Building a Thriving Family Business with Your Spouse

Curt Anderson  00:00

Hey, Damon, happy Monday, dude. How are you? Man,

Damon Pistulka  00:03

I’m doing great. Curt, you have a good weekend.

Curt Anderson  00:07

Oh, my goodness gracious. If it was any better, you’d have had to call 911, it was just absolutely spectacular. You know how crazy I am at this age and stage of my life. So, hey, Damon, you get some rest last night. You get a good night’s sleep. I got some sleep. I text you. I said, Hey, dude, you got to go to sleep early because, like that, we got the double dude. I can’t even like I’m just so fired up. I’m just so excited. Bigger is better. Hey, we’ve got Dan and Julie. Bigger is in the house. So Dan the man bigger, Julie the better half is here. I’m starting with Julie. Julie, how are you?

Julie Bigger  00:44

I’m good. Think good. Good day. Beautiful day here. Got up, worked out this morning, came home, got some work done in the studio. Already.

Curt Anderson  00:51

Awesome. Well, hey, it’s a great day to have a great day, even in spite of that hat. Now, Dan Bigger. Let’s, like, show it off, dude. Let’s what’s going on underneath the hat. I

Dan Bigger  01:00

did, I did shave an order of Curt Anderson day. Look at

01:03

this. Curt Anderson dude. Damon, didn’t you get that? Damon, did you guys get the memo like, come on,

Julie Bigger  01:12

you’re not partaking in you’re not

Curt Anderson  01:15

Julie, I don’t blame

Dan Bigger  01:15

1. Damon, march, march, 18 next year. Damon, come on, man, you

01:20

gotta join the club, brother, come on. Dan did it for you. He’s got that beautiful head of hair, Julie house,

Damon Pistulka  01:26

that’s not named Julie, but in a similar position that would kill me if I did. Wow, she I myself bled out in the morning. I

Dan Bigger  01:35

call it building credits. I built up enough

Curt Anderson  01:36

credits. You got one or two over the years. Dan, is that how that worked. So,

Julie Bigger  01:40

yeah? One, yeah, he just used up all of his credits yesterday. I

Damon Pistulka  01:48

started building again. Is

Curt Anderson  01:51

that how, after 20 years, like you start from scratch? Is

Julie Bigger  01:54

that how that works? Yeah, after this one, yeah, because this is kind of crazy that

Curt Anderson  01:57

how many, how many points was that? Julie? Was that a lot?

Julie Bigger  02:02

I’d say 20, even close to

02:04

even, yeah, 20 points. I

Curt Anderson  02:06

love it, alright. So, hey, we’ve, let’s see. Let’s go here. Let’s go here. Let’s go here. Hey, we got Lynn is in the house today. Hey, howdy from North Central. Hey, and we’ve got Evan here today, from from New Jersey, man, happy Monday. Big glimmer fan right there. So Hey Evan, thank you for joining us today. Happy Monday. Alright, Julie, I have a question for you. We’re going to start with you. How’s this? Okay? So wonderful. Top great conversation today, we’re going to talk about family business. You know, Dan, you’re the, I don’t know, a bigger advocate for US manufacturing than yourself. And lots of manufacturers are family businesses. But before we go there, Julie, bigger when you were a little girl growing up, I understand you grew up in upstate New York. Is

Julie Bigger  02:48

that correct? Yes, correct.

Curt Anderson  02:50

I’m an up stater as well. So in upstate New York, when you were a little girl growing up, who was your hero? Who’s your hero when you were little, does that I don’t know. Demon made me know and made me ask

Julie Bigger  03:03

that he, because I he, I had to answer this question before, and I didn’t have an answer. And I, like, literally, spent weeks trying to find someone that I looked up.

Dan Bigger  03:12

Yeah, I was trying to book her on another podcast that she she couldn’t fill out that simple question. We couldn’t do the podcast. Yeah,

Julie Bigger  03:18

I don’t, I, I can’t give you an answer for that. Curt, my coaches, you know, other athletes that came through the program before myself, you know, I always looked up to those type of people because that was my wheelhouse. I was a, you know, good athlete in school. My brother played basketball. He was six foot five, but not the, you know, the volleyball type, but yeah, anyway, I would say those along those lines, not necessarily one specific

Curt Anderson  03:50

person, just in general, perfect answer. Julie, so now, was volleyball always your jam? Was that always your your

Julie Bigger  03:57

always, yeah, from seventh grade, the first time I played, I got, I served as a seventh grader. I served an entire game, like, one game, an entire game, yeah, entire game, 50 straight points. And, you know, back then, that was a feat. So, oh

04:11

yeah. So, yeah, I

Julie Bigger  04:12

just always was good at it.

Curt Anderson  04:14

Remember Damon? Remember that Ben Stiller movie? He was playing volleyball, and he, like, he just spiked and smoked, you know, smoked somebody in the face. Like, blood was that was Julie, right? Like she was equal. Blood was going everywhere. She was just fierce, right?

Julie Bigger  04:26

Yeah, my, my friend still to this day, calls my nickname is hammer. He still calls me that to this day, yeah,

Curt Anderson  04:33

nice. Well, we Hey, Damon. We got Dan the man Bigger, and we got Julie. Julie The hammer is here today. Hey, we’ve got some comments in the chat box here. We’ve got, hey, we’ve got a friend from Calgary, up north. Say coffee. Thank you for joining us today. It’s time for H to H. So moment. Happy Monday. Hey, Russ. Hedge is in the house today, our dear friend, Russ. Russ, how are you dude? Man, hey, Russ. Wishing us a good, awesome, good Monday morning. So. Thank you. And so coffee says, Hey, good morning. Damon, so hey guys, drop us. Know in the chat box, let us know you’re there. Connect with Dan. Connect with Julie bigger you’ll thank us later. They are two amazing, incredible, wonderful human beings. Dan, I’ve asked you that question before, have I not who’s your hero growing up?

Dan Bigger  05:15

I’m a sports guy, so that’s what really has driven me in my career. Alright,

Curt Anderson  05:21

so I’m gonna I hate losing.

Damon Pistulka  05:22

I don’t know. One of my

Dan Bigger  05:25

favorite quotes is from Moneyball. I hate I don’t enjoy winning as much as I hate losing.

Curt Anderson  05:31

There you go. Say that one again, will you

Dan Bigger  05:34

I don’t enjoy winning as much as I hate losing. Hate losing.

Julie Bigger  05:38

I hate losing more than I like winning. That’s

Curt Anderson  05:41

that’s a that’s why you guys are rock star volleyball coaches. So

Julie Bigger  05:46

I use that. I use that, like last week in practice, I’ve said to the girls, because that’s just how, that’s how both we, we both are like that

Curt Anderson  05:55

awesome. Now, Dan, I’m, I’m going to, if I ask you that question, I’m going to assume it’s probably a Pittsburgh Steeler. Am I my guessing? Right?

Dan Bigger  06:02

No, I’m. I’m across the board. I’m a Michigan fan. I’m a penguins fan. Mario Lemieux, coming back from cancer, winning Santa Cruz,

Curt Anderson  06:11

yeah, that was, that was that, you know what? Good that’s a great answer, dude, that’s a great guy. So good hero, right there. Mario lemu, coming back from cancer. That was that was a that was a grab that photo

Dan Bigger  06:21

on my wall from his comeback game. Signed,

Damon Pistulka  06:24

nice. Awesome. You know what? You

Curt Anderson  06:27

know what I’m trying to get on the show. My best friend I grew up with is he lives across the street from Merrill Hodge. I’m trying to get Merrill Hodge on your show. How’s that? Yes, that

Julie Bigger  06:35

would be great. If I’m working on

Curt Anderson  06:37

1. I’ll do it just for you, Julie, so I’m keep our fingers crossed. So All right, let’s dive in. So, Dan, I know you and my wife went to the same college. You guys went to Mercyhurst College. Wonder she went there for grad school. I believe you did undergrad. Julie, where’d you what’d you do after after high school? Would you go college? I

Julie Bigger  06:53

went to the University of Vermont and on a partial volleyball scholarship. So I played my four years. There had absolutely no direction. I have a degree in history, which I’ve never, ever used. So we, well,

Curt Anderson  07:06

you know what? You’re going to use it today, because at the end of the show, we have, like, a little history trivia for you. Dan probably didn’t tell you that, but I’ve got, like, a whole, I’m just kidding, we don’t, but yeah, please don’t All right, so you go to Vermont, you play, you’re in a Fulbright scholarship, uh, volleyball. You’re just hammering people there with the what was your journey after college?

Julie Bigger  07:25

So after college, I moved back home, or I spent the summer in Burlington with a couple of my friends, and it was the best summer I’d ever had, so great. So much fun. So then I moved back home, and I had heard that the volleyball coaching position was open at my old high school, so I went and I went and applied, and I did not get the job. And I was just baffled, but they hired in house, you know, back then you got to hire people inside the school. Yeah, then I just applied for another local job at a high school, and that was called Morrisville, Eaton, so I got the JV job over there. So I started coaching there, and then he yelled at me about, Julie, turn off your phone. Julie, turn off your phone. Just talk anyway. So then I was so I got the job in Morrisville, and then I was going to move to California with my friends, and I literally had my ticket in my hands. And then my brother got sick, and then I couldn’t go, because I had to stay and give him a bone marrow transplant that following summer. So yeah, my life was kind of in limbo that whole next year. And then I was employed by my father’s business, so I had health insurance and wasn’t really working, just kind of running back and forth to Boston, which is where we did the bone marrow transplant in Albany. He was in Albany the hospital for a long, long time. So then I had, I’m like, Oh, I might as well say coaching. And then, and then I did, and then I just had a light bulb moment one day. I was like, hey, I can do this for a living. So then I just started coaching, and just by chance, I ran into my old college coach who had moved to Clinton, New York, which is where Hamilton College is. So then they gave me a job as an assistant coach, and then just kind of kept going and learning and this and that, and made a go of it, and then got my job at Carnegie Mellon, then moved to Pittsburgh.

Curt Anderson  09:32

So you moved to Pittsburgh. So Alright, first off, kudos to you. How admirable. What a sacrifice. I don’t sacrifice to do the bone marrow transplant plant for your brother. That is just hats off to you there. So how, how was that process?

Julie Bigger  09:48

That was pretty rough.

09:50

Yeah,

Julie Bigger  09:50

you know the first and he passed away in 9819 98 so he was not even 30 yet at the time. Yeah, and. Uh. So he the first time, he was in the hospital for nine weeks in a day, and then he got released, and then the bone marrow transplant itself, we did out in Boston, it was just so daunting on his body. You know, this was 30 years ago, and it’s not the cancer that kills you, it’s the chemo. So he just got decimated by that process. And then he was in remission for about 14 months, where he was living his best life, traveling all over the country, got engaged to one of my now best friends, who I still talk to to this day, um, and she’s my kid’s godmother. Wow. So then, and then, unfortunately, you know, after the 14 months, he got sick again, but he didn’t want to do another bone marrow transplant, because it was so it was so hard on him. So yeah, we had him for an extra four years, so I can’t complain about that. Well, God bless

Curt Anderson  10:51

you, man. I’d say that’s a very inspiring story, and kudos to you, what a great sister you are. So hats off, man, that’s a great Damon. What do you anything you want to add to that.

Damon Pistulka  11:01

No, not going to add anything that. One that’s, yeah. I

Curt Anderson  11:04

mean, that takes a special person to do a bone marrow transplant. So, you know? So then, okay, so I heard Carnegie Mellon. So folks aren’t familiar, if we have some west coasters, Carnegie Mellon is a very prestigious college in a wonderful city of Pittsburgh. So you leave Hamilton to go to Carnegie Mellon. Do I have that correct?

Julie Bigger  11:22

Yeah, I lived in a little town called Sherburne, so then I moved to Pittsburgh. I didn’t know a soul there, and I was 24 years old. I wasn’t even old enough to rent the rental van when we went on trips. Yeah, um, so yeah. Just went in and kind of dove in. And I was not a great coach. I was only 24 years old. I was only four years older than some of the girls there, right? Um, so the year before I started, they were five and 31 and then four years later, we were 40 and six, wow. So I had a I was fortunate enough that I had a really good group of girls at the beginning. There at five good girls, actually, one we’re gonna go have dinner with later. She’s on the island. Are you really?

Curt Anderson  12:05

How cool is that so? So Dan, she’s kind of like the woody haze of volleyball. Is that mature? I’m sorry, Bo, one of those two woody bow. I can’t I get those two mixed up, right? She’s

Dan Bigger  12:15

pretty good at what she does. Yes, he

Curt Anderson  12:16

was pretty darn good. What a turnaround. Julie, man, I’m going totally off the rails before Alright, so before we dive into your your entrepreneurial journey, what do you contribute your vast, massive turn around success at such a young age, as a coach? Are there things?

Julie Bigger  12:33

Yeah, well, so my brother died in the middle of all of that, and I needed, I needed something to do, and I needed some place to put my focus on, and that’s where I threw my focus was on those kids. And so we started doing, like, individual lessons. And, you know, just like we said before, you know, I hate losing more than I like winning, and I’m just a very driven individual. And it was just my journey to get these kids where they wanted to go and, you know, Sarah Beth, Stephanie, Ashley and Rochelle, they were the five seniors that year. And then I was just fortunate enough to pick up more athletes, more really good athletes along the way, um, and then just to get them to buy into the program and to buy into what we were doing. And, you know, but that attitude is taking me straight on into my business, you know. So like when I first started, you know? So when I first started coaching, we were dismal failures. I’m like, I remember we were my second season. We started off the season oh and nine, and we’re in our 10th game, okay. And we were winning in game five, and it was rally scoring back then in game five, you played a 15. We were winning 14 to 814, to eight, and we lost 16 to 14. And I was devastated, and I was so upset. I’m like, Okay, what are we going to do now? So anyway, then we continue to go on to oh and 18 and the and we were in Rochester, and my brother came to watch us. He was in a wheelchair. He was super weak at the time. Then he was six foot five. He probably weighed 160 pounds, you know. And we were, again, we were on the cusp of winning, and we lost 15 to 13 in the fifth and I walk across the court to him. He’s like, Oh, man. He’s like, if you were going to win, I was going to walk across the court, but anyway, we went Owen 18 that year. But then we finished. We finished, I think so we were nine and 24 or something like that. And we didn’t finish dead last in the conference, which was a godsend. But anyway, just kept it going. And then, you know, we had some great times, great wins, great fun, great girls. You know, I still keep in touch with most of the girls, and to me, that’s my legacy of coaching. You know, coaching is about creating relationships with people, and the fact that Beth, who’s on the islands, you know, text me and says, Hey, I’m on the island. You know, you want to do coffee laying hell no, we’re not doing coffee. I’m like, Let’s do happy hour. So. We’re going to go out to dinner with them later and have some fun. You know, that’s what it’s all about, right?

Curt Anderson  15:05

Wow. Okay. Hey, couple comments here. Thank you, Evan for dropping an incredible story. Julie. Hashtag, brave. Yeah, I admire how both Dan and Julie have true purpose in their life. I’m still looking for my purpose. Evan joined the club. Man, alright, Julie, this is phenomenal. Now i i received some pre show notes in preparation here. Now, somebody, I don’t know if it was you or Dan, somebody typed when I moved to Pittsburgh, meeting Dan bigger was the greatest thing that ever happened. Who, I don’t know who, who, who sent that to me?

Julie Bigger  15:39

Yeah, that’s a direct quote, yeah, but I didn’t meet him until, like, my last year, on when we were there, because then we moved right after, yeah, because

Dan Bigger  15:47

of it was her last year, yeah, because I made her move to New York, yeah, I

Julie Bigger  15:51

did not want to leave. I was so distraught that whole season. I did not want to go. I wanted to stay with those girls.

Curt Anderson  15:57

Alright, so I, ma’am. I know Damon. I’m going off the rails here. So I Where did you two meet?

Julie Bigger  16:02

Oh, we met at a bar, actually, nice. Yeah. We met at a bar. My our athletic trainer at Carnegie Mellon and her husband went to high school with Dan, so then they’ve been trying to get us together for a long, long time, and he’s like, Nope, no blind dates.

Dan Bigger  16:19

I said no, about 15 times,

Julie Bigger  16:21

yeah, and I didn’t. Dan was

Curt Anderson  16:23

playing game? Were you playing hard to get or hard to walk?

Dan Bigger  16:26

No, I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t want to go on a blind date.

Curt Anderson  16:32

So alright, so you guys go the

Dan Bigger  16:34

night before I went out there, because I was working for Budweiser at the time, and I needed to get out of my parents house. So I was good. Actually, that weekend, I was going to go get a to go get a job at FedEx loading planes in the middle of night, so I could just work 24/7 to make money to get on my parents house. And then I met her and a whole plan with the crap.

Curt Anderson  16:54

So Julie, going back, we Time Machine. What was Dan’s pickup line? What was his first remember the remember? I

Dan Bigger  17:02

know what it was, yeah. Well,

Julie Bigger  17:03

no, we were just, so we just were both there by chance, with a group of people from CMU and a couple friends of mine. And then we were the last two that stayed drinking, yeah, just staying there. So

Dan Bigger  17:15

the pickup line was, who wants to stay for another pitcher? Yeah,

Julie Bigger  17:18

I don’t think I asked the question. I did, and then I said, Sure, sure,

Curt Anderson  17:23

hey, and look, alright. So two sets of twins later, here we are. Yeah, so Alright, Julie, when did you start your business? When did you start your entrepreneurial journey from coaching? Um, so

Julie Bigger  17:33

it was actually kind of while I was coaching, I was going through a really bad breakup with my previous boyfriend, then Dan, and I needed something to do, which is funny, because this ties back into the brother, when my mom is always making stained glass panels, and she taught my brother how to do it, so he was working with, you know, like the tools of glass, you know, like the glass grinder and the cutters and glass and patterns and all that kind of stuff. So when he passed away, I inherited all of his tools. So then I had those in my house, and then I just needed something to do. So I picked it up and started to make things, because I just needed a distraction. And just kind of took it and ran with that, and went to my stained glass supply store, and they were offering a learn how to fuse class with kilns and everything. So I took that and then kind of the the rest is history. So then my friend was getting married, my friend Heather, and she asked me to make party favors for her wedding. So I came up with this just primitive, you know, two hearts wrapped in LED, you know, soldered together with just a label from a label maker that said, you know, Heather and John, whenever they were married, thanks for coming to our wedding and whatever, with a bow in their colors. And anyway, then everybody loved them at the wedding. They’re like, wow, you should do this as a business. So then I went to the community college there and took a small business class, and the professor in the class somehow just picked on me all the time. And he’s like, What? What’s your idea? What are you going to do? And what, you know, just picked it apart the whole time. But anyway, in that process, there was a lady in the class, she’s like, Hey, we’re having a craft store or a craft show down at our church. You want to come. And I’m like, Sure. So then I whipped together a bunch of these heart things that I had, and I went down there and I made 80 bucks, and I was hooked. I was like, so excited $80 woo hoo. So then I just kept going and doing shows and more shows, and I was a dismal failure. I would come home from shows and just sob and sob and sob, I wouldn’t sell anything at all. It was just a journey from the start, products that you need to make, you know, price points where to go, sell your work, you know. And everything was always a life lesson and how to get to where, you know, you wanted to go. Wow. And back at the back in the time when I started it, you know, we didn’t need the money then, you know, it’s just something fun that I was doing, and I enjoyed doing it, like I liked doing the shows. I liked making things. And anyway, then we moved to New York, and I wasn’t working, you know, he was working for Jim, my that’s her dad, my father. And then I was just not doing it. I was, we were just trying to have start our family, and again, we were failing at that. So I was, you know, a rocking, severe failures for a long, long time in that process. But then when I when we were pregnant with the boys, when we just found out that we were pregnant with the boys, we just absolutely freaked out. I’m like, What are we going to do? Because we needed money. I mean, four kids, another set of twins. And I’m like, I was, I was doing glimmer glass gifts at the time, but nothing crazy, like it is right now. You know, I would get, actually, when I was, when I was pregnant with the girl? No, it was I was pregnant with the boys. Yeah, so I was pregnant with the boy. I just found out I was pregnant. We were here in Hilton Head, actually, and sitting on the couch, and I, I decided to apply back to this website called wholesale crafts.com and it’s just an online marketplace where buyers and sellers meet. So you can just, you know, sell yourself to shops and galleries across the country. Well, they had a trade show in Vegas. So we went out to Vegas. We got a half booth. We used our airline points, because we were already members of the website. It didn’t cost us any more money to go out to the show. We went to the show, got like 10 orders, you know, made like $2,000 and I was like, whoo. Super ecstatic, right? Well, now we just this year, you know, we’ve Fast forward to, you know, we have 70 new customers this year, 70. I don’t even think I had that many in the first five years of business, over

Dan Bigger  22:04

150 in last year. Yeah, last year.

Curt Anderson  22:08

You know that, you know. And we’ll get into that in a minute. And of course, Damon, that’s how you get employee of the month, you know, seven times in a row, you know, so but 12 months, well, we’ll dive into that. But hey, let’s Alright, Dan, you gotta jump in here for a minute. Okay, so, lots to uncover, right? What a story. So you take this little just a passion thing that your mom was doing, your brother was doing, and you’re like, just on a whim you do, you do wedding favors for your bestie, and then all sudden, like, Hey, you should do that again, go to the church, 80 bucks. So, like, this little side it’s not even a side hustle. This little hobby converts into a potential side hustle. When, Dan, what, what’s your side of the story here? Like, what is the is the by innocent bystander, what were you what was going on your mind through this process?

Dan Bigger  22:57

Well, I mean, she was always working, and when she wasn’t working, and the thing that I liked about what she did was she’s able to, you know, she basically raised our kids because I was always working. So she was able to, you know, do her job and create a business and keep it growing, while at the same time raising our kids, getting everywhere they needed to be and all that stuff. And then are we transitioning to when I came in?

Curt Anderson  23:19

Yeah. So I Yeah. I just want to kind of hear your so Carnegie Mellon coaching, then we hear all right, we ended up in New York two and for the record, just so everybody knows, two sets of twins, yeah, girls, twin boys. So just, you know, kind of like, what’s your side of the story going through this transition?

Dan Bigger  23:37

So, yeah, she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to leave coaching, which I made her do, because it was a family business, and I needed to learn a family business from the ground up. So I made her leave what she didn’t want to do, and then she started her business. And, you know, I really think the thing that really helped her was that she was willing to try it and fail. And the laser really is what she got in a laser, she she played with it, she messed around with it, and she found something that worked with, which is her laser etch jewelry, which is something like this, right, you know. So she takes, she takes the glass and etches the image on there. So then, you know, she kept growing. Yeah,

Julie Bigger  24:17

that came way later. Damon that that was my covid Lemonade, those cards.

Dan Bigger  24:22

So then, you know, for years, she was just doing her own thing. And I would, you know, since I was working for her father, it was a family business, so I was able to go to shows with her and help her, and sort of we as a family helped her for years, you know, but she’s not. She needs a she needs a stop, because in New York. So when we were in New York, she was running her business. I was running two of her father’s businesses. She was on the school board. She was a head volleyball coach. She had a volleyball club that she started in New York. I was running my boys around for you know, so I was coach. Of them in soccer, baseball, and then I was on the board for baseball, and they were doing hockey. So at one point I went to her, and I’m like, we’re done. We can’t do anything. We’re not doing a goddamn thing. More, like, I don’t care, you know, because, you know, you sit in the stands and you watch all these people complain and complain and complain. But we’re not the complainers we, you know, instead of complaining, we get involved. So then we moved here, and her business continued to go, you know, even through covid. So she had time to to create some new things and find a new balance in what she was doing. And then I lost my job two years in a row, and that was that was enough for me. And then the second time, last February, I couldn’t find a job, and I the first time I lost my job, I was out of work for 18 days, something like that, right? And so I couldn’t find a job, and she’s like, Well, come help me, right? And so I would do that, you know, the days I would get frustrated looking for a job, I’d spend the afternoons working in the studio. And then I started realizing how much she actually had to do by herself.

Curt Anderson  26:06

Whole new appreciation. Yeah,

Dan Bigger  26:07

no, it actually was true. You know, you don’t appreciate people’s work until you actually do what they do on a daily basis. So I realized how much stuff that has that goes into it, and now I basically just do everything she doesn’t want to do.

Julie Bigger  26:20

It’s not that I don’t want to do it. He does this stuff that, so I have to do what he can’t do. So I just continue to do what he can’t do. And then he does the stuff that I am unable to do. It doesn’t want to do because I’m making other things. It’s not that I don’t Well, I hate the drilling part. Yeah, I make him do that. Yeah.

Dan Bigger  26:38

She doesn’t like talk to people. She doesn’t like emailing. She’s so I’m communication, she sends all the emails and phone calls to me, and I do all that stuff. So,

Curt Anderson  26:44

yeah, you’ve, you’ve had a little experience with sales, right? Dan, yeah, no,

Dan Bigger  26:48

I don’t, I don’t know anything about it. Just, well, he’s a little

Curt Anderson  26:51

bit of a marketer. It’s

Dan Bigger  26:53

new to me. I’m saying, yeah, just,

Curt Anderson  26:54

he’s he, just, he, on occasion, he connects people just once, random, you know. So, yeah, I could, I could go down. We could take up a whole show, just listing other people he’s connecting me with. So Dan is the master connector. So alright, we’re top of the hour. We’re with Dan and Julie bigger, Julie the hammer, Dan the man. We’re talking about glimmer glass, which is just a wonderful, amazing products. You need to check out their website, because I just love and adore their products. So Julie, let’s come back to you. I heard Vegas $2,000 right? Did I hear that? Right? You went to Vegas and you sold $2,000 was that the moment? Or when was there a moment where you had that? Aha? Like, yeah, this is a business. Like, this is not a hobby anymore. Like, do you remember that point? Was it Vegas?

Julie Bigger  27:40

So I think it came kind of before that, you know, because I was doing, I started doing the higher end craft shows at that point. So I knew that I had a good product line, you know, the end users loved it, you know, I had great following at the show. So I would do live shows in Rochester, Syracuse, a couple in Albany. So that’s kind of how I knew what was, what would sell. You just had to figure out how to make it appealing for your your shops and galleries, yeah, you know, make it easier for them to buy. You know, you really had to start thinking as a buyer and an owner of a store, you know, a brick and mortar store, and just kind of make things easy for them, easy for them to order, it easier for them to contact you. And then, you know, when I went out to that show in Vegas, I’m like, I thought I had made it. I was like, whoo, so excited. And, you know, yeah, it’s like peanuts to what we do now, but you know. So then I just learned more. So I’d go and we would talk to our neighbors, and, oh, Julie, you got to do this show and try that show. And then there’s been a lot of fluctuation in the people who do the shows, you know. So my niche is, you know, we go to shows that are for handmade products only. So there was buyers market of American craft. That was the Rosen show, a woman run by Wendy Rosen. For years, I did that show, but then that stopped. And then the wholesale crafts.com they sold out to another company called Emerald, and then they stopped the shows. Um, because basically, people, buyers, just kind of stopped going with after covid especially, it’s easier for them to kind of sit behind their computer and place all place their orders online now. So you don’t necessarily have to go to the shows. However, what’s good about the shows is that you meet people. You know it’s better to have face to face contacts, and then you can look at our product and touch it and pick it up and be like, Wow, this is great. Great job. Julie Dan, we love it. Um, let’s, you know, let’s pick it up and, you know. So that’s where we find, the majority, you know, of our, of our buyers. But so yeah, we did shows all throughout. Pretty much up to up to covid when they canceled our shows, you know. But what happened during covid Was that most of my shops were seasonal, so all my orders were canceled, yeah, and we were getting ready to move, and he just got laid off. And I’m like, Oh, my Lord. So then again this, I do what I do best. I just put my head down and keep working. But it gave me covid, gave me the gift of time, and which I had not had in years, because I was just cranking out the same product all the time, all the time, all the time, just getting super boring, super monop. But I’m not complaining, because we always got orders and we always had money coming in. But, you know, during covid, and we were getting ready to move, and I didn’t want to move all the glass that I had in the studio, and I had all these supplies that I had tried, that I had ordered and that I never had time to use. So then I just started using them. And then I started using the decal paper. I bought a cricket machine the day before he got laid off. So if he got laid off the day prior, I would never have bought it, but that’s made a big difference in the business. That simple machine, a cricket machine, yeah, well, that’s the laser hold up the greeting card. That thing, the black decal paper on there was the product that is kind of revolutionized what I was doing. And then, yeah, so it gave me the gift of time, and then just kept plugging away and experimenting and doing new things and creating new products. So that created this whole new product line for us, and that’s really what’s selling more now than the jewelry, because I haven’t really made any new jewelry in 10 years. Just been making the same thing perfect, right? Let’s

Curt Anderson  31:43

take, go ahead, David, I want to, I’m going to, that’s

Damon Pistulka  31:45

one of the things that’s funny. You say the gift of time, because I was just reading about that yesterday, is, is someone was talking about all these people really go back to a point in their lives when they had the gift of time to really think about things, and taking that time and you coined it so well, it was a gift to be able to think of this, have that new equipment, use some of these and create some different products that, really, as you said, now, are becoming the majority of your business. Yeah,

Julie Bigger  32:13

absolutely. I call it my covid Lemonade. I’m took the covid and made it

Dan Bigger  32:20

lemonade. There we go, and some of the numbers that that we have now. And you know, a lot of this was done by her, but you know, we’re in 400 to 500 retailers across the country. Okay, we just got into Canada at the last show we just did. So Canada’s a focal point for us now. But from where she started to where we are now is completely different story.

32:42

Yeah, Dan

Curt Anderson  32:44

bigger elevation, man, we’re just going to call you elevation. We got a lot of nicknames for Dan bigger, but Julie, give. Give kind of as we’re looking at the products, just give us some give folks like a little description of what we’re looking at here. What? What can they take advantage of by shopping on your website?

Julie Bigger  33:00

Okay, so we’ve so during my covid, lemonade came all of the greeting cards. Um, and again, the product has kind of evolved, you know, from a really kind of a basic thing into kind of what it is now. Um, but trees have been my thing for a long, long time. You know, my family history is that my great grandfather started a saw mill in 1925 which was our business, our family business, growing up, which was called Web and sons, which is my maiden name, my grandfather took it over, then my father took it over, and then we were supposed to take it over, but then my father sold it out, sold it like, literally, the week Before we were supposed to move to New York, so Webb and some, sadly, is no more. But, and my brother was a big nature guy, so, and when he passed away, he was making log homes out of chainsaws and chisels. So he was down in the mill as well. So the the trees and the nature thing have always been a big important thing to me, that was how I started with the dichroic glass jewelry. And now in all of these, so all of these cards, we just have about 20 different styles of cards now with all sorts of different Sun cutters that you know, you can take off and then use it as a Christmas ornament. You can hang it in your window. Um, and then with, so like with this one here, you can get a tree, a tree with Moon. You can get cats on it, dragonflies or butterflies. So what’s great about it is that, you know, how many cards have you just gotten that they go sit in your drawer and nobody ever looks at it again. So at least when you take this off. I mean, my goal, goal was that, you know, yeah, exactly. The demons got one too. So like, with the be like a tree, you know, the the saying on the be like a tree is great. So, like, my whole goal was that you look at the sun catcher in your window and then you remember all of the things that the tree represents, you know, and like, that’s how you kind of want to live your life. In some respects, I think they’re great graduation gifts. Yes, every time that I have to give a graduation card, I I dig out one of these, or or the gift of a tree card, which is a little bit more expensive, but because it comes in a frame and it comes with a suction comp that right in your window. Nice.

Damon Pistulka  35:13

Absolutely love it. So

Curt Anderson  35:15

Dan, let’s dive into, Alright, so now I’m going to slide into working with your spouse. So Dan, bigger. Did you ever dream that you and Julie would be working together?

Dan Bigger  35:26

We actually discussed it. Can’t remember the year. I want to say it was like 2015 ish, my father in law walked into my office. He said, Hey, I’m going to lay you off. Okay, great. So then he gave me a couple days to think about it, and he came to my house. He’s like, What do you think? I said, I don’t know. I’m like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s like, about laying you off. Said, Fine, I’ll take the layoff and go work for her. So we discussed it, but at the time, she wasn’t where she is now, and I started talking things like CRM and marketing, and she didn’t want to have anything to do with it. She’s like, I’m not we’re not doing that. We’re not spending the money on it. So I’m like, Fine, I’m not coming. So I found another job. So now, you know, when I got laid off and talked about it, I was honestly scared to death because I didn’t I, you know, yeah, we we interact with our kids, and we do all that stuff together, and we work well as a team, but working together, you know, I was fearful that I would destroy my marriage possibly, and I consulted a lot of people, probably you two at the time, and I finally made the decision, you know, we it was July of last year, and my unemployment was running out, and we went To do a show in Atlanta, and we just crushed it. It was the best show we’d ever done. And then we did a show in January, and that was the best show we’ve ever done. And then we just did a show in July, and that was the best show we’ve ever done, right? So I’m like, Okay, fine. So I jumped in, and I took the reins of all the marketing stuff and and reaching out to all the customers, and actually a lot of the customers that she had that she hadn’t talked in a while, I’ve reached out to while, I’ve reached out to and are slowly bringing back. So I was fearful of it, but it’s it’s worked out really nice. I’m really like the flexibility. I work probably 10 times harder than I do when I work for somebody else, but it’s a whole different kind of work. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  37:19

right, absolutely. And hey, Lynn says, I love the greeting cards and sun catchers. She’s right back at you. Lynn. And again, guys, you know, check out glimmer gifts. I’ve got them right here. They’re just absolutely, what I mean, these are perfect. I had a family member that tragically died recently, you know, sent them one of these. And it’s just, I mean, these are just such practical, wonderful gifts, heartfelt, just unique, catchy, Made in USA, made by the bigger family. Yeah, handmade in the USA, made by the bigger family. So I Julie, did you ever think that you would be working with your significant other? Well,

Julie Bigger  37:56

you know, no, no, no. And when we first talked about it in like, 2017 he just wanted to, like, literally, come in with, like a bulldozer, and just like, nothing I had done was good enough. Dan, right? That’s so unlike it’s anyway it it was. And I’m like, Okay, we’re this isn’t going to work. So that just got put on the back burner at the time. But he wasn’t miserable. And I’m not kidding, like miserable for probably 15 years, and I just could not take any more of the complaints, like he complains of when he was working for my dad, he complained about the family. I mean, it was so stressful on our marriage, um, and I just got sick of listening to it. It was the same stuff all the time and nothing was changing. I’m like, okay, I get you that you’re complaining. But like, okay, what are we going to do about it? Like, I just couldn’t just sit there and just continually listen to the same stuff over and over and over again. So I kept urging him to pivot. I’m like, You need to pivot. I’m like, You’re not happy doing what you’re doing. You’re making me miserable in the process. You’re miserable. I’m miserable listening to you. You you need to change. You need to make a change. But he was scared to do it, and I think that’s why he wouldn’t do it, because he’s the man. He’s the breadwinner, you know, and he needs to be able to, you know, do something that he, you know, where he felt he was contributing to the family. But, and I’m like, But why? Why are you continuing to make yourself miserable? I said, I have two viable businesses here. I have rising tide volleyball, and I have glimmer glass gifts, and I need help with both, like I was struggling with both at the time, and now he knows why I was struggling, and I was having a really hard time doing it all by myself, and then he’s getting mad at me because we’re not spending any time together. I’m like, Well, I have stuff to do. I’m like, and if I don’t do it, it’s not going to get done, and we’re not going to get orders out the door. So now that he’s come on and, you know, has seen everything that I’ve done, and, like, we have our. Lanes. I have my lane, he has his lane, and it works like he does. He drives me crazy sometimes because he’s always complaining that I’m not organized, no, which I am. I am in my space. Just it’s working

Dan Bigger  40:12

to step to simplify this whole long john out whatever she’s talking about. I’ve been married for 20 years because I did what her grandfather told me to do was just say Yes, dear. So I just do what she tells me to do. Everything just goes away. You’re a smart man. Dan,

Curt Anderson  40:27

you’re a very smart it’s very smart everything she

Dan Bigger  40:29

complication. I simplify it.

Curt Anderson  40:35

We need it. We need to have a talk, right? Dan, we Yeah. Damon, I think we need to talk to Dan. Yeah. Alright, so Julie, how about let’s, let’s go here, tips and advice. So obviously, as a solopreneur, you, you’re, you’re, you had multiple, multiple hats on, and you’re running, you’re running crazy, right? You finally concede, like, hey, I need some help. Dan’s in a situation to help, and it sounds like it’s been just a really great fit. So maybe the time wasn’t right in 2017 time wasn’t right in 2020 or any of these other transitions in your lives, but it just sounds like the stars lined up in 2023 and now you guys are just off to the races. Right? Exactly.

Damon Pistulka  41:17

Awesome. That’s awesome. And you know, really, the cool parts you’re gonna you, you’re, for a large part of it, you’re controlling your own density, now, Destiny now, I mean, it just really is, you know, that’s why,

Dan Bigger  41:28

yeah, and she, she was talking about me being miserable. That’s why I was miserable. Because, yeah, exactly, I was working for people that you know, like, you know, read anything on LinkedIn, every you know, right? Times get slow. Let’s cut marketing. What? Right, right, right,

41:42

right. You know,

Dan Bigger  41:43

I need you. I need you to go out and sell 3000 units tomorrow. Well, that’s just not going to happen, right? Yeah, you know, no one plays a long game, and now I’m able to play the long game. I’m able to market, I’m able to build up all this stuff so I love

Curt Anderson  41:55

1. Hey, Evan says listen to both Dan and Julie. Inspires me to do so much more my life. Hashtag, no excuses and hashtag always winning. Evan, thank you for the comment here. Alright, so as we start winding down, because you guys have orders to get out. You guys are super, super busy. Julie, any tips advice you have for entrepreneurs out there as far that are considering that are working family, spouses? Any advice that you have.

Julie Bigger  42:20

Well, I think, I think what he said earlier about I’m not, I’m not scared of taking the chances. Um, I just have faith in myself to be able to do it. Um, it’s just kind of been a theme in in my life. And I’m not going to say that I don’t fail, because I have failed, you know, but I don’t give up on it, and I keep working at it until I am successful at what I’m doing, like with volleyball and with my business. And the only place I feel like I’m always failing is with the children. But I have four teenagers at home. Well actually, no, only three right at the moment, and we’re going to be down to two after Friday. Yeah, but you know, I think this the the teenagers that you know, if, if I would have known that, you know, the teenage years were going to be this awful when they told us we were going to have twin boys, I certainly wouldn’t have laughed so hard. But anyway, that’s awesome. Yeah, the boys are those boys, yeah.

Curt Anderson  43:21

Anyway, it goes by like that. So,

43:24

yeah,

Julie Bigger  43:27

today was the first day that I cried about my daughter Lily being gone. Yeah, I it just kind of all hit me like once. But anyway, so my my advice is, you know, keep going, keep working. You gotta believe in yourself. And you know, keep working until you you know you’re you’re successful, yeah?

Curt Anderson  43:46

Awesome advice. Drop the mic on that. Julie, bigger, I love the hammer. She Dan, she just dropped the hammer on us right there.

Dan Bigger  43:53

Get the hammer all the time. That’s

Julie Bigger  43:54

my friend. Will. I gotta give him shout outs. Will Curtis gave me that when I was 17 years old.

Curt Anderson  44:00

Nice, good, you know. And I’m sure you’ve had a lot of great mentors, coaches throughout, you know, and even, like probably some of your players have been, you know, in a roundabout way, mentors to you or help us, you know. Like, I always find, you know, I’m learning a ton from younger people. Dan, serious minds want to know as we wind down, like, Dude, you’re getting an employee of the month, month after month after month. Like, can you do it without revealing any secret sauce? Can you please let us know? Like, how’s this happening?

Dan Bigger  44:27

Well, you know you gotta do what the boss tells you to do, and that’s how you stay married. But you also have to take chances behind the scenes, and that’s when you have to do things that your boss doesn’t know about. That’s where the magic happens. Well, yeah, because again, you know, you gotta take risk. I’m a risk taker here, there. Now, I

Curt Anderson  44:44

did notice a Damon, I don’t know if you saw a post recently, and I think it might have been even, like a day or two ago, over the weekend, something about, like, not being paid. So I don’t like, is there is a department of labor involved here? Julie, I just want to, I want to make sure you’re safe. Are you like, is there any, any I’m just kidding. He gets

Julie Bigger  45:00

paid in Corona Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  45:02

coronavirus, right? Happy Hour.

Julie Bigger  45:04

Yeah, we are. We’re having too many happy hours. That’s what you do when you live in paradise. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  45:09

So these guys are in Hilton Head. So alright, we will wind down. So, Dan, Julie, where can they find where can everybody find you? We’ve shown your website. LinkedIn, what do you want to social media. Where can we find you.

Julie Bigger  45:20

Well, you know, I used to have a list of stores on the website, but then I found other people were kind of stealing my mailing list, so I had to take that off. But yeah, we’re in a lot of glass museums across the country. We’re in Dollywood, Corning, Museum of Glass, Silver Dollar City, Berkshire, Mahler, Jack Pine Glass Studio, Luke Adams glass studio, where so many place or or in, oh, The Morton Arboretum and The Morton Arboretum in Chicago. And then the more risk Arboretum, which is in Philly, so in a lot of arboretums, a lot of glass museums, um. And then you can also order us order directly on our website at Glimmerglass gifts.com, and that’s pretty much it, or just, you know, yeah, we’re

Dan Bigger  46:06

not for your social media, so we’re on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, plenty

Julie Bigger  46:09

of social media, Twitter, which I don’t call and if you don’t follow us on social media, follow us on social media because he posts some funny shit.

Damon Pistulka  46:16

Yeah, good. Dan

Curt Anderson  46:18

you’re known to post once, or you post on occasion, right? No,

Dan Bigger  46:21

yeah, whatever I feel, whenever you know something hits me. Alright, Dan, before we

Curt Anderson  46:25

wrap up, can we, can we see it one more time? Just like you’re warming by it. Look at Damon, yeah, like the most handsome head of hair that you’ve ever seen, or what

Dan Bigger  46:33

I did, it from idol.

Curt Anderson  46:37

Well, I’m dude. You just you warm my heart. Absolutely love it. So, alright, guys, I want to so for everybody joining us here today, how about if you’ve been hanging out, sitting around like a great time to stand up and give a big, roaring round of applause for everybody, for Dan and Julie, bigger here. Deeply appreciate it. So guys, thank you for joining us, man, this was just Dan. I’ve asked you like months ago, right? This is, like, a long time coming for you and Julie to come on, right?

Dan Bigger  47:03

Yeah, yeah. We probably couldn’t have done it when you asked, because, like,

Curt Anderson  47:07

a little you guys had a little bit what’s alright, let one last, I can’t really let you guys go. One last question, what’s on the horizon? What’s in the future when we come back a year from now, what does what’s going on at glimmer a year from now?

Dan Bigger  47:19

Canadian domination. Yeah, Canadian

Damon Pistulka  47:21

domination. God, no,

Julie Bigger  47:23

we need help. Is my is my big thing at this point, you need to buck up and help us, or they’re going to be out on the street number one. That’s right, or we’re going to have someone coming to help us all the time. And I’m going to tell you right now my volleyball team. Our 15 national team is going to win nationals next I’m not nationals. Win the region next year and go to Nationals. Mark, nice,

47:46

they

Dan Bigger  47:47

won regionals last year. Yeah, they

Curt Anderson  47:48

won. We never, hey, I never bet against the hammer. I would

47:54

never. I’m

Curt Anderson  47:55

taking Julie, I’m taking odds. It’s like we got, like, insider trading right there. So yeah, right, guys, we’re going to wind down demon. Any parting thoughts, words of wisdom that you want to share? No, just

Damon Pistulka  48:04

thanks for getting on today. Guys, it’s so much fun talking. I’d love to see, love to see the business taking off, and, you know, four to 500 stores now, that’s awesome and awesome that you can work together and do this. It’s just it really inspiring, you know that, and then being able to share your passion and volleyball with those kids and help them do that. It’s so cool, because in doing that with the volleyball you’re you’re creating the next generation of leaders and just healthy people. That’s so good. Yeah,

Julie Bigger  48:32

absolutely love, I love coaching. Absolutely love coaching. And the having glimmer glass gifts gives me the ultimate freedom to be able to do that. And I, I won’t ever leave, leave that for a long, long time. I love doing it. So awesome. God

Curt Anderson  48:49

bless you guys. And having to close it out says, hashtag, Canadian domination. Hashtag, rising tide. And so Alright guys, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you. Julie, Jeff, you have a good time on your first live.

Julie Bigger  49:00

Oh yeah, it was fun for sure that a girl so much appreciate. Hang

Curt Anderson  49:04

out with us for one second. Guys, have a great, incredible rest your week. Damon, we’re back. We’re actually back here Wednesday. We’re going to be back Wednesday, geeking out about some stuff. So guys, have a great rest of your week, and we will see you soon.

Julie Bigger  49:16

Thanks, guys. Bye.