Full Transcript – Dr. Kathrin Hamm – Wild Business Growth Podcast #354

This is the full transcript for Episode #354 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Dr. Kathrin Hamm – Bearaby, Weighted Blankets & Naps. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

00:00
Whatever the category is doing, do the opposite.

00:19
Hi, welcome back to Wild Business Growth. This is your place to hear from a wild entrepreneur turning wild ideas into wild growth every Wednesday. And I’m your host Max Brandstetter. You can learn more at maxpodcasting.com. Today’s guest for episode 354 is Dr. Kathrin Hamm. Kathrin is the Founder & CEO of Bearaby, the maker of

00:49
unbelievably comfortable weighted blankets and a whole assortment of other home wellness products. In this episode, we talk naps, including the best nap of Kathrin’s life. And we talk hugs, naps and hugs and spaetzle. It is Kathrin. Enjoyyyyyyy the showwwwwww!

01:22
Alrighty, we are here with Dr. Kathrin Hamm, Founder & CEO of Bearaby. This is one of the most comfortable interviews and coziest and snuggliest interviews that you’ll ever hear. Kathrin, so excited to talk to you and learn all things weighted blankets and beyond. Thanks so much for joining. How are doing today? Thanks for having me. Doing well. Of course. Of course. So we’re all recording this draped in our Bearaby bl- no, I’m just kidding.

01:51
Before we get to what the company is today and the story behind that, can you share the story of the best nap of your life? That life-changing nap you had? Yeah, happy to share that because I’m actually usually not a good sleeper at all. I was even as a child waking up at night or just a light sleeper overall.

02:18
when you have this like, you know, there’s this visual of the bear coming out, like, you don’t know where, you are, where you are, how long you slept. So I was actually back in India then. I was working for the World Bank and I was traveling a lot to different places and kind of being always a light sleeper that like really had put me over the edge. Kind of you are, you are flying into Bangladesh and then you’re five hours on the road and you’re flying back.

02:46
And you just like not only jet lag, but you have chronic insomnia. So that’s when I was looking for like different products that are in the market and tried really everything. And then I came across weighted blankets at that point, like no one heard about it, knew about it. It was like a medical product that I found in a German pharmacy. So it took six weeks to arrive in my like little apartment that I had in Mumbai. And I got this like orange bean bag, like

03:15
orange blue filled with like these loud beats. And I’m like, that’s a awful thing. Why would you even like sleep under something like this? But then I’m like, why don’t I just try it on and kind of act, it was like 15 pounds, like really heavy. So Saturday afternoon, I didn’t have anything on my schedule. After lunch, I just put it on and I literally pass out and I slept for four hours. And it’s one of those naps where you literally

03:44
You wake up and you don’t know who you are and like, where am I? It was such a good deep sleep, but I never had that before. And I was like, okay, that’s the solution for like all my sleep problems. just need this heavy bean bag and I just need to put weight on my body and kind of that’s, was this a ha moment where I’m like, I want to have such a product or this is like where I’m like, okay, there’s something really like special about it.

04:10
That was probably like the best nap. think I still had like a couple of good naps, but I think looking back, that’s probably been one of the best naps of my life. This is hitting way too close to home because I need a four hour nap today. Our daughter, Jamie, at the time of this recording is fighting an ear infection and she’d been pretty good, but last night she had us up from like 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. and it was just one of those nights where like every time you put her down, it’s like, nope.

04:40
That nap sounds pretty damn good right now. How did it feel? Like when you woke up from that nap, what was going through your mind when you kind of finally got that sleep that your body so needed? Yeah, I think what a lot of people who like sleep through the night, including my husband, like don’t understand is how it feels when you wake up, like it’s 2 a.m. and then…

05:04
You know, you look at the watch at 3 a.m. and then you’re getting stressed out. It’s like, I need to sleep. need to sleep. So it’s a constant stressor in your life. And then it’s like 4 a.m. and you’re like, okay, now I can just stay up. And you’re just kind of you’re like, I don’t know if you sleep track, if you have a sleep tracker, but if you’re kind of your body kind of sleep scores like 30, 40, and it’s just like, you feel like in a fog the whole day and just starts affecting you. I mean, like

05:32
good night of sleep, changes everything, right? It’s just like life changing. It’s you wake up, you have energy, you kind of can, you hear what your other person, the other person opposite of you is actually saying, you can listen. Yeah, I mean, it was like this, and I didn’t have like such a good sleep for a long time. It was a big, big difference. Just kind of not only sleeping through the night being like, okay, I don’t have to worry. It’s like another thing is like you already,

05:58
always say like you’re stressed out going to sleep, you know, it’s hitting 10pm and you’re like, Oh my God, it’s gonna be a rough one. I wish it would have already been morning. I don’t know if you know, like these, these nights when you’re trying to like sleep, but you know, no matter what you do, you will have a terrible night. And then like, it’s a big, yeah, it’s such, it’s a relief relief for me. you hit that’s I think one of the biggest stressors of the whole thing is what you said about the whole

06:25
I think when I struggle sleeping at night, I try not to look at the clock that often. Because every time you do, you’re right. It’s like an hour goes by, two hours goes by. And then there’s that moment of like, at what point are we just up? Yeah, exactly. If you take your phone out, then you’re kind of like scrolling, and then your brain is fully awake, and it’s kind of ruined already.

06:51
Well, let’s talk about the opposite of Roond, let’s talk about something that improves the lives of people on a daily basis. So let’s get to your company, Barabee. There’s a little foreshadowing there, because obviously that nap was pretty foundational and the realization of what these weighted blankets can do. But how did you take that jump from like, wow, these are really cool blankets to actually, this could be like a product we sell to people and make a company around.

07:16
Yeah, I mean, took a while because I grew up in Germany, so I had like studied, had like my master’s degree, had my PhD. And then I had just landed like a job at the World Bank that I liked. And I was just like four years in and I was in my mid thirties. And it’s not something when you kind of like studied a lot, where you kind of say, oh yeah, it’s just jump off and try something, you know, without like money or like.

07:43
of any prospect. was like, first, this is a cool product, but I’m not the type of, I wouldn’t like being an entrepreneur. I mean, I had worked for my job at the World Bank with a lot of entrepreneurs. So I saw people like how hard it is that there’s never like security also, like, I mean, it was like, had a good year and then the next year there was no financing and then the company was gone. So I’m like, okay, I’m having a good, safe job.

08:10
I’m not like going anywhere, but I was intrigued by the product and I just started doing research on the side after kind of like, is there like, why has no one invented anything? Why is this still like the same bean bag that came out 30 years ago? And there were lots of medical studies and I’m like, interesting, like all the people and like you went to all these forums and people are raving about it. changed their life, sleeping, oh but they had the same issue that I had. It just made them really hot.

08:39
And I couldn’t find any product that was like not a bean bag and that had like these plastic beads that just, you know, if you have 15 pounds of plastic beads on top of you, it’s just like a sweaty, sweaty situation. And then kind of, I worked on a prototype and I actually had my mom who’s a really good knitter who also, when I grew up, all my homework and house projects that I had to do in German school. You have to do all these knitting projects. And then she said like, why don’t we try something with cotton?

09:08
Like where you just take a roll of cotton and you will also get to 15, 20 pounds and we knit like these heavy yarns together. And then we had like a small mini blanket. And as soon as I had like this mini blanket, I went to my, my boss and asked her like, I could take a year off just to try get it off the ground. And she actually really liked the idea and said, like, look, if it doesn’t work out, you just come back and we make a case study for the world bank out of it, how not to do it.

09:37
And then I’m like, okay, it doesn’t feel like too much of a risk. like, yeah, obviously I took all my retirement savings. It was like $120,000. Um, and I’m like, okay, I have to probably retire later. If this doesn’t work out to get that money back. But it was like, now has a risk I’m willing to take. And that’s kind of how it started. That’s entrepreneurship in a nutshell. talk about, like, I think if you look up the definition of entrepreneur, it’s like a, like a business owner who’s willing to take a risk, something like that. And.

10:07
Man, retirement savings, that’d be a really tough decision. How did you, um I guess, how’d you get yourself mentally to be comfortable with quote unquote delaying your retirement? So I think what’s important is that you set yourself like a time limit. So for me, it was always a year. And in that year, I wouldn’t make any decisions. wouldn’t kind of, if things would go bad, I would go back or like maybe things wouldn’t have worked out one year in and kind of.

10:37
Oh yeah, it’s five years in, I still haven’t made any profit and I’m still here. That’s important to have like, okay, how much does the money actually last that you have? Kind of what’s the, maybe have a plan B after that one year. And for me, plan B was okay, I can go back to my old job. So it’s not like something where I’m like, you know, living under a bridge eventually. I knew it would be a change in lifestyle because then it’s a time when, you know, like all your friends making major.

11:07
progress in their career, like they’re getting the promotions and it’s kind of where people start, you know, going to nice holidays, having nice cars and then you kind of back almost into like pre-college time when you’re eating mac and cheese and you can’t go to dinners anymore and you’re not having any fancy vacations. In fact, you don’t have actually vacations at all because it’s just like working nonstop to get, because you’re working against the clock, right? You need to get the product out, your money is shrinking.

11:35
You need a proof of concept. So I think just being like mentally, and I think I wasn’t, I knew it would be tough, but I think also the first year was, I never thought how tough it really would be to get the first prototype out. I made tons of mistakes, almost went back to my job because I’m like, I’m not cut out for this. I think just being mentally prepared that it’s not easy. It’s a rough patch and people will also think you’re crazy.

12:04
I mean, was mid thirties, I had a good job and people are like, what? You’re heavy blankets on the internet. What happened? What’s wrong with you? So there were definitely a lot of questions that I got from family, from friends. Even now friends are coming and said, I didn’t want to say it in your face back then, but we thought you’re completely cuckoo. Like moving everything, like just quitting from one day to the other to do something that

12:31
No one even knew about what a weighted blanket was back in the day. Well, it’s got to make you feel good when your friends call you cuckoo and uh say, what’s wrong with you? It’s pretty ironic if you kind of zoom out because you’re working on creating a product at the time that is like stress relieving, stress reducing, yet it’s causing you so much stress in creating it. oh

12:52
Yeah, I mean, there’s always this thinking like I’m an entrepreneur, I’m and sitting in a cool coffee shop. have like flexibility. I can work from anywhere in the world and I’m on the beach somewhere. I thought a lot of people have like that thinking. I think at the end you need to like just be prepared to probably like the first couple of years. If you are already stressed, it’s probably not the right path to go down. But then I think afterwards it gets easier.

13:20
And there a lot of other things obviously that are really rewarding that keep you going. But yeah, it’s pretty ironic that I actually slept less definitely than when I was working full time. You were just doing kind of like your own research of like your own focus group of like, here’s somebody who needs more sleep. How did you start? mean, you mentioned your mom has been good at knitting.

13:50
What did it look like coming up with the first prototypes and then the first product that you were like actually proud about selling to the public? So the initial iteration really was in the kitchen, my mom’s kitchen table where we just laid out and kind of tried to do different prototypes with my mom’s sewing machine. And we tried to kind of get the yarn into like the right weight and like make it chunky, make it heavy, but also make it breathable. So you’re trying like different fabrics.

14:18
So it’s very hands-on. And then the next step is when my mom is like, okay, I’m out. Here’s the mini blanket. Now do your thing. And that’s when I was like, okay, I’m calling a manufacturer. And I’m like, I have this idea. I have this heavy blanket. It’s made out of Jersey yarn, Jersey, single Jersey knit yarn. They’re like, never heard about this before. We try to make blankets, bed blankets to be light and breathable and airy. We don’t want to make them heavy.

14:48
and we don’t have that type of fabric. And I think I got like 50 nos along the way where people are like, we don’t know who you are and what this product is. And that’s also when I realized, okay, I need to get to a certain level on my own. So we rented a small garage and we had our own knitting machine. So I started with two knitting machines and five knitters and we made 800 blankets for the launch. And I thought like these 800 blankets, they would last a year. That was in my calculation.

15:18
should get us through. But we got to like a prototype. Like when we launched those, was really where I’m like, okay, we did so many iterations. And like, right then we had built our own machines, where you knew like, there’s so much knowledge that goes into it, that like, I could like sleep at night and knew exactly how I would knit the blankets and like what goes into each, each and every size. But yeah, we sold out within like two weeks.

15:45
And that’s kind of when I already realized, okay, how do we get the next 800 blankets? just took us like a year to build these 800. Yeah, we had immediate success and people loved it and wanted to order more. And yeah, we had sold out in two weeks. Well, congrats. That’s a phenomenal two weeks. What do you think led to that such a quick and impressive great sales of those 800? By that time, people, especially like in wellness and health conscious people had heard about weighted blankets.

16:15
And so when we came to the market, which was like end of 2018, we wouldn’t have to explain everyone like the basics anymore. Like, okay, this is what a weighted blanket does. Yes, we still had customers, but we had a lot of these first customers who wanted to upgrade to like a blanket. They already were convinced. Okay. When I’m sleeping on a weighted blanket, I sleep deeper. sleep longer, but I’m getting hot. And we came and we solved an issue that all the people who had weighted blankets wanted to solve.

16:45
So that was, think, just coming up with a better product. And then I think the look of it also mattered because before people were like, oh, this medical gray weighted blankets, they should be in a pharmacy, but they’re not in a Nordstrom or they’re not in a West Elm. But when we launched it and we had all these beautiful colors, home interior colors, really poppy colors, like just within five months, like one morning I woke up and had an email from West Elm in my inbox. We’re like, oh, we want to come to your showroom.

17:14
We were looking into weighted blankets and yours are really beautiful. So I think the functionality and like just the visual, like, oh, something like this we’ve never seen before. And it looks actually pretty and still is functional was like what a lot of people were waiting for. came in the right time to the market. Yeah. That’s something that I think gets overlooked with startups and entrepreneurs. Like we had a lot of fellow entrepreneurs on the show talk about, you know, like a wide, wide range of products. And like, it always goes back to like.

17:44
hands down first, like you need to really high quality product. Like you need a product that is people, you know, can’t wait to get their hands on and can’t wait to buy. And so that was obviously essential for you as well. Now getting, you know, West Elm, email from West Elm so quickly is amazing. Like that’s an amazing thing for the business. But on the, on the flip side of that, like you mentioned going from kind of doing these by hand and the initial 800 and you thought it was going to last you a year.

18:11
And then you have to get into like scale mode really quick. So there was some serious, I’m sure like growing pains at the business that you had to figure out quick. How did you do that and kind of move to that next level, right? You know, so quickly. wasn’t quickly. mean, I think now it feels maybe that, but the struggle definitely was okay. First getting into the garage and how do we get out of the garage and scale. And the next round, when we tried to find an external manufacturer.

18:39
I could at least say like, sold 800 blankets in two weeks and I can actually place a bigger order with you right up front versus like, I’m developing this prototype, but don’t know yet. There’s nothing out there. We don’t have a website. So by that stage, when I went back to the manufacturers, we already kind of looked at least from the outside. think that’s also like when West Ham thought we had a showroom, we didn’t have a showroom. were like two people still in a garage, but like it looked kind of like that we have proper business.

19:08
So I think then like that helps to get like the credibility where people are taking on a big offer risk to say like, okay, we’re investing in some of these new machines and we’re training people to bring a new product that only is your line. It’s not like sheets where we already making sheets, we can like slap your label on, here you go. But it’s really an investment that the manufacturer also had to take. So that initial proof of concept point, we like, we can place a bigger order definitely helped uh to get like these uh scaling issues. I mean,

19:38
I made a lot of mistakes. I went from point to point where I’m like, okay, now I need to figure out warehouse and we need to find a bigger warehouse. So sometimes I was just calling up people I knew and say, do you have a referral? em Or I could email people and you’re surprised how many people actually come back and entrepreneurs helping, willing to lend a hand and say, look, I work with this supplier. But I think you just need to be really open to be vulnerable and say, you get a lot of no’s, you get a lot of rejection.

20:07
and being okay with it and just kind of doing it anyways and better like fail fast than not failing at all and never doing anything and looking back and saying like, I wish I had done that. Speaking of being vulnerable, you’re in a product space that I think was, I mean, it seems like it was kind of starting to gain momentum, but like you really went all in on a space where obviously historically everybody knows blankets, but weighted blankets, maybe not as much.

20:36
How did you carve a name for yourself and like really be, you know, become like the leader in such a specific space like that? I think it was definitely like having a different product, a differentiated product. And then I also knew that when we didn’t have any external funding, I bootstrapped the company. And I also knew if like a bigger company would come and like we would be very quickly, like no one would remember Bearaby, but everyone would remember the bigger company.

21:04
So what we did is like, tried to have marketing that is like, I don’t know if you can call it guerrilla style marketing, but for example, one of the things I did is like finding Netflix designers. Like there are always a handful of people and these are the same people who designed the sets of each Netflix show. And they’re always looking for product. There’s product placement, which is very expensive. If you see Coke or Pepsi, they paid a lot of money to have those in these shows.

21:31
But when you go and say like, you need a blanket in that color whenever you need it, I send you one for free. And then you don’t have anything to say where the product will be placed. But we got lucky in like a couple of those who were like in the sequel of Sex and the City where the blanket was with used with Cynthia Nixon. And then we had murders in the house with Steve Martin having a whole scene around it. So I think very quickly, like people started associating the product and then like.

21:59
I in 2019, I knew that was like Oprah’s favorite things, where in June, everyone stands in the line and hands their product in hopes that like they’re, you know, it put a nice letter in and put the best packaging you can find on it. And then we also made the list. So we really tried to find like ways that didn’t cost us much, but where it’s harder that, you know, for the second, like, it’s always harder for the second to get like a placement. So when you’re the first mover in the market, you need to really move fast.

22:27
so that someone who has more resources can’t like overtake you. And we try to really find these right spots and occupy like these niches with relatively less budget. That’s brilliant. Yeah. I never heard of that. Netflix marketing. Yeah. It’s like guerrilla marketing. It’s really smart PR. Like, yeah, you’re way ahead of the curve in terms of being in those places that obviously, you know, people watch and see all the time now and have huge audiences. So it’s really smart in the partnering sense. If you were to…

22:56
zoom out and look back now, you know, besides having a great product and being a first mover, what else would you say is just kind of like a big driver of the success Barrett B has had through today? Like for us, kind of just thinking like whatever the category is doing, the opposite. And you’re imagining also things that haven’t existed in the past. So all the blankets were great and they’re very medically positioned.

23:24
So we were very loud. did exactly like the opposite. didn’t position medical. We just put like design, like something that you want to have on your couch. And then we’re like thinking like all the markets that put a product in the bedroom because where the blankets are in the bed. we’re like, okay, what if we make them couch worthy and you actually position the product outside of the bed. So I think like just leaning in and seeing like, is everyone doing right now? And then you just do exactly the opposite and you really lean in and then

23:54
Hope for the best. In our case, it worked out. Hope for the best. Words to the entrepreneur by.

24:04
So I’m gonna throw the opposite at you, keep you on your toes here. I’m curious, like, you know, somebody probably like many when they first heard about weighted blankets, they’re kind of like, that’s interesting, but like, what’s, you know, what’s it actually do? But I’d love to hear like, you know, you can get as medical or non-medical as you want, but I’m curious overall, just like the benefits of having like the weighted aspect to a blanket as opposed to traditional blankets. Nowadays, people are much more familiar with cortisol and high cortisol levels than like,

24:33
probably when I started five years ago and people are overall, I think, more health conscious and hormone conscious. But we have studies that show when you sleep under 10 % of your body weight, your nighttime cortisol gets reduced faster. And that’s also what basically translates into deeper sleep. So people that track their sleep, they see up to 30, 40 % increase in deep sleep phases.

25:00
And that’s directly related to cortisol level. And the faster you can get your cortisol level reduced, ideally before midnight, that’s because when the deep sleep is uh setting in, when you have most of your deep sleep and REM sleep phases. But I think just to make it a bit like more, and maybe easier to describe, it’s the feeling of a hug. like the nervous system, like when the nervous system feels safe, that’s kind of when deep sleep kicks in.

25:29
And like most people, like, I mean, all of us, not only entrepreneurs are like stressed, like we’re constantly on our phones. There’s always like new information, new things going on. there’s like, there’s very few like people who really have a fully regulated nervous system. So we need these extra things that like, that help to bring the nervous system calm. Obviously there are many things that you can do, but weighted blankets are one of them. So when you put yourself into that cocoon and your body feels like these extra weights.

25:57
oh The nervous system can relax, it’s relaxing faster and triggers the cortisol release. I like that a lot. You found a way to put a hug into a product form. Yeah. Even just hearing the word hug has such a positive feeling to it and it’s relaxing to think about. What about on the, going back to the very start, on the nap side of things, what’s the benefit of actually having like an effective nap? You should nap for four hours because you… uh

26:27
every day, morning and night. Most people cannot sleep after like a four hour nap. But what’s really good for you is like a 20 minute nap. Again, it’s about like the sleep pressure that builds up during the day. And then there’s like this around like 2pm, it’s just naturally in our cycles that we have like a low period. It’s like where you’re not productive. Most people like when you have at your desk, you’re just sitting there, but you know, like, okay, I’m actually not my brain is not there. So like,

26:57
A nap is also like something that just regulates your nervous system and kind of gets you into like the blue zone if you’re sleep tracking. then afterwards, I mean, when you wake up after a nap, if it’s a good nap, you should be relaxed. You should have a clear mind. Actually, your mood should also improve um because you’re resetting through sleep. So if you can squeeze in like these naps, like 20, 40 minutes a day, you have a happy life. Yeah, naps are happy. Hugs are happy.

27:26
It’s pretty cool. Mind blowing in the best way, thinking about like all you’ve built with Bearby and kind of your expertise in this, in this topic now, and then think of like your previous career at World Bank and, you know, as an economist and like, it’s such a different world. I guess, how did you like go all in and decide like, look, I’m going to learn, you know, like the benefits of napping and benefits of weighted blankets and that side of thing. Like how did you go all in on such a different space?

27:53
It’s like I’ve always been curious. I like to learn. And I think as an entrepreneur, you have to learn a lot. now also, in the first year, I’m customer service, I’m quality control, I’m manufacturing, I’m marketing, I’m everything. So you really learn a lot. it’s something I really enjoy. And I think now even that I’m not like the one who’s like doing customer service, at least not like all the time.

28:21
I can still have like the flexibility to decide like what are the things I want to bring into the market? Like who are the people I want to work with? How do we want to design our office? How do we want to decide our hours? How we’re working as a group? It kind of gives you a lot of like freedom to decide. And when I was like an employee, I think I had a great job. I was traveling a lot. I saw a lot of countries, but it’s still different. Like I’m still reporting to someone.

28:49
There are some external goals that are given that maybe are sometimes slow and I don’t have that much impact if we reach the goal or if we don’t. I think there were a lot of things that drew me into the thing of just making something happen and then you see you have an idea in your head and a year later you have the finished product in front of you and then people using it and loving it. I think that’s the best feeling that you can have.

29:16
something I never experienced in the same way when I was like an employee. Yeah, that learning and that curiosity. I always think back to my freshman year of college, we took one of the classes had us take like strengths, strengths finders, or one of those personality tests. The results I got back were like, like you’re a learner, like you like learning. Like I was always pretty good at school, so it made sense, but I was kind of like, huh, okay, what does that mean for like

29:43
life and career then if you just like, like, you know, it’s like, am I just going to like read and be curious all the time? Spoiler alert, I should read way more than I do. But yeah, think that sometimes like, they’re always like the people who are good at math and then like they go like a certain path just like that is like relatively like safe that you’re having a good career. But then like, when I did one of the tests, like someone said, you’re good at putting concepts together. You’re like the one in the group who connected the dots.

30:11
But I’m like, what career is that? know, what do I? A dot connector, a professional dot connector. A professional dot connector. But like just much later, now that I’m kind of like in a role where we’re developing new products, are we looking at campaigns and concepts? And then I’m like, oh yeah, I’m seeing, talking with the different people. like, let’s talk to this person. Let’s, I have an idea here. And like, I’m kind of connecting the dots, which I think are entrepreneurs at the end is, someone as a glorified dot connector at the end.

30:42
But like when you are 18, you’re just in high school and you’re like good at kind of bringing things together. You don’t really know what type of career that is. And it only makes, it’s not a red line, if that makes sense. It’s just something that you’ll realize later, which is not as straightforward as math, for example. Or if I got a dot connector, if I could pronounce it right. GDC, we’ll coin that. GDC, yeah.

31:10
Well, speaking of personality and personality tests, we’re gonna wrap up with a couple quick segments, a little bit goofier. These are more just to kind of to get to know you as a person and more about your personality. Certainly doesn’t have to tie back to the business at all, but you’re welcome to. First one I call the unusual, pet peeves, quirks, weird talents. We’ll start with weird talents. What’s like a, I call them weird talents, but it’s like a party trick or something that you’re good at, but it really doesn’t impact your job at all. It’s just like a little like talent you have.

31:40
I make like little puppets by hand and I make like little puppet shows for like not for kids, but for adults. So whenever friends are coming over, I have like little shows with puppets and I make like stories up for like before like a party gets started. Oh my God. That’s amazing. That’s one of the most creative things I’ve ever heard. Up to you how, you know, in depth you want to go.

32:05
We are rated explicit, but you say puppet show for adults, know, mine is going a certain direction. Can you give us an example? No, I have like, it’s actually like it’s little animals and I have like characters for them and they have like their own also social profiles and they would like take pictures of like parties or then they would post pictures. It’s more like a satire comedy where it’s, you know, you make fun of some people where, know, like their pet peeves and kind of like, then.

32:34
I worked as in a little show and then later on I post those on like the Instagram or make like a funny comment on it. It started more like, you know, between friends. And then I had like all these fake profiles with the rabbit and the rabbit was like doing all these different things that like the person did in real life. So they were at a coffee shop and then the bunny was at the coffee shop. And um so yeah, it became like a little account that I made and kind of like with friends. Now, unfortunately don’t do it as much anymore, but I still do my puppet shows.

33:05
Oh my God, congrats on that. That’s the best side hustle I’ve ever heard. It’s my next, like my next job will be like just becoming a puppet creator. All right. You mentioned pet peeves. What’s a pet peeve you have? Something that kind of ticks you off, but really it’s not a big deal in life. I think as a uh German, I like structure and order. So like, think I get ticked off when like people are not waiting in line or when kind of like things aren’t chaos. I like things organized.

33:34
So yeah, I’ve had like, like a couple of times and like people are just like, for example, I was just in Japan and it’s such a blessing when people are like in the metro and it’s like, there’s just people are waiting and one by one goes and it’s not someone like where you have to press and you have to push. Like when I’m, for example, in India or like in China and it’s just like everything is like people are pressing and at the airport, it’s all chaos. So yeah, I like my structure and order.

34:03
That’s a great one. I like things organized as well. Since you said it on the German stereotype, if you will, of liking things organized and structured. The first time I was in Berlin and the first time I looked at the map of the metro and all the different stuff, I’m like, this is the most organized symmetrical thing I’ve ever seen. Now I couldn’t pronounce any of the words, but… I think we’re trying. I think Berlin is pretty organized when it comes to the metro. Almost like London.

34:35
All right, so let’s wrap up with some rapid fire Q &A. You ready for it? Yeah. All right, let’s get wild. I’m to ask your puppet rabbit to answer the… No, I’m just kidding. What is a tip you have or you got from your mom about knitting? Knitting itself is so predictable.

34:57
em I don’t think there’s anything like on knitting you can change. mean, like definitely what I learned from my mom is how you can like take regular knitting with like a very thin yarn and suddenly like blow it up or make it like in a huge uh heavy yarn and then turn this into actually knitting. So I think thinking outside of the box when you think about a very tiny yarn that you usually knit a sock or like a uh piece of clothing.

35:24
And then like how this can turn into like a completely different product and having like the idea and experimentation around that. right. What is something from the world of like the World Bank or being an economist that you think the average person would be shocked to know? Like how uh little funding like small and medium sized enterprises are getting and also women entrepreneurs, it’s less than 2%.

35:54
in the developing world and it has been ever since. I think that’s something that at least surprised me how difficult it is for small and medium sized businesses to get access to that funding and how hard it is to actually get that going for people to get access to loans to grow their businesses. Yeah, that’s a dark but true one. Yeah, it’s like some stats have been…

36:20
improved over the years and then other areas it’s like we still have so far to go. that’s an important one. All right. So you have traveled pretty much everywhere around the world and to Mars and back into Pluto. uh What’s your best like travel hack? First of all, bring your own pillow. Now I have even a customized pillow that I take everywhere.

36:44
weighted blanket, I sometimes bring my weighted blanket, but it’s a heavy one. So it’s not too easy to take across if you’re flying for like multiple segments. And then I always like to have a magnesium, like especially when you have jet lag, you take like a bit of magnesium and glycine and you won’t have jet lag. That’s good to know. Cause yeah, those long flights, the jet lag. I don’t know. Like if you never experienced jet lag and then the first time you do, it’s just like

37:13
Wow, this is great. Like, I don’t know if my circadian rhythm is ever going to get back. So that’s good to know. All right. And then last one. I mean, I’m a sucker for German food and food in general. So I always ask about food, but in your case and upbringing, I’m curious. What’s like a German food you must try that’s maybe, maybe doesn’t get as much of the spotlight as like bratwurst and potatoes and schnitzel and all that.

37:43
is like a specific like pancake with like a plum compote. ah That’s a good one. And then if you like the potatoes, also go for the potato salad, especially like in South of Germany, potato salad is really good. yeah. It’s so good. And it makes you think, don’t, I mean, sometimes, you know, like even like the grocery stores here and the States, you’ll see like German potato salad, but it’s, I wonder how close it is to actual German potato. It’s not, it’s not the same. It’s a, it’s like,

38:12
In the U.S. it’s made with mayonnaise and in uh Germany it’s made with vinegar and bone broth and oil and different herbs so it has a very different taste. My family fell in love a…one of the big German and Prague trip we did as a family. My family fell in love with a…how do you say it? Spezel? Spezel. Yeah.

38:36
In Frankfurt, they said it was like the best they ever had. Oh my God, yeah, I forgot about that. Spätzle is even my number one. Yeah. I I totally forgot because that’s also from my area where I come from. My mom makes amazing Spätzle. All right. Well, now I’m not only craving a four-hour nap, but I’m craving homemade Spätzle as well. So, Kathrin, thank you so much. This has been an absolute blast. I really appreciate your time and all you do and helping people nap and sleep and feel hugged more.

39:05
So that’s a pretty cool mission you’re behind. um I know if anybody wants to learn more, they can do so at bearaby.com. And I know you’re on LinkedIn. Is there anywhere else that you wanna shout out if they wanna connect with you online? mean, LinkedIn is the best place to connect with me. And then if you wanna learn more about Bearaby, our Instagram is mybearaby and the website is bearaby.com. So that’s great. Awesome, thank you. A virtual hug all around. Last thing.

39:35
Final thoughts, could be a quote or just kind of words to live by just one line, send us home here. If you’re on a verge of like, and you’re asking yourself, should I start a business? Or should I hold on to the job? Just imagine you’re 70 and you look back at your life. And would you still ask yourself the question? What, would have been if I would have done it? And if you think you cannot let go of it and give it a try. That give it a try philosophy.

40:03
is a great approach for naps as well. Kathrin, thank you so much. Thank you, Bearaby. Thank you, Wild Listeners for tuning in. I don’t know about you, but I am so excited to go take a nap. And I hope you enjoy your nap too. And maybe you’ll dream sweet dreams of MaxPodcasting.com as you close your eyes. Until next time, Let your business Run Wild…

40:33
Bring on the Bongos!!