Episode 1396
Creating storage space with Murphy Door
We sit down with Jeremy Barker, Founder of Murphy Door and Bed. You dont want to miss this episode of new ways to create places for storage from a laundry basket to gun storage. Made in America and created by a firefighter you dont want to miss us talk about the inspirational story of its founding to how it can create some new spaces in your home. We talk about the Murphy Door, The Murphy Bed and the Murphy Ladder!
For more information head to: https://murphydoor.com/
Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen
We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/
We have moved the Pro Insider Special on Thursday to its new feed. It will no longer be on this page. You can find it and subscribe right here: https://around-the-house-pro-insider.captivate.fm/
Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.
Mentioned in this episode:
Baldwin Hardware
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
Transcript
[00:00:12] Jeremy Barker: you sitting on the floor? Yeah. Yep. And we don't use cheap screws cuz you know why that is my pet peeve that they break the head off and I didn't even put any tension on it. Yep. Or the strip before you put an attention on it, like when it comes to putting our stuff together, that hardware is one of those things that I test, like how bad's this gonna strip is where's this.
[:[00:00:48] Jeremy Barker: So if you go take it to a different house, put it in another door, but it needs to be an inswing and it was announcing no problem. Change the hinge position when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to [00:01:00] know though. We've got you covered. Is around the house.
[:[00:01:11] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us today. I have got a friend on the show today who you might have seen out there. I've heard, you've heard me talk about him. Murphy door and bad, hidden indoor solutions. Welcome Jeremy Barker to around the
[:[00:01:31] Jeremy Barker: Thanks brother.
[:[00:01:47] Jeremy Barker: Yes. Uh, interior product of the year, which I, I that's awesome.
[:[00:01:55] Eric Goranson: No kidding. So, and, and you showed it well, I mean, you showed it, well, [00:02:00] your booth was packed.
[:[00:02:13] Jeremy Barker: But as you know, we started at Murphy door, our, you know, I was a full time firefighter. Yeah. And, and every dollar that when we started was so important, I mean, I'm taking home 760 bucks every two weeks with a mortgage that's $2,300. So there isn't much, you know, that math doesn't add up and I'm well aware.
[:[00:02:53] Jeremy Barker: And, uh, good thank goodness. She was cute. So we did get some attention because it definitely looked more or the booth. Right. And, [00:03:00] uh, after that it was, you know, that was an investment. Was really scary. And I think we only paid like five grand for the booth or whatever at the time. And sure that was nerve wracking.
[:[00:03:25] Jeremy Barker: And I took it to heart and we changed, we kind of upgraded and I kind of built a collage of our booth changes this last year. And it was interesting to see the, the growth and the changes, cuz this one really did it. And I can say, if you can afford it, it did work as you saw. So
[:[00:03:43] Jeremy Barker: Probably. No, no, absolutely did not pay for even the cleaning or one quite unload. I think exactly that way its anymore. Think the forklift
[:[00:03:54] Jeremy Barker: first crate over there. So, no, that's exactly right at a dollar a pound. I mean, it goes quick. [00:04:00]
[:[00:04:11] Eric Goranson: Of course, how you got into Murphy be as well. Cuz that's its own story, but Murphy door, if you're just joining us and you haven't seen what we're talking about here, it's basically. A door that looks like that it's that hidden bookcase. That's a doorway, right? Exactly, exactly. Probably the easiest way to
[:[00:04:29] Jeremy Barker: Yep. And, and I think that was the idea initially, Eric and not to bore you where we start, um, was we wanted to create a hint system that made sense a lot of the hidden door style for the bookcase door systems that I'd been looking for to build my own theater door ran off of a regular three hinge system or a piano hinge.
[:[00:04:59] Jeremy Barker: [00:05:00] And it just kept breaking. I I'm like we gotta figure out a different type of hardware system that really can create a functional bookcase that doesn't bear the weight all on the side. So we did that and. Again, the idea initially where we started a fire was just to be a hinge system and sell that cuz it was an easy side job to fire.
[:[00:05:32] Jeremy Barker: I get it. But only 1% of the people need security. We need function. And she took the sexy out of panic room and put like functionality into it. which really kind of deflated me really bad. And again, I don't wanna be a storage solution problem. I wanna be a neat, cool factor to talk about in your house.
[:[00:06:14] Jeremy Barker: And then you have this dead space in a wall. All over your home. That's not being used for any type of capacity. So you're losing floor square footage and you're losing wall decor to a slab that everybody has. So you can have a multimillion dollar house, but you're still running the same type of quasi generic six panel four panel, two panel door.
[:[00:07:05] Jeremy Barker: You can reverse it, put the mirror facing your bedroom. Bathroom mm-hmm and then have the storage systems behind it. We can do gun system doors. We can do pu pull queue doors, wine rack doors. I mean, you let your imagination go. Whatever you can do in a cabinet, we can create a door that functions like your cabinet.
[:[00:07:40] Jeremy Barker: It, it doesn't matter. You can do whatever you want. So as a
[:[00:08:01] Jeremy Barker: when it's loaded up.
[:[00:08:20] Jeremy Barker: So we had to quickly come up with a solution that offered a ball bearing system on the bottom, that where the weight sat as well as one where the pivot pin that we insert is pivoting around. So now we're not wearing threads, we're not rubbing washers together and making 'em rough and we don't want to caster.
[:[00:08:52] Jeremy Barker: Now keep in mind. A lot of people don't know how to frame and there's also boat two by four. So we have that conversation quite frequently. Sure. Nonetheless, we can keep [00:09:00] that sexy and make it. So you're not having that take over the room. It blends into your story and theme, and only the people that you want to know that, that functions you can tell 'em if not, it is just a build in system.
[:[00:09:16] Eric Goranson: look like just a typical built-in in the house that nobody has any idea that's what's in there. You know, it could be that mirror in the bedroom that people go, oh, that's a really cool built-in
[:[00:09:31] Jeremy Barker: Yep. Think about a 36 inch door by a standard height creates 20 cubic feet of storage. Dude, and that's free storage. You didn't have to pay for not an, not a nickel. And if you think about what you're spending per square foot on current homes these days, while you're wasting for door swinging, that's not bringing you any kind of benefit other than keeping you from seeing me change or letting you see my dirty laundry.
[:[00:10:11] Jeremy Barker: Right. Yep. And I thought they were cool to build and they were fun, but my wife had no desire to put one. Right. She's like, I don't see where we'd use it. We don't need a hidden room. We can barely make our freaking electrical bill. Well, let me be honest. Sometimes I didn't and then I'd have to put the garage door open or it wouldn't open.
[:[00:10:44] Jeremy Barker: She's a, a big time competitive dancer. She goes, I'd like a, a display case closet door system that we can put the trophies up front and then open the door. And then on the backsides are dirty laundry. Like, so it's been a fun deal and to see how even my own family members incorporated it. And [00:11:00] you know how it is, they don't talk.
[:[00:11:10] Eric Goranson: the it's. It's awesome. And I I've run into that with my wife where I've, Hey, we're gonna do this in the house. And she just kind of rolls her eyes at me and goes, yeah, I don't think we'll ever need that.
[:[00:11:25] Jeremy Barker: have that. Right. She wants another one for the other room. Right. That's exactly. That's exactly how it goes. And you know, I think that's what kind of brings value to the product when people use it. And not only are they not frustrated, but they're wanting to add more doors.
[:[00:11:57] Jeremy Barker: Sure. But we're seeing more and more people that have had one [00:12:00] door by the second. And I think there's two reasons for that one, the functionality two, the ease of installation, right? This door comes pre hung in a jam. It takes six screws to put it in. And that is it. You put some trim around it. Six screws, just like a normal pre hung door.
[:[00:12:33] Jeremy Barker: And up of course, depending on how elaborate you want to go. But. It's just six screws. You don't have to be a professional. We have instructions that are 3d and digital on your app, on the app, on the phone. Like you, you can do whatever. It's simple.
[:[00:12:49] Eric Goranson: You've got French doors. You've got bifold surface mounts. You've got a whole bunch of different stuff.
[:[00:13:08] Jeremy Barker: That's just always in the wrong room, in the wrong space. You're trying to decorate it. You're gonna put some picture frame in front of it, which is against codes. Most of the time, this door we can put in. You can bifold it out of the way, it looks like a bookcase. It can be as pretty as an armoire. And that thing just bifold and smoothly rolls outta the way the panel's right there.
[:[00:13:38] Eric Goranson: Well, even the double door, solution's amazing. Cuz you know how many homes in the nineties and two thousands were built with the master bedroom doors being that like four foot or five foot.
[:[00:13:54] Jeremy Barker: a hundred percent. And you know what, that was probably, we've grown about 300% over the [00:14:00] last 24 months. And that's been a hard growth piece, right, dude. So we've done a, a pretty it's awesome, but COVID really brought us.
[:[00:14:23] Jeremy Barker: First couple weeks, we sat there and, uh, we noticed more and more people taking out closets to put these bookcase systems behind them during a zoom meeting, it made it look like their bedroom was their office space. And that was just an explosive French door systems by far outsold. Every other category we had during those.
[:[00:14:44] Eric Goranson: before that you would never have guessed that was gonna
[:[00:14:59] Jeremy Barker: We [00:15:00] started doing the customer surveys heavy, cuz one, we wanted to find out what was causing such growth factors to why are they buying what they're buying? And so we started doing email follow ups, phone call, follow ups. COVID staying home, trying to make their office or their bedroom look like an office more so that's awesome.
[:[00:15:16] Eric Goranson: fun. That's super fun. So let's take a side step before we go talking about more of the accessories and stuff and, and even the bads, but how did you decide to go from firefighter to. A huge production company. How did you go? Okay. I mean, we talked about kind of how you Des how you kind of fell into this, but there's also a story there too.
[:[00:15:40] Jeremy Barker: friend. Yeah, there is. I, I can say that number, one thing that all firefighters do and it's unfortunate, but they can't really live on the singular wage and I'm not speaking for big cities like LA and the cities that really have a budget that can afford a, a livable wage. But most of us out there are living on that.
[:[00:16:13] Jeremy Barker: So you're living mm-hmm . Not only the 48 hours during that six day period, but you're also working another 24 hour shift at another place. And then you're doing most of all the people around here do carpet or tile. Like that's a pretty popular second job in this for fire guys. Well, we didn't wanna do carpet or tile and I didn't wanna do any more cement work and I'm not great at it.
[:[00:16:50] Jeremy Barker: Like there was no real solution anywhere that gave me the opportunity to go on and just order a system, find a hardware set that made sense. Like, this'll be [00:17:00] something that I believe. People are gonna need. And I thought they'd need it faster than that. I mean, we've been at this for quite a while now, and I thought it was gonna have a quicker adoption period and it never is.
[:[00:17:25] Jeremy Barker: So I could still do my fire career. And then we could, we could just have this guy fulfill and I could do a little internet online business. We did it the first year we did $30,000 nearly doubled my annual revenue. you know what I mean? Like that's a bad little side gig. Yeah. But more and more people came in and I thought, you know what?
[:[00:18:02] Jeremy Barker: I met with another guy Merrill cabinets in Rigby, Idaho. And he helped me design a, a system that would make sense. That was really standard. Like we only did 80 inch stores and we only did 24 inch 30, 32 and 36 offered four wood types. Keep it simple, stupid. And, uh, our prices at the time we started around 3000 bucks.
[:[00:18:40] Eric Goranson: you know, I I'm the same person of that though.
[:[00:18:55] Jeremy Barker: Eric. It wasn't that forethought. It was just, I wanna do this business and didn't think about the [00:19:00] economy going.
[:[00:19:24] Jeremy Barker: They're like, man, we can't get it. Customers were waiting way too long and we had no control of fabrication. So we found a closer one here in, in Kaysville Utah at trim art and they helped us really get some more production. Well, then they got busy again and we got busier again. And we were running up to, I don't know.
[:[00:20:01] Jeremy Barker: So we have our hardware being made in the United States in Utah here. We also have our doors being fabricated here in Utah and in Kentucky for the east coast. So we didn't struggle during this COVID piece. I mean, yes, there was some material supply issues that came. But overall, because we were so concentrated on being made in America, being proud American and not looking for outside supply change, which would absolutely significantly have decreased our cost.
[:[00:20:49] Jeremy Barker: And to be transparent on the bed piece, the new bed release that we had, uh, Murphy bed is, is a generic it's now put, considered public it's the Kleenex, right? It is right. [00:21:00] So we trademarked back in 2000. 12 Murphy door mm-hmm and we were able to get that through the us patent and trademark office. Yeah. As Murphy door, um, Murphy bed back in the day when it started in 1879 was Murphy door and bed company.
[:[00:21:34] Jeremy Barker: You got your foot
[:[00:21:35] Jeremy Barker: you're like, all right, we're halfway there. We're halfway there. And then now, um, we we've able to add the bed piece, which also has a nice blend if you so choose to add the door pieces mm-hmm and all keeping it right here. And I, I don't know if you had the opportunity to jump on our website, but it's super easy to configure your choosing your product by the inch.
[:[00:22:03] Eric Goranson: like ordering a sandwich, man. I mean, you can literally go through and order the door as easy. You can jump on like Jimmy Johns and go, I'll take that.
[:[00:22:13] Jeremy Barker: that. It's that simple? Yeah, it's that simple. And I think it's even, I would just order a door dash today cuz you know how our lives already candid . Um, and I think it's even better than DoorDash and our new website releases September 15th, which is even better. It'll take more into VR and AR and all this other stuff that's coming up.
[:[00:22:44] Jeremy Barker: You're actually ordering and door dash. When I was. I just ordered LPO what El polo Loco. Right. And it doesn't get pictures of what rice I'm getting or that, and I'm like, no, I want this to be so transparent to the guy that isn't a carpenter to the guy that mm-hmm , you know, right now our customer base is, is pretty [00:23:00] people that don't typically do it themselves all the time.
[:[00:23:22] Jeremy Barker: Nice. So we've integrated our software using a couple different local software groups to where you putting in your order. Are actually programming our systems. Now we do go through a final checkoff to make sure that you're not doing a crash, but we have soft stops that don't allow you to go too far.
[:[00:23:50] Eric Goranson: have designed these systems out. So I've got 30 years as an interior designer and specializing in kitchen, a bass.
[:[00:24:20] Eric Goranson: How do I get the machinery to even
[:[00:24:38] Jeremy Barker: There's over a hundred million skews that we run through this. Right. And that that's a hundred million, not a hundred thousand. Yes, I understand. But you take wood types, colors, swings, handles locks, all the different things that can hit. And you add the beds in the plywood versus MDF. And that's a whole different conversation.
[:[00:25:20] Jeremy Barker: Loves to brag about Utah building Utah, doing that mm-hmm successful or executives and owners in are willing to help. Right. So I was fortunate enough to reach out and say, Hey, Don, you've been a COO of. Everybody like in this Utah area, you, you are a king of manufacturing. Hey, Jeremy, you, another guy, you know, you're incredible at marketing.
[:[00:26:05] Jeremy Barker: You guys so I can implement it. And now we have such an incredible board. I mean, we have bill Hamlin, one of the executive VPs of home Depot from the beginning under Arthur mm-hmm and Marcus. Right. Um, they, we have him and then we have Don bloom, like I said, and then Nicole beer, who was the CMO of Hewlett Packard, north America help us with the digital side and John Porter who has a huge customer service group.
[:[00:26:47] Jeremy Barker: Um, they're a whole different animal and they can take it. Oh, aren't they broke. Yeah. They, they run, you broke fast, so you need to know. Yeah. And I think early on in my career, I was way too arrogant to be able to sit back and [00:27:00] say, look, you can teach me something. Right. And now it's like, I look at 'em we had a board meeting today and I'm like, man, help me.
[:[00:27:27] Jeremy Barker: Right. But even if it's 80%, right. It's much better. So yeah, I, if I gave anybody advice, that was not that we're trying to get off Murphy door, no lean on mentors and ask favors like Eric he's been at it 30 years. That's why he does what he does or why you do what you do. I should say. Mm. Is you're there for, to give people advice and keep from making these big, huge mistakes, and don't lose your money in an investment that doesn't work.
[:[00:28:03] Eric Goranson: you. Amen, brother. And I spent probably eight to 10 years of my career going around in the Seattle area, working with companies that were struggling.
[:[00:28:34] Jeremy Barker: Yep. That's the biggest problem. We don't know what we don't know. Right. Mm-hmm and, and as bad as that saying in the EMT paramedic world, this is always a debate, right? Because EMTs, their paramedics vice versa, they think, and, and they do have a skillset. But there's an education period. That's different.
[:[00:29:07] Jeremy Barker: And same goes for your education. It takes more than two years to learn everything that you've learned, but oh yeah. We as investors or owners come in, like, dude, you don't even know, do you realize where I'm at today? You, you can't teach me anything. Right. And, and I think that can be a, a huge problem in all businesses.
[:[00:29:32] Eric Goranson: I'll call you on it, brother, I'll call you on it. That's what friends are for, you know, exactly right.
[:[00:29:38] Jeremy Barker: know, vice versa. I, I wish the best on all these people that take those risks and jump into this bed. Cuz as you know, when you don't have anything to lose, it's a super scary deal. And the only advice I'd say is man, reach to your mentor. Please realize what you don't know and, and look at that more carefully than what you think, you know?
[:[00:30:07] Jeremy Barker: out guys. Yeah. That's called Qualtrics. We do that. We search computer from keystrokes 30 times a day. You say, and we'll start popping you some ads up, but you knows one of the few countries that still legal in, so we've gotta do it.
[:[00:30:25] Eric Goranson: you? It had have been hard to go from that day that you're like, I'm gonna stop being a firefighter.
[:[00:30:50] Jeremy Barker: Typically they're budget related and, and they're kind of frictional and you're always involved in the type of friction conversation and some chiefs. And I, again, it doesn't go for everyone. Some chiefs take it in [00:31:00] strive and they'd like, Hey, this is great. Let's win. And others are kind of pushed back.
[:[00:31:22] Jeremy Barker: Then he put another one half that size side's and another one half that size on the driveway. And he said, look, this is Jeremy's universe. He said it should stem Jeremy's family being the biggest rock Murphy door being the middle rock. Cuz you have 70. Well, not at the time, but like 25 families around that one.
[:[00:31:57] Jeremy Barker: You do that for four shifts and take a few days off and then do it again for four [00:32:00] shifts and take a, you know, six days off. So yeah. Um, he's like, you cannot shift that and everything is revolving around that. And every day off you have is Murphy door. So your family gets left over and unfortunately the biggest rock is running on the outside of your wheel instead of the center of your hub.
[:[00:32:30] Jeremy Barker: She had her earphones on. And I don't know if you met her in, in Florida or not. Yeah, Shannon. So she's a beautiful lady. And she had her earphones in, she was cleaning and then my daughter was playing on her iPad and my son was over here doing whatever he's doing. And the only person that came to greet me at the door was my.
[:[00:33:04] Jeremy Barker: Got . Yeah. So I quit the next morning. Yeah. Um, I kind of set a parameter around what I wanted and I, I told my chief, I said, look, my goal is I'm gonna go from full-time fire to part-time fire. When I hit 5 million in gross revenue, and that was kind of, and it wasn't because that was the dollar, but that was the dollar I needed to have the, the manpower I needed.
[:[00:33:31] Eric Goranson: you got a family to take care of on top of that. So that's
[:[00:33:41] Jeremy Barker: Well, the company does a hundred grand and they keep a lot of it or 200 grand and they keep a hundred. Well, if you're mixing a baby's bottle, that's like you still in half the milk. Yep. And you're wondering why your baby's the run. Well it's because you're not giving all the food that it needs. And, and I wanted to let that money ride and I never took any Murphy door money until I was able to leave the fire [00:34:00] department.
[:[00:34:18] Jeremy Barker: That the company couldn't afford for me to dip yet. Like I needed to put a lot into marketing. I had a lot of smart man ation and R and D to make my product better. So that was the number I said, okay. When we have 5 million, I can afford, afford to pay myself 52,000, which is what I started. Yep. And I can pay my health insurance and my dental vision, and I can put this much money in my 401k.
[:[00:34:55] Jeremy Barker: I said, and then I put in my notice and my last day full time was June 16th. Of [00:35:00] 2016. Nice. So which, you know, that was an extremely hard decision. That is brothers. That is family. That is what you know, and it's weird when you leave a fire job, you're, you know what? You don't exist. Yeah, you thought you were family, but now you're not on shift and now you're dead.
[:[00:35:18] Eric Goranson: now you're dead. Yeah. Now, now you're fading off into the sunset, you know? Yeah. You're on the horse riding off and everybody's still working.
[:[00:35:33] Jeremy Barker: And, and so I do miss it and I think that's probably what's helped me take some of the chances in Murphy door is know. I'm not afraid to go back to fire. Yeah. So if worst case scenario, I have to go back to full-time fire, then that's not such a bad case scenario, right? There's there's some want there.
[:[00:35:59] Eric Goranson: the road you're [00:36:00] on now, man. I think the fire department's way back in the history now,
[:[00:36:14] Jeremy Barker: And I'm a, there's only a couple part-timers at this full-time department and it's usually legacy firefighters. And I don't mean that in a legacy stance, but it's people been there a while that could get that little bit of a chance. So I'm like, man, I wish I could find time, but you fly. You know what I mean?
[:[00:36:54] Jeremy Barker: And. Quicker and easier for them to, to use.
[:[00:37:06] Jeremy Barker: trademark, but, uh, , that's back out and, uh, those are awesome. Yes. And you know what we've done here? There's a couple things that we noticed that the whole industry was missing in the bed world.
[:[00:37:35] Eric Goranson: part of the whole equation is getting that product from that shop floor, without forklift holes in it, into somebody's
[:[00:37:42] Jeremy Barker: That's a huge problem. And then on top of that, you have to think about the out of the box experience. And here's the difficulty when you start delivering these big king beds or queen beds with side cabinets, these things are so big. You can't really get 'em down a hall. So the downfall and I'm to be forthright is there is [00:38:00] some assembly required.
[:[00:38:13] Eric Goranson: about it, you think about it. Jeremy, how many people out in our audience right now have carried.
[:[00:38:23] Jeremy Barker: mattress just the mattress, the mattress. Yeah. Let alone this giant frame, functional, you know, hardware set that comes through and is heavier than four of those mattress. Yeah. And then not only that, how many times you've had to bend the queen bed around the corner to try to get it in the room.
[:[00:38:56] Jeremy Barker: Um, it's gotta be better than the Ikea model. Like we, [00:39:00] that that lasts that is forever. We stand behind our product. We have a no argument position, so I'm not the moral police. And this was a, another maturation piece that we took at Murphy door. When you're, when you're new and you're dealing with some of these small companies, it's not saying anything negative, but they have to be careful on warranties cuz they can't afford a lot of them.
[:[00:39:38] Jeremy Barker: I'm like, well, I'm not, he goes, well, when you decline these type of arguments, he said, it's broken. You said, it looks like you broke it. Are you trying to say they're liars? Or are they just lying to you? Is it up to you? So we went to the position of like, now if you call and say, it's your fault, we're sending you a new product.
[:[00:40:17] Jeremy Barker: They're good people. Yeah. And most people don't lie about it. If they come up and say, Hey, look, this was damaged. And I didn't notice when it got shipped. And unfortunately for freight carries, you have to mark damaged or you have to put it on the ticket. Oh, call within 24 hours. And some people, their house is under construction.
[:[00:40:48] Jeremy Barker: We're gonna do it for free. You just have to pay the shipping. We don't want to sit there and make it, so it's a double negative for them. So we step up, even if it's your. Right. And we let him, that's awesome. We're ING it. [00:41:00] Anyway, my man, and I think, um, that was a big, hard lesson. And you know what, fortunately, for us, we're running at about a 0.7% callback dude.
[:[00:41:13] Jeremy Barker: 3%, right. Well, we were well into fives when we first started. Yeah. There was a lot of problems, lack of clarity, lack of understanding, lack of instructions that were properly done. Um, and now we still have, and this is, this is mind blowing, but we have the exact same amount of customer service reps today, as we did when we'd left.
[:[00:41:58] Jeremy Barker: You also have our built [00:42:00] app, B U I L T. Bill B I L T sorry, B I L T app. Yep. Uh, the software that does everybody's using, we were their fourth customer and now everybody has it. So that's an amazing thing. If you're a producer yourself or you're a manufacturer that built software is something that has a game changer, it answers those questions.
[:[00:42:42] Jeremy Barker: That's awesome. We're all in house, customer service. They're all located right here in Utah. They they're all fluent in English. We do have some Spanish speakers as well. Sure. But, uh, ultimately. I think that's another key metric when you're looking at companies like how, how is their data? How is their information?
[:[00:43:12] Jeremy Barker: I went down to RC, Willie, a big furniture place. The other day. Mm-hmm paid 400 and I guess that's irrelevant, but some, I thought expensive money. Kitchen chairs and you buy 10 of them and guess how they came broken down unassembled. Yeah. I'm like, wait a second. I did not go to Amazon for this. I went to, and I chose some of your nicest kitchen chairs and you, not that they're the most expensive, but some of their nicer ones in the set and.
[:[00:43:44] Eric Goranson: now I'm taking that short little hex wrench and putting stuff together. Yep.
[:[00:43:59] Jeremy Barker: [00:44:00] Yep. Or they'd strip before you put any tension on. Like when it comes to putting our stuff together, that hardware is one of those things that I test, like, how bad's this gonna strip is where's this made like, it needs to be solid. And I don't want to have a stripped out head if they have to take it back out again.
[:[00:44:31] Jeremy Barker: No problem. Change the hinge position already template it in the door. Oh, you wanted to be on the right hinge instead of a left hinge. That's okay. Flip it to the template on the other side of the door. You're good to go. So we've tried to think of what is it that customers have. If you're gonna invest, you know, a thousand, $2,000 on a door, our average ticket right now, Eric is 1780.
[:[00:45:12] Jeremy Barker: Recognized for it. So, yeah. Anyway, that was one of those things that I think is a contractor. And I know that you've been here. You get into the house and you, you order your door package that looked great on plans. And you're like, dang it. The switch is on the wrong wall or that should have been a right hand.
[:[00:45:31] Eric Goranson: Caroline, and you know, my co was just talking about last week. She just had to sit there. She ordered a, it was an Anderson slider door and the people were putting it in. She didn't open the box up when it showed up, they put the slider in, she gets home and.
[:[00:45:48] Jeremy Barker: Um, and it's already installed, done, done. You're stuck, stuck. And the nice thing with us that would be a quick, we have a quick removable top hinge pin. Yep. And by the way, this has been a [00:46:00] complaint being open. We had a plastic pin removal tool and the tab would break off. So you'd just take it up twist and pull down on the tab.
[:[00:46:25] Jeremy Barker: And then you take it, reverse the hinge pin on the top of the door and the top of the jam and the template. And now you can swing the other way in swinging out. It doesn't matter.
[:[00:46:42] Jeremy Barker: Yes. So that's, let's talk about that for a minute. That little baby. So. One thing I can say is in the fire industry, there's a lot of uses for ladders, as you can, as you know, they used to call 'em ladder men, right? Mm-hmm . So now what we found in the ladder world is that they had a thing called an attic ladder [00:47:00] and an attic ladder is a ladder that the rungs fold into themselves.
[:[00:47:23] Jeremy Barker: And so. As a, as a bunch of fire guys that work here, I mean, we're sitting with several that work here either. Part-time or full-time now we're like, these would be cool, but we just need to hinge 'em in the middle. And now you only have a six foot or we have a five. Well, we have a seven foot ladder, which folds down to like 42 inches when it's up.
[:[00:47:58] Jeremy Barker: It works. This thing works. I can't [00:48:00] believe it worked right. We did a whole bunch of things like that was just a brain fart, but why didn't they do this in the past? And by the way, we just were issued our patents. Dude congrat that's issued today. So kind of funny that you asked the email before I came in here and said, Hey, congratulations, your patent's been issued.
[:[00:48:44] Jeremy Barker: It's got a little locking pin and it has carry handles. So now it'll fit in the Tesla and you can have a freaking, you know, 10 foot open ladder when it's out inside the back of your little economy car. So every
[:[00:49:05] Jeremy Barker: a big extension ladder on the top of their car.
[:[00:49:29] Jeremy Barker: Oh yeah. They've been ordering these things by the pallet. I'm like what in the world are termite pest controls doing, ordering these and then home inspectors. Yeah, right. Cause they usually run around their little pickup trucks that are nice and home inspectors. I'm like, look at this marketplace that wasn't even in our math.
[:[00:50:06] Jeremy Barker: The neat side about it is from 3d printed model to present to home Depot, to in store full rollout was about nine months. Dude in every store in home Depot. Now there's also with a good, there comes bad, right? Most of the time that's crazy time when we launched was the announcement of COVID yep. In store.
[:[00:50:51] Jeremy Barker: Yep. Right. So now we stuck all the ladders out of the way or up in the racks. They had to keep aisles open so people could keep their social distance distance. Yep. [00:51:00] So my gosh, and then we got stuck with the shipping problems we got stuck with to oh yeah. We got stuck. Tariffs were right before. Yep. And then we had COVID and then we had shipping CRI increases, aluminum double.
[:[00:51:31] Jeremy Barker: They're like, Hey, Warner's not moving. Um, we're not just the justification. Department's declining your price raise. Yeah. Well, so when we finally said, Hey, look, we can't do this anymore. We were losing about on average 30 bucks a ladder. Yeah. Well, you can't sell a hundred thousand ladders at a negative 30 bucks.
[:[00:51:48] Eric Goranson: say is that that's the bad part of the $15 million mark is that if you're losing in one place that extrapolates out really
[:[00:52:09] Jeremy Barker: Plus all the other cost, digital marketing employees, warehousing freight, trucking, internal, you know, Intercontinental like, so we just said, look, um, not to put the poo poo to the story, but we said, Hey, we've gotta pull this back. We're gonna control some price increases. We wanna, we wanna not be too far outta line.
[:[00:52:43] Jeremy Barker: And we'll push that back out now that we're seeing some, some relief in freight, now that we're seeing some aluminum correction and I believe next F is potentially a tariff reduction, and then we can be back in play. But I, you know, as an owner, you have to make the tough decision, even though you're seeing a top line of 15 million [00:53:00] bucks in revenue.
[:[00:53:02] Eric Goranson: Yeah, but when you see 15 million in revenue and all of a sudden you're going, wow, I got 14, five in hard costs
[:[00:53:14] Eric Goranson: to nice to you.
[:[00:53:22] Eric Goranson: That sounds like that's a fun run and there's a, a big future for that, cuz I think there's just a huge demand for that product cuz
[:[00:53:36] Jeremy Barker: Everybody's needing to, they want to downsize houses. You can't, you don't get 'em as built as big as you used to. Which means we have to be smarter on space and smarter on storage and smarter on function. And then the beds, the same thing, you can create a multi-use room where the bed goes away and it looks like a desk.
[:[00:54:07] Jeremy Barker: It can hang in your cupboard. So the things that we're focused on here as a company and the future products that are coming out now is truly stuff that is gonna make your. Easier to use smarter, to use more functional as well as take less space, deliver the exact same or better experience with less of a footprint and demand on the size of house you that you need.
[:[00:54:33] Jeremy Barker: to find you? Oh, absolutely. www.murphydoor.com for our doors and our beds. Right. They're both inside that. And then the ladders would be the same Murphy ladder.com. As far as me, you can always reach out and. However you wanna reach out.
[:[00:54:54] Eric Goranson: and you have a podcast or a videocast too as well. Let's talk about that for just a quick second before. Jump
[:[00:55:07] Jeremy Barker: It's not a hundred percent, right. We had to make up a little bit, some of the stories get kind of exaggerated. Most of the people we've been working. Our founders in business for one that have got, that can share the struggle. Like we had hydro jug in here the other day. Um, he got number four, uh, fastest growing company in the state.
[:[00:55:39] Jeremy Barker: He's under 30 amazing kid. Uh, but we, a lot of the stuff that I've tried to focus on lately is kind of tribal inside my group, dealing with PTSD, substance abuse and, and in the fire law enforcement and military careers and what they're doing next mm-hmm and how they've gotten through those, those problems and showing people there is a [00:56:00] pathway.
[:[00:56:19] Jeremy Barker: Is where we truly build, just like building muscles, breaking 'em down is where they get the build out. It's just hard to recognize we're in the middle of the, the massive, but when you get to the other side and I'm sure you've been here, cuz anybody that's tried anything in their life has we're like, man, this sucks.
[:[00:56:53] Jeremy Barker: Right. Yep. Make sure you do it every day. Find where you lost every day. Recognize it. So if you're not waiting till the end of [00:57:00] the year to fail, cuz that cliff is huge. If you're only falling eight inches a day, it doesn't hurt near as bad. If you don't recognize what you're missing. Amen brother. So that's just kind of where we great advice to talk about it, you know, and that's our, that's our share.
[:[00:57:20] Eric Goranson: All right, brother. Jeremy Barker. Thanks for coming on today. Murphy door.com. Appreciate
[:[00:57:30] Jeremy Barker: Thanks
[: