quality control with the QC stuff, I've had no issue with that. It's like, it's been really, really good like with Headstone Helpers. 13 different products that are branded and I've had no issue with like, they'll send me little videos of like, hey, how's this towel look with, you know, Headstone Helper? How's the bucket look with the light? So I think people need to understand, even though if it's Alibaba or whatever supplier you're dealing with, is that people on the other side, they're very willing to, you know, they want this to succeed as well. These are people that are checking the email. They're, they're, they're reading your question, they're going to answer your question. And so for me, just realizing that, you know, a Picture is one step away or a video. It's been really, really soothing to know that, like, I can get these things answered as I move things along.
- [23:49]
Podcast Host
I want to talk more about Ultralight because now that you are in this position where you are preparing to retail, let's talk about your, your fulfillment strategy with this. You said you're managing this yourself. You know, you're working with your family. How is that process going moving forward? Can you just give us a little bit more context around your strategy of bringing this to market from both a logistics standpoint and from a marketing standpoint?
- [24:12]
Justin McClure
Well, you know, so we're, we're using a Shopify side. Hopefully retail for me is not really the play right now. I think I can do better in the E Comm space helping, so. But my strategy right now is I'm trying to reach out to creators and I'm trying to reach out to top level, you know, influencers. And I'm just trying to get to them light and say, hey, and this is important for people too. It's like when you're in my world, try not to ask too much of people, meaning, I will give you more. If you are somebody, you just say, justin, man, I like what you're doing. I really think you might like my product and I send it to you. That's it. That's what I do. So I think it's important for people that if you find the right people who will love your product, just send it to them. And especially as an early adopter, I mean, I've had my light out to enough people that I know it's a good product, but I can send it out to you. And you, you may not, you may not love it. I would love to hear your critique. Before I'm selling, you know, thousands of units, I want to know early on that you think this about it. I'm like, oh, okay, well, before I order the next batch of 5,000, maybe that's something I need to consider looking into, like playing around with that feature or that lack of something. Right. So on the marketing side, obviously I'm have to run ads. And that's another thing is in the past few years, I never read ads before, but I've become kind of an ad expert. And I didn't realize that, but once I realized through Kickstarter is that my ability to tell stories made me an excellent digital marketer because the ads, the ads that I put together myself performed exceptionally well. Like crazy well. And at some point I'm just trying to get into the hands of the right person who will be the tipping point. And that's being at the right place at the right time, trying to get to CES and vidcon and all these places where the creators are and just really, really hustling it that way. So that's what I'm doing on the marketing side, which is a lot of work on the fulfillment side, like I said, we're going to have our own fulfillment center and I've got a nephew that I'm going to train. So right now we're just trying to, you know, solve all the little problems that might be coming up. But I think, I think we're doing a good job. My biggest thing right now is I tend to do everything myself because I'm a doer and I have a lot of skills myself, which can be a detriment. You find yourself doing everything because you're capable. So my biggest thing is I got to figure out a way to scale because I need to look at it the bigger picture because I find myself getting there and doing that graphic or learning this thing about AI and next thing you know, has been four days of like, I haven't really accomplished a lot. I've learned a lot of new things, but I haven't done a lot. So I think my biggest thing, my biggest challenge, and maybe other entrepreneurs too, is I got to figure out how to scale better. And there's no way I can grow this company and others by being the guy doing things.
- [26:59]
Sierra Christo
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- [28:03]
Podcast Host
I want to bring it back to Shark Tank because that's where a lot of folks in positions like yours are bringing their products to find resources to scale and really fill in any gaps in their own knowledge and experience. You've done it yourself, and you've worked with, you know, with Daymond and have these relationships that have supported you through it. But you've also seen what other entrepreneurs have gone through behind the scenes. Have you learned anything secondhand that has held other entrepreneurs back or that you were able to take and employ to further your own business here? Just being on the set at Shark.
- [28:37]
Justin McClure
Tank, I haven't been on Shark Tank, you know, but I've been there a couple times on set just to watch. I think one thing I've learned is that a lot of people think their product is great, and maybe it is, maybe it's not one thing. I. Early on with Damon, I was very clear. I'm like, maybe my product sucks. Like, I want to use it. But he liked the fact that I was just like, maybe my product sucks. Maybe nobody wants it. I was detached from my ego of, like, how great this is. And if you're detached, then you're open to criticism that it could be better or there could be. There could be pivots that could be more beneficial. A lot of people come out there and they pretend to know what they don't know, and then they're so committed to this thing, and they don't know how to pivot or their ego gets in the way, or they have. They have other founders and partners, and they can't agree on stuff. I think the ego. I think diminishing the ego is probably the biggest thing that you could ever do in life, period. And for me, you know, full stop, I'm 12 years sober. That was also the beginning of me diminishing my ego and me thinking that I'm great or that my ideas are the best. So Shark Tank, I realize there's a lot of people who are very talented and they do very well, but there's a lot of people, I think, that hold themselves back because of the. Of their egos and their commitment to their one product. I love the Ultralight, but at the end, it's just a light. You know, either you love it, you like it, you don't. But what I tell my wife and I tell other people, I don't care. I don't care if everybody buys it and it sits in their garage. That'll make me. That'll make me a fortune, which I'm not driven by money, but I can take that Money and I can have time, freedom, and I can do everything else.
- [30:15]
Podcast Host
You have that behind the scenes privilege there to really understand how that, how that impacts their journeys. And the ego comment is so, is so interesting to hear because people are so passionate about their products and as they should be. It's, it's your baby. It's a part of your, your journey, your identity and it's. But it's also, it's good to have that distance from it.
- [30:37]
Justin McClure
Damon was just like, he's like, justin, every time I see you, you've got this light that looks like he made in prison. I said, cause there's nothing out there like it. That's when he said, he said, well, Justin, if you're one of the top creators in the world and you have access to all this technology and you're using this light, there must be something there. He's like, let's do something with this.
- [30:56]
Sierra Christo
Wow.
- [30:57]
Podcast Host
Let's make it not look like a prison light, right?
- [30:59]
Justin McClure
It looks way better now.
- [31:02]
Podcast Host
It looks amazing. I mean, you've done such a great job with it and the functionality is so intuitive. I mean, just even seeing you play with it, it's so clean.
- [31:11]
Justin McClure
So I, I really, really, really believe in this. I think it can do really well and if not, I don't care. I'm so, I'm so proud of myself. Like, I, I mean, of course I want to do well, but it's like I'm just. This is in the world because of me. And that to me is the coolest. That to me is the coolest thing.
- [31:28]
Podcast Host
That's awesome. I love hearing you talk about this. I could listen to you talk about Ultralight all day long and your experience with your family, all the, the product experience, expansions that you're working on. I want to ask you before we wrap up here, do you have any hot takes from this process that you don't think are talked about enough in the product development world that that really could be helpful for someone moving forward?
- [31:51]
Justin McClure
I wanted to give up quite a, quite a bit. I really did. And I just would encourage people to always to believe that this world can be yours. So my biggest hot take is this, is that little steps lead to big changes, meaning that if you're completely overwhelmed like I was day one, because you have an idea for a product, you don't know how to do it. And then you realize how overwhelming it is because of the CAD and the engineering and the logistics and the suppliers. Take one small thing and accomplish that and then the next thing will Manifest and then the next thing. Because if you do, then the journey will be fun. And so for me, that's the biggest hot take is that if you believe in what you're doing enough, then chances are there's an audience out there that will believe in it as well. And they don't want to see you give up. They don't want to see you give up. Because people that buy the light is they're also. I want them to be attracted to my story of like, man, that guy didn't give up. I'm not going to give up on my dream to have a barbershop. I'm not going to give up on my dream to do whatever it is. The biggest thing is figure out a way tomorrow to put one foot in front of the other one and do something you didn't do today, the 1% better.
- [33:06]
Podcast Host
So the passion doesn't override that impulse to quit. It's the small decisions along the way.
- [33:11]
Justin McClure
That it's like either we live passionately or we don't. And at some point I won't be here. And I want my life to be filled with fun things and excitement and passionate things. And bringing this into the world has been one of those. But what else has been having a great marriage, being a dad, you know, running a sub 3 hour marathon. These are all achievements that we are, that they are there for us if we want them. Right. So, yeah, I mean, I know that gets a bit philosophical, but you know, that's kind of my approach to it all.
- [33:42]
Podcast Host
I love the philosophy. It's really encouraging because the times that, that folks want to quit, it's not the times that they want to talk about, but they, they're real and it's important to talk about that along the way as well. So what's next for Ultralight? Give us, give us a little projection just so we can keep our eyes out for what's coming down the pipe.
- [34:00]
Justin McClure
Well, we got 2,000. They should be on the boat. See what's going with the tariffs. I'm trying to get this over here as soon as possible, to be honest. So the next step is getting it into our fulfillment and then building out my Shopify, which is done. The light is called QoS Ultralight. But I'm trying to build QoS as a tech company. So I didn't mention this real quick. But I also sourced overseas partly through Alibaba tripods and microphones. So the goal is to make QoS like a tech company for creators so that anything that you want, you can buy it as a creator, kid. So that's kind of the next steps is getting the, getting, getting the Ultralight over here, working on the marketing, building out the creator side of Kuos and then running ads, running good ads, getting into the hands of the right people that might be able to bring good attention to it and hopefully people buy it. Wow.
- [34:55]
Podcast Host
You got a lot on your plate. You got a lot coming up.
- [34:57]
Justin McClure
It is a lot, yes, but you're.
- [35:00]
Podcast Host
Handling it in stride. I'm loving watching your adventures here. I'm loving seeing the progress of Ultralight. So where can folks follow and find you?
- [35:09]
Justin McClure
Well, Instagram probably is the best thing for me. Justin McClure, JK McClure, you can follow the Ultralight too. It's the Ultralight. You can go to the website too, the ultralight.com so but yeah. And also anybody listening, if there's anything I've said that I can help, please feel free to reach out. DM I'm, I'm glad to, to be of, of, of service of any way.
- [35:28]
Podcast Host
Yeah, well, we'd love to see you paying it forward. I think this is going to be a really helpful conversation for folks to hear. And yeah, we'll, we'll keep following along to see, to see your progress throughout 2025.
- [35:39]
Justin McClure
Well, thank you, Sierra. This has been great and I'm really glad I've got to share some and hopefully, hopefully people listen to this, they come away inspired and they, they do the next thing that can get them to where they want to be, whatever project they have.
- [35:50]
Podcast Host
Well, I'm going to take that advice to heart myself and I hope everyone else does as well. So thank you so much for your time, Justin.
- [35:56]
Justin McClure
Thank you for having me.
- [35:59]
Sierra Christo
B2B Breakthrough is produced by Alibaba.com to find out how Alibaba.com is empowering its customers with the tools, services and resources they need to grow their business. Visit Alibaba.com and then make sure to search for B2B Breakthrough on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your podcasts.
- [36:16]
Podcast Host
Make sure to follow us so you.
- [36:17]
Sierra Christo
Don'T miss future episodes. On behalf of the team here@alibaba.com thanks for listening.