How JLab’s Focus on Communication Drives Success

Welcome. Dear listeners, to the speak and flow podcast where we dive into unique experiences to help you and your team, elevate your confidence, achieve maximum potential and flow. Today I have a real, amazing leader. Win wins win Kramer CEO, founder of J. Labs. He is known as A in 2021 in San Diego Top, CEO,

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Melinda Lee: 2,019, won the entrepreneurial of the year award. He is also the top 40 40 in Ce. He's running the fastest growing audio and accessory business company. Welcome, win! Glad you're here.

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Win Cramer: Hi, Melinda, it's nice to be here. Thanks for having me today.

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Melinda Lee: I'm so glad before we launch into the meat and potatoes of how you built this amazing company. Can you share with the audience what Jlabs does, and what makes you really excited? Now.

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Win Cramer: Yeah, so Jlab is an audio and personal technology company

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Win Cramer: that really focuses on building affordable products. That add value to what you're doing today.

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Win Cramer: So we we recognize that that we don't have the biggest brand in the world. But what we do is is have a set of products.

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Win Cramer: That offer value to any specific activity that that you want to perform. Be it travel, be it working out, be it lifestyle. We offer all of these, these accessory products? At affordable prices. And as as tech has gotten more complex, what I like to say is, we like to make our products easy enough for my mom to use, but cool enough for my daughter to want.

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Win Cramer: That's kind of the goal here at the company.

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Melinda Lee: Wow! And what makes you excited about where it's at right now?

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Win Cramer: You know what makes me excited as as odd as this sounds is. You know, when we're going into a time of a little bit of economic uncertainty when it's when it's a little bit softer than it's been. This is a time for value brands to really shine and put their foot forward as the ringleader.

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Win Cramer: So I'm I'm really excited to to offer a product to consumers that doesn't cost $250. You can have this great experience at under $50. And I think surprise and delight customers that give us a give us an opportunity to do so.

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Melinda Lee: Wow! And what do you think would be the key to your success? To really shine.

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Win Cramer: No, I mean clearly the team I mean this is this is on their backs, not mine. I happen to. I happen to lead them. But but they're certainly the the engine and the heartbeat of of the business, and with that is communication. How do you communicate both internally and externally, what's the message? What do you want the message to be? How much freedom do you give that message to be tweaked?

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Win Cramer: So it's on authentic to each person that's telling the story, and we work pretty hard at that.

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Melinda Lee: Oh, that's amazing! And has there been a time you're you're building your. It's been 14 years. This company has been in business ongoing. There are successes, dips, and valleys, and it's crescendo and the successes along the way, so can you share with us like, take us back to the time where it wasn't. You know. You're so confused, not sure of what to say, how to say it. What happened back then.

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Win Cramer: Yeah, I think. Look at when I go back 10 years ago in this business for me.

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Win Cramer: You know, I was really doing everything. I was the product. Guy. I was the sales guy. I was the marketing guy. I was the person doing all of these things

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Win Cramer: and being able to message. All of those different areas of the business effectively wasn't possible, so I would have to move slower.

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Win Cramer: to to try and communicate what I was trying to get across, because I was average at all of those different things I was participating in versus being an expert at one of those things like you can be when you have a team. You know I have a head of sales. I have a head of marketing. I have a Cfo. And if you give them and empower them to talk about what they're experts at

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Win Cramer: versus trying to be experts of everything. It's really different. So you know, 10 years ago I was average at all of these different things, and and probably pretty clumsy when I was communicating about those different things because I wasn't as focused as I could have been.

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Win Cramer: But now that we have a team behind me, I can. I can empower them to focus exclusively on their message. Be it sales, marketing, finance, capital, etc. And that's really, you know, poured fuel on the fire for lack of a better term.

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Melinda Lee: Yeah. And how do can you share with us a moment when your communication, because you were doing so many things, wearing so many different hats, a specific communication that did not go well, and what happened.

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Win Cramer: So I I was. This was 2,013, maybe 2,014, and I. I was in Minneapolis, visiting one of our big customers target.

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Win Cramer: and they weren't a customer at the time.

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Win Cramer: and I'm trying to communicate to them why they should trust Jlab to.

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Melinda Lee: Right.

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Win Cramer: Delight their guests, and they revert to their guest as her. So how do we delight her?

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Win Cramer: And I didn't know what that meant, and so I'm just being very clumsy through a presentation. And when my hour was over, the merchant or the buyer

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Win Cramer: at the time I was like, you know I I really like what you do, but I don't know who you are.

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Melinda Lee: And because.

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Win Cramer: Because of that. We're gonna pass this year on the opportunity to bring your products in. And that was this real kind of Aha! Moment for me. Like God, I gotta.

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Win Cramer: I need to learn to focus and not be average. I need to be great at this. So I really took a step back from at 1st the marketing and and operational side of the business to focus on sales.

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Win Cramer: and once I fine tuned that pitch

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Win Cramer: and put all of my effort in that. The next year I went back to target and we got 6 items in the store.

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Win Cramer: It was the same product.

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Melinda Lee: Wow!

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Win Cramer: It was the same packaging it was, but I had fine tuned. My communication.

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Melinda Lee: To the, to the same merchant.

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Win Cramer: And she then knew who we were as a business and who we were trying to serve.

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Win Cramer: and I knew her who she was trying to serve, and that was her.

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Win Cramer: And once we once we knew that.

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Win Cramer: and came in with a with a communication message and a and a package of goods that was

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Win Cramer: really meant to design to support them.

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Win Cramer: You know the sky's the limit.

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Melinda Lee: And what do you think was the messaging in the beginning on the technical side? That where? Where was it that you didn't hit the mark in the initial.

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Win Cramer: You know, I didn't understand when this business started we were only e-commerce. So it was our website at Amazon.

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Melinda Lee: And I didn't know the retail language.

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Win Cramer: That.

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Melinda Lee: Okay. Okay.

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Win Cramer: You need to speak to be successful from margin, from price, protection to promotions, and everything in between. I didn't. I hadn't built that skill set yet, and when you don't have that skill set built yet, you're trying to communicate that you can support it. It didn't work.

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Melinda Lee: Wow! That's fascinating.

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Melinda Lee: And then so afterwards, you're you started to dig in to learn more about that communication and the lingo

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Melinda Lee: how to speak to

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Melinda Lee: them with the same package and the same model. I mean, like you said the same product.

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Win Cramer: Same everything. It's all about.

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Melinda Lee: Country.

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Win Cramer: Communication, and how you communicate it, and why? Why, a product is better.

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Win Cramer: How we can make you more money! How can we delight your shopper more.

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Win Cramer: Right now we can hopefully get them coming back to you to buy it again if something should happen.

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Win Cramer: And and once I knew how to speak in that manner once I could speak in in a language that they understood.

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Win Cramer: And that's all about like knowing your audience right?

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Win Cramer: And I'm I'm going to speak differently with with one of our customers than I am to one of our investors than I am to one of our folks at the warehouse and everyone in between. It's a

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Win Cramer: communication, and being able to adjust and adapt is is key.

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Melinda Lee: And how do you do that now, with now as fast forward, you have a bigger team. You have more people. There's more state at stake. More people you're communicating to like you said different audiences. What? What are some of the processes that you've adapted? Now, with regards.

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Win Cramer: I think now for me it's for me. It's personally easier because I I communicate more internally now than I do externally. And then the boots on the ground. Take that message outside.

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Melinda Lee: Okay.

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Win Cramer: But they're also they're focused on a singular message like, we have a sales team that's focused on retail. We have a sales team that's focused on e-commerce. We have an operations team that's focused on that, and they don't have to try to to adapt their messages often

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Win Cramer: as I did when you're just a startup.

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Melinda Lee: Right, right.

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Win Cramer: Just a startup. You have to. You have to try to do it all yourself, and it can become. But when you have a dedicated team focused on a specific activity or event or customer, etc. It becomes a little bit easier. And you can find tune. Your

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Win Cramer: to your communication points to what's important.

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Win Cramer: And if you're saying the same message over and over and over again.

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Win Cramer: it becomes easier to to be effective.

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Melinda Lee: Right. And how do we get? You are growing rapidly. You have one of the best headphones out there globally. How do we get that message out to more people.

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Win Cramer: You know it's the question we ask each other every day.

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Melinda Lee: Yeah.

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Win Cramer: We have this this massive opportunity, and I'm a big believer in

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Win Cramer: as many times as you can see it. Hear it, touch it, talk about it. It's helpful.

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Win Cramer: So I mean, I think most people, probably

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Win Cramer: I'll take a step back. The average consumer has about 3 headphones. Today. Every American has about 3 headphones. It's usually a pair of air pods, and then 2 other things.

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Win Cramer: I don't mind being the second product in your bag for working out as great as airpods are. They're horrible for running. They're horrible for Yoga. They're horrible for anything.

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Melinda Lee: Like that

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Win Cramer: My product happens to be great for those activities.

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Win Cramer: So you could. You might even have a pair of my products and not know it. But how can we get you to know that it's mine

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Win Cramer: we do it with packaging. We have this bright blue box that is in every retailer nationwide

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Win Cramer: when you put them in.

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Win Cramer: It says, Hello, J. Lab is here, and these are powered on. So we're trying to give touch points and sense points to to the brand that hopefully resonate over time

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Win Cramer: with a customer. We.

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Melinda Lee: Yeah.

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Win Cramer: We? We sell 55,000 products a day.

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Win Cramer: We have an opportunity to touch 55,000 customers today a day, whether they know us or not.

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Win Cramer: It's our job to make sure that we delight them so much and surprise them so much with the value for the product.

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Win Cramer: But they'll remember the brand and try us again when they need something out.

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Melinda Lee: Remedy, some.

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Win Cramer: Else. Excuse me.

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Win Cramer: So it's not perfected Melinda, by any means. But that's the opportunity in front of us.

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Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's amazing that you have the lab right there, too. So you're able to adjust and refine and build more value into your products.

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Win Cramer: It's all done here. I mean, it's

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Win Cramer: my entire team is is, generally speaking, in Carlsbad, California, just north of San Diego. Everything is designed, developed and tested here.

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Win Cramer: And our customer service is here in this building which is

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Win Cramer: rare for consumer electronics that doesn't happen right getting real time feedback.

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Melinda Lee: Exactly.

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Win Cramer: That's the other part of communication is listening.

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Melinda Lee: And.

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Win Cramer: If you can listen to what your customer is saying, the good, the bad, and the different do more of the good and less of the bad.

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Win Cramer: Hopefully, you'll have a winner with the product.

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Melinda Lee: Wow, and so when have you seen like, because you've had excellent, communication.

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Melinda Lee: what what does have been the results do well.

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Win Cramer: The the results are a happy customer

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Win Cramer: and and a happy consumer. That's the that's the result. Right? Is that

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Win Cramer: we've been able to go to a retail partner, be it Walmart Target. Best buy whomever, and and make the merchant and the buyer hopefully look good and be happy that they gave Jlab an opportunity. We're delighting them because we're delighting their customer, their customers not bringing the product back. They're not getting negative emails about what we're doing. You know, they're leaving a 5 star review. And all of these things matter.

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Win Cramer: So when we're communicating successfully, we've we've communicated to the consumer about what the product does and how it works.

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Win Cramer: Then they communicated to the merchant via Walmart Target. Best buy, etc, that they're happy with it.

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Win Cramer: And then hopefully, the merchant comes back to us and says, Hey, our customers are telling us we were happy. Let's do something else.

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Melinda Lee: Right.

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Win Cramer: And that's the, you know. That's the back and forth that we we try to play all day long.

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Melinda Lee: I think I like, I love it, and I love the dots like the delight, the word even delight, like. Just communicate the element of so surprise like, Oh, I'm delightfully surprised like. You know, we don't get these opportunities, these delights in our life every day, and I think that you're going back to what you're saying. It's a it's a product, low cost. But you get so much value in it and delight in your life.

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Win Cramer: Sure.

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Melinda Lee: Why not let J. Labs bring that into our world, in our, to our communities and our life, whether it's at work or at the gym.

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Win Cramer: Then we're gonna save you money in doing it.

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Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah, awesome. And when? What would be the one golden takeaway that you would want the audience to remember.

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Win Cramer: You know, and this is a big one for me, and that's empowerment.

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Melinda Lee: You know you have to be able to.

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Win Cramer: A to let go.

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Win Cramer: but to trust the people that you've that you've brought in to go on the journey with you.

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Melinda Lee: And empower them to tell the message in their authentic way.

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Win Cramer: You gotta stick within the values of of the company and whatnot. But every person that you bring in tweaks the culture a little bit.

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Win Cramer: and if you're not empowering them to tell the message in their own way, then it's not authentic, and it doesn't work. So we really try to to ensure that that our team members know they're empowered.

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Win Cramer: They're not going to break anything if they mess up.

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Win Cramer: And that we give them the opportunities to be successful.

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Win Cramer: what they're with, what we've hired them to do.

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Win Cramer: and the second, that I was willing to give up some of that control was the second. This company became successful.

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Win Cramer: and the more I do of that, the more successful we are.

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Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah.

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Melinda Lee: Speaking from the CEO and entrepreneur of the year. So listen, that's the key to success, empowering others. And and yeah, building everybody up together. You're all on the journey together.

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Melinda Lee: and then empowering each other to do that. Regardless. You know there's gonna be ups and downs. But to have that leadership to be able to do it together.

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Win Cramer: Yeah, that's right.

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Melinda Lee: Yes, well, thank you so much. When I got so much can you share with people how they can get a hold of you through either. Just yeah. Learning more about your product or connecting with you.

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Win Cramer: Yeah, I mean, certainly. Check us out@jlab.com to learn more about us. I'm on all the social platforms at Win Kramer Kramer with a C. And and I'm very engaged. Feel free to reach out to me there. But, Melinda, I've really enjoyed it. Thank you for the time and thanks for reaching out to me. It's been fun.

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Melinda Lee: Yes, I I enjoyed it, too. I took away a lot. In terms of growth, communication, the key, how it's critical, how critical it is, especially when we are pitching our ideas, meeting with customers and crafting our message so resonates with people. And so we're heard.

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Melinda Lee: And so I am cheering you on. More people need to invest and get to know jlabs, because it's an amazing company with a great product

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Melinda Lee: with a wonderful CEO. So thank you, listeners, for being here. Yes, I trust that you got your nugget and golden takeaway for your communication strategies, and until I see you next time, I'm your sister in flow. Remember, anytime you have a chance to communicate. Is your opportunity to inspire, to connect and to make a positive difference in the world. Thank you until next time.

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Melinda Lee: Thank you, Wayne.

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Win Cramer: Yeah, you're.