#1973 Founder Story: Jon Fawcett and Sugarpixel
Founder Story: Jon Fawcett and Sugarpixel
Jon Fawcett built Sugarpixel so his daughter would wake up to her alarms. He and Scott talk about making a physical product one at a time, and why neither of them wants to grow much bigger.
Jump to a moment
- He had the skills before he had the reason. Jon spent years in product development — soap dispensers, airplane parts, vacuum cleaners — and ran an iPhone accessories company he launched on Kickstarter with a homemade flipbook video rather than the expensive production everyone else was paying for. All of that hardware experience was already in place when his daughter was diagnosed.
- Sugarpixel exists for one reason, and that governs everything. He wrote Loop Follow first, solving his own family's problems, and the original concept was randomized alerts — because a repeating alarm at the same pitch every hour stopped waking his daughter. His rule now: if a feature idea would dilute the core purpose of making sure she wakes up, they skip it.
- He printed the first thousand housings himself. Twenty to forty in a twenty-four hour period, just for the housings. Only once demand was proven did they buy injection molds. His caution is about growth — don't outpace what you can support, don't sell in too many places at once, and be wary of expanding into new things when the thing you have is working.
- Sometimes you solve a problem nobody had. He describes building a fix for Libre 2 users around phantom alerts, only to find it wasn't what people actually needed. Scott offers his own version — web pages he was sure would land that nobody wanted, and the Spanish translations he's glad he never did. Both land on the same conclusion: you can't fully trust what people say they want.
- Neither of them wants to be much bigger. Jon's team is four people; Scott notes listeners assume the podcast is backed by a staff. They talk candidly about how much time the business of the thing steals from making the thing, the boredom that comes with a product that's finished, and why conferences like Friends for Life matter more for the in-person stories than for sales.
- Sugarpixel — Jon's glucose display with randomized alerts and an optional bed shaker.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Episodes 1000-1025 — settings, insulin timing, and food impact.
- Clinician share page — The page Scott mentions for doctors who send patients to the show.
- Juicebox jukebox — The songs discussed at the end of this episode.
Every word of the conversation
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John, you're being recorded now. Jump right in and tell people, about how you've missed me. That's, think, where we should start.
I have missed you. So we spent the whole summer together, basically, traveling around to one conference and another. And I... It feels like these last, what has it been? Five weeks, six weeks?
Mhmm. Like, I haven't seen your face in six weeks. Just feels really, really weird, but I'm looking forward to seeing you again in, well, just couple weeks from now.
Oh, at Touched by Taipan?
Yeah. Yeah. So back in Orlando.
I tell people this, and I know they think that I'm being pompous. But when we're together for a little while and then we part, I say, listen. You're gonna miss me. It's okay. Happens to everybody.
You'll get over it eventually. But
Oh, I know you miss me too. You you you keep texting me all the time. That's how I know you miss me also.
Yeah. Now every time I get a picture of my feet, I send it to you.
Thanks for making me
For for people listening, John and I have incredibly similar, personalities. Is that accurate, you think?
That is that is very accurate.
Yes. Yeah. Okay. So I'm I'm having you on today because I'm super interested to learn about the beginnings of Sugarpixel. Like, really, like, where does the idea come from and how do you get it from an idea in your head to an actual product that people are holding and then turn it into something that is sustainable enough that it can go through iterations and changes and improvements?
Before Sugarpixel: soap dispensers and airplane parts4:07
But I guess take me back to take me back to before you're making the SugarPixel. Like, what do you do for a living at that point?
Yeah. So before SugarPixel, well, let's rewind even further than immediately before. I ran a company that was designing and engineering products for other companies. So it was a design consulting company. So we made everything from soap dispensers to airplane parts and vacuum cleaners and just about everything in between.
At one point, we designed the boats for it's a small world ride in Disney World. So I mean anything and everything. During that time, I always had these ideas for products. And I could design them. I could create them.
But in our business, as soon as a product was, like, ready to to go out into the world, we'd hand it back off to the company that hired us, and they handled all the marketing and stuff like that. So this was this was back before... Let's just say, at times, it was before home Internet or even Internet in your workplace. And even further on in that, it was still dial up. So there wasn't this ecommerce where anybody could spin up a website to just, you know, launch their new product ideas to the world.
So in 2012, I had another one of these ideas for an iPhone cable, and this was right when Kickstarter was happening. Mhmm. So I'm sure most people are familiar with Kickstarter these days. Basically, throw your idea up there, people, quote, unquote, back you when you're making a product that's essentially amounts to a preorder. And I threw this iPhone cable up on Kickstarter.
A Kickstarter, and a flipbook video6:04
We had no idea if two people were gonna love it or 2,000. We just really didn't know. We had a 10,000 goal, and that was basically enough for me to build injection molds to actually make, like, two units for myself. So so, like, I looked at it as how much money do we need to just turn this concept and these prototypes into an actual real production product?
Okay.
So fast forward thirty days, of what that Kickstarter time period was, and we... I always like to say I accidentally launched that company, because just had an idea I wanted to make a cool iPhone cable. Thirty days later, we had about a $250,000 in funding from Kickstarter to launch the company.
How do you figure that happened? Was it a moment where people's cables were crappy and you came up with a, like, a better version? Or, like, why does that catch on that idea?
Yeah. It was it was twofold. So one is, it was a better charge cable. We came up with a way to wrap our cables in, double coiled metal that's still flexible but extra extra strong, so you're not gonna have the cables fraying and stuff like that. So so first, it was a need that everybody has had a cable where it's like the ends frayed off and it doesn't work anymore.
Mhmm. And then the second was just viral marketing on it, and it's the first time I had ever been in something... Involved in something that you could say went viral in that regards. So even back then, early days of Kickstarter, people were were spending ridiculous amounts of money on their video to go on a Kickstarter page and on paying for ads on Facebook and all that type of stuff. But this was also before your iPhone was capable of recording decent videos.
So people were paying tens of thousands of dollars to an actual video company to come in and shoot on real... Like, the same type of cameras you'd use to shoot movies because that's the only thing that could get a quality that sorta was comparable to what your iPhone can do today.
Okay.
I knew I didn't wanna just drop 10 or $20 on a a marketing video. So I had a little bit of a crazy idea, and I hand drew stick figure animations a couple thousand frames to tell the story. And my brain just sorta said, if we can't make something that ourselves without spending that exorbitant amount of money Mhmm. That is, you know, like a TV commercial level, we have to go the exact opposite. And we need to make it as intentionally low tech as possible.
And I couldn't think of anything more low tech than sorta like the the flipbook you do in the... You know, you draw the little stick figures in the corner of a a book and then you flip through the pages. That's essentially what this looked like, telling the story.
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I think it was so Rudimentary? Well... Yeah. But it was so out of the blue and not what people were used to seeing that it caught people's attention.
Okay.
You know? So even in today's world of, you know, doom scrolling and you're trying to get somebody to stop for a millisecond over something on Facebook or Instagram, the stuff that doesn't look like everything else is the stuff that's most likely gonna get someone's attention. So that was sort of where that whole thing came from, and I think it was those two factors launched that company. So I came from having built and designed products for all kinds of other companies in all kinds of industries to then launching my own tech company, and Lily was diagnosed while I was still running that company. So she's diagnosed.
I immediately jump in and start working on loop. After loop, I wrote loop follow because I was trying to solve the needs that we had as a family. And then at one point, she was... So she was 12 when she was diagnosed. When she was 16, I really was thinking, oh my gosh.
Loop Follow, and the alert that wouldn't wake her13:01
She's two years away from possibly moving off on her own at college, and my wife and I are still waking her up for every single alert overnight. She's completely sleeping through them. And so like, like the other stuff I did, the software stuff with loop or loop follow, this was just one more thing to solve. The only difference was it combined software and hardware Mhmm. To really figure it out.
Well, I had all of the hardware expertise already from having run this iPhone accessories... Android accessories company for, I think, the time, almost ten years. So the first the first step in sort of Sugarpixel aside from the, you know, the... After you have this idea is I just started ordering a bunch of electronics, like electronics kits, Arduinos and things like that, Arduino speakers, jumper cables, to try and write simple code that could do what was in my head. And, really, that very first concept was the randomized alerts that Sugarpixel has.
And it's it's the concept of when your brain hears the same sound repeatedly, it eventually starts to ignore it. Someone that lives next to the train tracks never hears the train. I grew up... I had a cuckoo clock in my house. I never heard the cuckoo clock, but all my friends in the middle of the night that would would stay over, they were...
It was driving them crazy because they woke them up every single hour when it went off. Yeah. So with these electronics kits that were just off the shelf kits where I'd wire up jumper cables to all the different components and then write firmware code to install onto this hardware kit, I came up with the randomized alerts. I had it hooked up to her Dexcom. I three d printed a little box to put it in and and shoved in what felt like two miles of very sketchy wiring inside a tiny little box that I could hold in my hand, and crossed my fingers that that little box didn't burn my house down because of how much wiring was stuffed inside.
And it worked. And that's, you know, that's sort of the moment in any business, and you probably had this with the podcast. In any business, you're like, oh my gosh. This works. You know?
I It did the thing I thought it was gonna do.
It did what I... What was in my brain. Yeah. And when it does that, then you have this whole host of other decisions to make. You know?
And it's it's not just... It's no longer a tinker and just, you know, if I can make it, I can make it. Now it's a, oh, how how am I gonna make 10 of these, 20 of these, 10,000 of these, 20,000 of these, you know, because I can't handwire everything in my in my, garage.
And you also don't wanna be mailing things to people that you think, oh, I hope this doesn't explode.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So that's where our our connections from the tech... The prior tech company came in really handy.
So I had ten years of connections with factories all over the world that were already building electronics products for us. And then even further back than that, the consulting company, we had connections through those projects of industrial designers and, you know, artists and... Or graphic designers and molding companies and... You know, so all the other pieces parts that you might need Mhmm. Sort of came together just from these companies that I had been running before Sugarpixel came about.
But even with that, I still had this thought in my head. Hey. I made it. It works. What if only five people need it?
What if nobody else is in the situation I'm in? And so it... You know, I... Sort of like the iPhone, I didn't want to spend $1,020.30, however many thousands of dollars to launch a new product, not knowing if anyone was going to
Yeah.
Not knowing if it was gonna solve their need the way it solved my need.
Good news. We have variable alarms now. Bad news, nobody can afford to go to college. So Exactly. Turns out we could have kept waking you up.
Yeah.
Three-D printing the first thousand housings18:02
Exactly. So so the first about thousand units we sold, I actually three d printed all of the housings myself.
Mhmm.
At one point... My wife thought I was crazy. At one point, I had eight three d printers running in my basement, and four of those were actually dual head printers so they could print two sets of parts every single build. So it's really, like, twelve three d printers that were running twenty four seven in my house.
Jeez.
And
How many were you producing in a week?
Oh, I don't even remember back then. It was like I felt like I could make maybe at most 20 to 40 in a twenty four hour period, but that was just printing the housings. We then had to also assemble them and package them and, you know, install the firmware and all this other stuff. So we... Within a few months, we realized this is not sustainable for a long term business.
So with all the connections that we had before, we... The first step was we had to get injection molds built because the the biggest limiting factor was three d printing the housings just because that takes time. To three d printing... Print a housing could take eight hours, but to injection mold a housing can take about ten seconds. So from that first, hey.
Injection molds, and growing slowly19:46
I'm three d printing everything, and we're sort of hand assembling everything. Then we shifted to... We we we sort of knew at this point, okay. This is a product that is solving a lot of people's needs. So we were comfortable purchasing the injection molds then at that point.
And after that, it's sort of a little baby steps with every stage of a business is... If that makes sense. So it's it's not like, oh, one day we wake up and all of a sudden we're gonna have a second factory or ship to 20 other countries. It's it's baby steps. As you grow, you try to not outpace that growth with expanding too fast or selling in too many places too fast when you can't support the sales.
So we're quickly approaching five years now in business. So we launched February of... This upcoming February, five years ago. And every year has been some form of this incremental either improvements, you know, new products like we launched this year, major new software updates. Like, we've had those several years.
And it's it's all just about trying to not outgrow yourself and and what you can do and manage as a business while still, you know, solving that core problem that you need to solve. And, you know, that's the one thing we never want to get away from is this whole idea of Sugarpixel was to make sure my daughter wakes up to her alerts.
The one thing they won't compromise21:41
And
the whole reason we sell it to other people is to make sure they wake up to their alerts. Can it do a lot more than that today? Absolutely. But that is still the core number one thing is sort of every business decision we make comes down to that
Make sure it does and make sure it does the the core competency.
Yeah. And so if if we come up with a feature idea that would diminish that core purpose of Sugarpixel, we'll most likely skip it. If we come up with something that's competing against that, it's not necessarily gonna be a good fit for our company. So, you know, there's a lot of people I know in diabetes now just having met over the last decade of... That have started their own businesses too.
And that's sort of the the the main thing is you see these people, their kid got diagnosed, they got diagnosed, the family member, etcetera, and they wanna use their current skills to benefit that. I mean, it's you starting the podcast. It's me starting the Sugar Pixel, and countless other people have done this, is that once you know what you can do well, what are your own skill levels? You know, yours is talking to people and having these conversations. Mine is the electronics and the hardware.
Once you know that and come up with the idea that you're gonna turn that into a business, stay focused on that. Because I know a lot of people that have been hugely successful, not just in diabetes space, but in in any type of business where hugely successful and then they shift their focus or they expand their focus to something else, and that's the start of the business not being as successful.
Yeah. I... I've been the... I'll tell you though. The one thing that was the hardest for me to ignore was the many, many calls to make video.
Like, your podcast should be on video too. YouTube's popular. You should make video. And I was like, I can't accomplish all of that. Like, I can do what I'm doing.
I can do this part really well. If you want me to record myself, like, I don't record with people. That's the first problem. Like... So now I'm...
But it's two video feeds, and they have to match. And if you edit it, they both have to be edited together, and everyone's not gonna have the same quality or cameras. Like, it's not gonna work. And and it'll be a ton of time or a ton of time and effort for no real return and the juice just not worth the squeeze. And and the entire time I have in my head some interview from the nineties that, you know, I heard on the Howard Stern show where he's interviewing some incredibly famous person who's been making these movies that are just making all this money, and the person comes on and says, you know, I really wanna get into some serious filmmaking.
And he's like, why do you wanna do that? Like, your your movies are really popular. And then the person makes some shift, and you never heard from them again. And I I always felt like that. I was like, I'm good at this.
There's nothing wrong with being good at this. You you know, like like, let's just keep... As long as people need it and it's valuable, I'd like to keep making it like this. I... It it takes a lot of it takes a lot of self control not to get grandiose and think that because you did one thing, you could go do a ton of other things and then get fractured in a way that will stop you from doing any of it.
That... That's how you felt.
Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly that's exactly my mentality in that is it... It's too easy to get distracted if you're trying to do too many different things. You know?
So stick with the the thing that you know you're good at. And if it's doing well, there's, I mean, there's no reason not to continually improve, but there's a lot of reasons to not try and expand to different things, you know, like your video example.
Yeah. You also... It's hard to explain to people that a lot of times what you have is lightning in a bottle. And just because you accomplish it the first time does not mean it would work out the second time. And it...
It's not lost on me that the problem on social media that people are always like, well, I... You know, it's discoverability. I can't get anybody to see my... I mean, my thing's awesome, but if nobody... You know, I can't get anybody to see it or the algorithm won't pick it up or whatever.
If you think that's any different than opening a bakery in 1956 and not being able to get people to come in the front door when you're making the best scones in the world, you're wrong. Like, there's a randomness to all of this. And and when it works for you, there is no saying you could make it work again.
Oh, yeah. That's that's a 100%. I mean, you or I both, if we would have tried to do what we're doing, one year difference of when we started might not have been the same thing, might not have worked out.
Well, your flipbook idea is such a great example that it was probably just at a at a p... It's probably at a a slice of time in between one art style and another where you were just slightly ahead enough that it was interesting, not too far that it was foreign. I I I I I share this all the time. I don't know if he even remembers saying it at this point. I might say it more than he does, But I heard the film director Kevin Smith one time talking about how his movie Mallrats was a flop in the theaters.
But it has become over the decade since, like, what they would call a cult hit.
Mhmm.
Right? People watch it all the time. It's referenced still. Like, everyone knows the movie at this point. And when he tells the story, he says, I I thought...
I knew we had something, and then it just... It didn't make, like, a $150,000. It was in and out of the theater in, two days. Right? And then the following year, there's something about Mary comes out, and it's this wild, like, makes hundreds of millions of dollars success in the theater.
And when you stop and think about it, those two movies are not dissimilar in tone and and etcetera. He just made have been a tiny bit too ahead of the zeitgeist, like just a tiny... And think about it, like one summer ahead. And he puts out a movie that is provably over time what it meant to be and what it should have been and people like it. But when you try to make it popular inside of the world, I mean, a $150, like, what?
25 people go see it? Like, you know I mean? Like, no one saw this movie in the theater. And since then, it's, you know, been, it's been a darling on VHS and DVD and Laserdisc and streaming and, like, and probably has gone on to make way more money than something about Mary. And I just...
I don't know. I... It it occurs to me that, like, that flipbook story of yours is, it just... Like, that's such random luck. Not that you didn't put the work in or have the idea.
I think the same thing now when I'm making content for my stuff. I think we finally have the tools to make what I'm thinking, and now the world thinks that it's slop. If this would have existed fifteen years ago, it would have been magical. And now Oh, yeah.
You know
what I mean? And now instead it's missing the it's missing the... I don't know. The... How some people feel about it.
It's very... It's all very interesting.
What changed in five years29:35
Well, and the crazy thing is even in the five years since I launched Sugarpixel is the technology shift is radical. I I mean, it is so much advanced, and it's like every other day getting more and more advanced that had this stuff been around five years ago, I would have been able to probably make a product in half the time that was potentially better, potentially have more features, but would it have been too much too soon? You know what I mean? Like, the world may not have been ready for it at that time.
Right. Yeah. It's same exact problem. So what do you think you've learned by having to go on that slow journey?
That's a loaded question. So, you know, the one thing... Like like, if we look at the technology shift, especially in the last twelve to eighteen months with AI, so that... I hesitate to say it this way, but in many ways, that's a shortcut, a cheat cheat code, if you will, for the video game. If you already know what you're doing, the...
All the new tools just make you that much more efficient.
Mhmm.
If you don't know what you're doing, the new tools can make it drastically worse. So, you know, what I've learned from this sort of this having to do the slow process, having built businesses before the current technology shift that we're in now is learning all of the underlying stuff. So I I can code the entire firmware for Sugarpixel. If I had to redo it, I could recode the entire thing myself. Had those tools not been...
Or had those different tools been available back then, and I could have bypassed that and not had to learn how to code it, the the problems are, like, pretty immense that could happen. Now everything could be all great and peachy keen, but you could have you could have firmware bugs that brick every single device that you produce. You can, you know, you could have stuff because you're not understanding how to actually create what you're making. Those tools can give you a false sense of security, if you will Yeah. Where what you're doing might not actually be correct, accurate, etcetera, if that makes sense.
Yeah. I think you also miss out on but but here's a great example. Like, you just sort of said it in passing, but you're the one that made the loop
follow-up. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you learned a lot doing that, and it's an app. I I use that app every day. And I'm certain so do a lot of other people. And if you weren't trying to figure out the rest of it, then that app might not exist.
Or somebody else might have had to write it or who... I mean, I don't really know exactly what would have happened, but I'm sure a lot comes out of that. Like, what do people want? What should it do? How should it look?
What don't... Like, what could we do that nobody cares about? Because that's always a... You know, I fight with that all the time just with my website. I was...
I I have really great resources on my webs... My website that people love, and I have great resources on my website that nobody uses.
Mhmm.
And... But they're digital. So if I make it and then it doesn't catch fire in people's imaginations, it's not a lot of skin off my back. You know, it's maybe a couple of days in my life are gone, but in the grand scheme of things, making something like this for a dozen years, it's no big deal. I did...
It doesn't feel bad to me. I just go, okay. Well, that didn't work out. You start building that stuff into a physical object and nobody cares about it. Now what you have is a bloated piece of hardware that turns people off.
So it... By going slowly, I would imagine you get to put in exactly what needs to be there and no more, no less.
Yeah. And that's, you know, it's it's... Eve... Even the... From a hardware standpoint, there have been so many hardware improvements in the last five years.
I mean, look at your current iPhone versus your iPhone from five years ago. I mean, they're drastically different Mhmm. In what they can actually do because of how much improved the hardware is. So even from a hardware standpoint, there's differences where you combine the two, you know, and I'm trying to think how to say this, but, like, go buy some random hardware that can do anything and everything. Have a robot write the software for it, basically just telling telling your little AI robot what you want it to do.
There's so much that can go wrong with that. But now unlike you, all you've done is, oh, I got a few... I got some content on my website that's digital that didn't pan out how I how I'd hoped. Yeah. Now I've got all of this hardware that, I don't know what to do with.
You know? And
Oh, yeah. Oh my god. What do you do? You go out of business and you and you apologize to your wife and start over again. That's what you do.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I just have a website that tracks the, FDA stuff around diabetes tech that nobody looks at. So...
Whatever. I will, I will take a look at
the No. Stop. It felt like a good idea at the time. It's not. It's okay.
I I also... Like, I have a website where... A web page where you can, where you can change carbs and fat and protein and settings and watch the... How it changes the curves, like, you put in insulin or if you extend the bolus or something like that. Just to...
So people can visualize what happens to blood sugar in the immediate... In the in the long term, in the short, you know, in the midterm and everything around a high fat meal. I think it's fantastic. I don't think five people have seen it. And it's it's okay.
Like, it's fine. Like, I like it, and I think it it might catch on. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. But then you make something else, you know, and people just, like, go crazy for it. Like, I have web...
I have stuff on my website. Companies would kill to get that much traffic on something. And I'm like, hi. I didn't think it would be that. Okay.
Whatever. You you know? And I don't need to tell you what it is right now because trust me, you probably already know what it is if you're listening to this. So... But, yeah, to your point again, if none of it works, it doesn't...
And then every once in a while, I go through and I look and I go, nobody's using this. And I I just sunset the... I closed the page. I'm like, that didn't work out. Or it did, but it's it's time has passed now.
It's not it's not a garage full of boxes that I've been three d printing in my basement for five years. This is terror... Like, what a what a risk to take. How do
you Well... And so that is one of the reasons from the very beginning. We build... We have built our own hardware. So with every product, it's actually our hardware.
Now I'm not building it in in my basement like the first three d printed versions, but they're custom circuit boards that are built for us. The new SugarPixel Plus, that's our own full tablet. I mean, we basically spent a year going out to build our own iPad, essentially Mhmm. From the ground up. One of the reasons we do that is just like your web pages where you thought this one was gonna be great, but it turned out nobody wanted it.
Yeah. As long as we have full control of both the hardware and the software, that... Those end up... Those sort of the analogy to your web page, they're features of our software. So they're just software changes we're making because we know the hardware can handle pretty much whatever we're gonna throw at
it. Mhmm.
And we've had the same thing. We've... I've had hardware I d... Or software ideas, feature ideas, I'm like, oh my gosh. This is gonna be the best feature ever, and then nobody uses it.
And I've had other feature ideas where I'm like, I don't think this is gonna be one, but I'll throw it in. And then that turns out to be some people's absolute number one feature that's on their SugarPixel.
Yeah. You also can't always trust people when they tell you what they want either because, you know... I mean, I guess I'll I'll give my own example. I have transcripts. I give a library of transcripts on my website because there are a small but dedicated group of people who prefer to read the podcast.
And I'm I'm not gonna argue with them. If that's what they want, that's great. They can go. It's kind of a library of all the the management series. You can go through and read them.
And people tell me, I... These have to be put into Spanish. They have to be. So I took the pro tip series and translated into Spanish, and it does not get any clicks at all. So I go, okay.
Thank God I didn't translate all of them into Spanish, or thank god I didn't do the thing five years ago when people were telling me your podcast should be in Spanish. And the best thing because of technology at the time that I could think of was to hire two voice actors to read. Can you imagine how much money and effort and time and... That would have been a disaster of time and money and effort that apparently nobody would have cared about, or I would have... Or or moreover about the bakery idea, or for whatever reason, I couldn't find a way to get into people's hands.
And so not... Doesn't even make it a bad idea. If I can't deliver it, it just... It it lays there. No...
Nobody knows it exists. So you're telling me that now by controlling the the software aspect and the hardware aspect, if you put something out like that, you can sort of just do what I do, which is, like, sunset something that... If you want to, or just leave it there. It's not really hurting anything. It's behind a button.
It's not a
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. I got it.
And a good... A a a perfect example of this. So the old Libre two... So this is probably three years ago now. It was before the the two plus and the three plus came out.
When the thing you built solves the wrong problem40:39
So it was just the Libre two and the Libre three. And the Libre two was... Wasn't a CGM. It was a flash glucose monitor, FGM. That was when you had to take your phone and tap your phone onto the sensor to get a reading.
Yeah.
Well, there's no, quote, unquote, follow-up for that. I mean, they still use the link up, but you don't get any readings. I came up with a way where we could actually... We wouldn't get readings like the real time readings, but we were... We had Sugarpixel where it could get alerts.
So we found out how, the Libra app would... Or not the app. The the actual sensor itself would send, basically the alert to the Libre app even though there was no reading behind it. Right. So you'd get this alert of, hey.
You're low, but you don't even know what the number is. Well, we figured out how to do that with Sugarpixel where you could use a Libre two that didn't even have readings displayed, like, in the Linkup app, for instance, and still have Sugarpixel alert when you were having the low and the high. And I was like, oh my gosh. This is gonna be fabulous for all the Libre two users. Turns out, I think we had maybe 10 Libre two users who were using that and who wanted that feature.
You know? So here, I thought I'm solving this great dilemma for Libra two users, and it was just something that they... You know, those
It might have been less effort for you to sleep in their house and just listen to their alarm.
Wake them up. Yeah.
Hi. Excuse me. It's John from SugarPixel. I think you're low. I just saved so much money by being here at your home to wake you up.
Do you've... Is that hard? Like, do you... Are you able to give that away, or does it feel defeating? Or how do you manage through those hiccups?
Oh, no. You just... You you know. You have to be able to move on. You know, running your own business, you just have to not get caught up in anything like that.
You you... I mean, you need a thick skin, first of all, and then you need to not treat anything like it's your own personal, you know, flesh and blood baby.
Not your baby. Yeah. John, are you saying that people have been unkind to you on the Internet at times?
Well... So I don't think... I I don't know if we just do if if we just do such a good job with marketing or our website or images or whatever that people think we're this massive corporation. But, yeah, we get... We do get some people that their their customer support emails or or contacts, it's like it's like how I picture, like, how I picture I'm behaving when I'm really mad about something and I think I'm calling, you know, that
Coca Cola?
Yeah. The Coca Cola, and I'm gonna get some random college kid from who knows where on the line. And I... First thing I'm gonna do is yell at them. Like, there's times where I feel like that's that's how we're we're, getting a few people contacting us.
And I'm like, man. Like, if if people were sitting face to face Yeah.
I would never talk. I'm answering this in my dining room, just so you know. Yeah. You know, it's funny. Yesterday, Arden came in here while I was working and she was, can you walk on my back?
And I was like, sure. And she goes, what are you doing? And I was I was I was sending a message. And and she's like, what what is that? And I said, oh, this person wants me to send the money.
And she's like, what? I'm like, I get contacted by a lot of people who think that I can support their endeavor. Like, they want me to, make a donation to their walk or make a donation to their thing or help them get their business off the ground. She's like, how often does this happen? Like, oh, constantly.
And I think I have the same problem you do. Like, I think I've done such a good job of this appearing like it's a like it's a big thing that's backed by a lot of effort and people. And and I'm like, I... They don't... She's like, it's just you in this room.
I was like, I know. I was like, I know that. I don't think they all know that. Anyway, this is a good time for me to tell all of you. I cannot make a donation to your thing.
Thank you. Scott, we're having a a thing. It's it's for type one diabetes. Would you like to buy a table? It's just $10,000.
What? I was about to ask you for a dollar.
Well, the the crazy thing, I didn't realize until I got into Sugarpixel a year or two is how many diabetes things there are. Like, there's... I'm convinced there's, like, three or four or five or 20 every single day of the year everywhere. Like, if I wanted to go to a diabetes
Event.
Event tomorrow, I could probably find one within an hour drive of my house. Like, there are so many... And that's... You know, we get we get the same type of emails. I would love to be...
Well, I've said all the time. If I had a philanthropist that would back us, I'd just give away SugarPixels to everybody because I... You know, that's why we're doing it is to help people.
Yeah. I I I take your point. I I... I've absolutely... I've had the same feeling over and over again.
I was like, I wish someone would just come along and be like, what's it cost you to make this for ten more years? Just take it and then go make it. And I would... I I always say I'm sorry to all the sponsors. I would gleefully call of you and tell you you're fired.
Not because I don't really like the sponsors or the people I work with. None of that. It's just... It's so much work. And and I just...
I I I I wonder all the time, like, how much more could I do for the podcast if I wasn't doing the business of the podcast? If that makes sense or not. Like, you know, like... But I feel like I could make way more content. I think I could make different feeds.
Like, I feel like I could put the content in different places and and package it together better and and put so much more effort and time into that part of it. But, I mean, part of the business is is keeping the business going. And, you know, and when I say the business, I don't mean my business. I mean the business of it. Like, the part that funds it and keeps it viable and all that stuff, it takes away from the part where you just hand it to people, you know, and go here.
It's a podcast. I hope it helps you. Yeah. That's frustrating. You know?
And, you know, even though we have a physical something versus a digital something, it's the same thing. It's it's all of the extra stuff of running the actual business side of things is is such a big part of it. Yeah. And you can't, you know, you can't just stop doing the extra things.
Like when people say that you wouldn't
be able to do your primary thing.
Yeah. I like when people are like, well, just hire somebody to do that. I'm like, don't... How much money do you think I make exactly that I could I could put put an organization together? But there's...
There'd be... I I swear I got this email once from a company, and they were like, you know, should I send this to your purchasing department? I was like, you just did. You just did.
Get those two.
I'm also marketing. I'm invoicing. I'm sweeping the floor later in case
I have gotten customer support emails where they're like, I'd like to talk to your manager or your supervisor.
You always are.
You always are.
Yeah. So once you get the the... You get it set up and it's a it's a device that people like. Right? So I guess that's the first thing.
You you put it out in the world and you go, okay. People like it. They're buying it. And, like, I still have an OG. Like, I have a three d printed sugar pixel.
And it's just not me pressuring you for a new one. I realize I don't rate. It's fine. But, like, but mine mine still works great, by the way. But, like, I have...
And I... It's not lost on me when I look at it. I go, my god. John John printed this in his house. And, and it works terrifically, and it's it's awesome.
It does exactly what I expected to do. But once you have a product like that that people are like, okay. It works so well. I'm gonna ignore that somebody three d printed this in their house. And you have to start May...
How do you start making more? Like... Or or did you quickly say, oh god. We gotta, like, we gotta get out of the... This production and go into...
So is there, like,
a is there anything point? We hit a point where we realized we have to... Our our biggest our biggest aspect that was slowing down be able to build more was three d printing the housings. Mhmm. So I had all of the knowledge from my past experience to build injection molds, get them actual real injection molded housings made.
How it actually gets made50:13
So that was the first major shift we had was to build injection molds and start doing, quote, unquote, real production where they all weren't just sort of, like, hand... Hand built in their entirety. Now we still hand assemble so many things. I mean, there's so much stuff that you can't can't have robots assemble things in production for most products. Even your iPhone has a lot of hand assembly in it.
But we're fortunate that through my days with launching a company on Kickstarter, there's a local company to me that is an electronics manufacturer that had actually reached out... It's, like, almost fifteen years now. They launched their company on Kickstarter within months of us. They saw I was local. They reached out for some tips, and I've been friends with them ever since.
So we needed sort of a a manufacturing partner. Our first our first step was a local company here in Ohio, and they still, five years later, they print print circuit... Not print. They assemble circuit boards for us as they have one of those machines that, like, flying around at a thousand miles per hour drops every component onto the circuit board and then solders them all. That's amazing, isn't it?
So it's a, quote, unquote, real production. So we we went to three d printing then to injection molding things. Then we actually have two other factories overseas at this point, and they've been added over the years. And part of that is about 30% of our SugarPixel shipments are international, not in The US. Wow.
Tariffs, and a factory outside the US52:19
So it doesn't make any sense to have to bring every product into The US and pay tariffs on it to come here. Like, even, let me back up a second. Some of the components used... That we use are only built in certain countries. So for instance, the the chip might only be built in one country.
The RAM might only be built in another country. You can't buy it in The US unless you're buying it from someone that has already imported it.
Okay.
So we realized we're paying tariffs on all of these individual components to bring them into The US, assemble them, and then ship that to another country. So by having a factory outside of The US also, it allows us to keep the the pricing of SugarPixel internationally a lot lower than if we had built everything here. You know, I know a lot of people are, you know, talk about the made in USA and things like that, but that's sort of the other side of it is I don't want a a a type one mom in Spain to have to pay more for her SugarPixel just so that I can say that SugarPixel was made in The US because it's cheaper for her if it's not made in The US due to how tariffs and shipping and things like that work. So over the years, we've added several other factories. We now build in three countries.
Finish assembly in three countries, specifically for that purpose of being able to keep the pricing lower internationally.
John, is that a is that a, the... I was gonna say... I was gonna use a bad word. But is that a is that a mind f that that enough people outside of Ohio wanted them that you had to work this out and that it was financially reasonable for you to do it? Like, do...
Is that, like, a a growth moment for you where you think, wow. This is spreading across the planet?
Yes and no. And I only say no because it happened fairly quickly Okay. Thanks to the Internet. You know? Because when when one person posts in the...
A picture of their sugar pixel in the Juice Box podcast Facebook group, well, you know, that Facebook group has users all over the world. Mhmm. So how the Internet works these days is once something's posted, you can expect people everywhere in the world to see it and start reaching out. So we we very quickly... I mean, within within a month or two, we had to, figure out how to handle shipping in all kinds of different countries.
Within probably within the first year, we had added a partner in Europe that could handle that over there. So previously, we were shipping, like, we're shipping through a service where it was just super complicated to deal with their VAT charges over there. Okay. So all of those steps... Like, looking back, yes, it's like, holy cow.
How did that happen? But it happened so fast, we didn't have time to catch our breath and and stop and
keep going.
Yeah. We just had to figure it out and keep going.
I remember when you contacted me one time and you were like, listen. You... We have a referral program. Like, you sell a lot of these. Like, I'll give you a code.
You can... You know, I'll pay you for each piece that comes in through your thing. And I I originally said that's final care. And and I... I'm like, I...
And you're like, no. Seriously, it's more than you think. Like, take it. And I swear to you, like, sitting before you, I found myself over the last thirty seconds, like, racking my brain. I have no idea what my piece of it is when they come through a link.
And I do... All I know is the way we have it set up, it hits my... It hits something where, like, it it... I don't even know how to explain. I think it comes through.
I don't even know, but I use it as, like... It's like my walking around money. So so if I, again, find myself, like, you know, buying a drink or a sandwich somewhere and I, like, you know, I use my Apple Pay. And every time I click on it, I think, oh, thank you, Sugarpixel. And then I I'm
glad we could help.
No. No. Really, you're you're you're keeping me, you're keeping me very... And it's funny because I don't know how much it is, and I don't even imagine it's it's, you know, altogether, like, lot of money. But it really does make me feel like I'm such a cheap person that it makes me feel better to get a dollar 50 drink for free than it would that if you sent me, like, a big check once a year.
I'd be like, oh, no. This is great. Like, I feel like I'm, like, skating through life for free.
Yeah. It's, sugarpixel.com/juicebox.
Is it... I thought it was customtype1.com/juicebox.
So funny story. We now own sugarpixel.com. So it was it was not take... It was, not available when we wanted to buy it. And and the, some random Internet entity, You know, we were using a broker to try and buy it from this other random entity, which we don't know who they are, and they came in with some astronomical figure.
We're like, yeah. We're not... We can't afford to pay you that much.
And Somebody tried to sell me bold with insulin.com one time for $90,000. I was like, what?
Yes. So it was something ridiculous like that. And so our trademark on Sugarpixel was still in process at the time. So we talked. We're like, you know what?
Let's just wait until our trademark's approved. Because once our trademark is approved, that domain name pretty much becomes worthless to that other that other person.
Sure enough.
So we went back to them after we had our trademark approval with the same lowball offer that we had originally that they declined, and they immediately accepted it. Mhmm. So... Yeah.
So Why didn't that happen? Sugarpixel.com/juicebox. Please, everyone. You're... You'd be paying for my, my diet Mountain Dew when I'm out on the road.
And we treat that. I mean, I I do know it's not it's not a, substantial sum of money for you. I'm glad it, you know, can buy a coffee here and there.
Oh, I hope I'm not being pejorative. I love it. I think it's fantastic. I'm not trying to make a... I I swear I wish everybody knew that I was being serious.
When you first offered it to me, was like, John, it's really fine. I don't... That... I don't need that. Like, it's okay.
But you were you were very insistent. You're like, just listen. It's coming through you. You might as well take it. You know?
And I was like, well, thank you. But I really don't. Like, I'm not saying, like, oh, I now realize that that doesn't sound good. You know what? It's funny.
I used to work for my aunt and uncle when I was right out of high school. And every Friday, I would walk into the office for my check, and I would put on a... Sorry. I'm making myself laugh. I would do a...
What's what's that Charles... Like, Charles Dickensy kind of voice. I would come and I go I go, hello, mother. I'm here for my pittance, and they... They'd give me my check.
And then one day, my... I worked for my uncle. My cousin pulled me aside and goes, that's incredibly insulting. And I was like, well, I don't understand. What do you mean?
They're like, but you're saying we we don't pay you very much money. And I went, well, you don't. And then she's like, stop. She was mad. She's like, stop doing it.
I've never mentioned her before, but I felt... I've always felt bad about it. I don't mean it that way. Like, I really mean, like... And I also don't mean, like, I have so much money.
I don't want your money. I a 100% want your money, John. Like like, it just... It was one of those things where I was just happy to spread the word about it.
And Yeah. And Yeah. We're happy to to give back a little bit, for that. Yeah.
Well, it's very nice. And I know that's how things work now, but they didn't work that way when I was first starting like this. And so it it was never a thing that occurred to me before. It's... I'm also don't see myself or the podcast in the same way that I think others do.
Like, I I once... I don't know if I've ever said this before. I'm happy to say this here. I was approached years ago by t one d exchange, and they were like, you know, we have this survey where it's hard to get people to take a survey. And I was like, oh, I'll try to get people to take your survey.
And, like, thirty days later, they came back and said, you just had more people take our survey than has ever taken it before. I was like, oh, you're welcome. Yeah. And I don't... Like, I don't know.
Like, it's... Because I am a really competitive person. If you told me that I'm successful by downloads or surveys or people in a Facebook group or something like that, I would just tell you I don't see big numbers. I see failure, like, everywhere. But that's just the part of me that, like...
I don't actually think of it as a failure. I just think of it as, like, untapped potential, usually. Yeah.
I'm I'm the same way same way with that. It's it's it's way too easy for me to look at all the little things, you know, that either I could do better, we could do better with, or things like that versus look at the overall of, wow. Look at what we were able to create to help how many thousands and thousands of people.
Well, I I got to stand... So first of all, the way I've been explaining this to people is that I'm the pretty girl that leans on the car at John Sugarpixel booth this summer. That's how I think of it. Anyway, like, we... John and I met two friends for lives ago and, I mean, knew each other.
Friends for Life, and the line at the booth1:02:31
Like, you had been on the podcast, but, like, didn't, like, know you.
We had never met in person before that.
And I think it... The way I tell the story, tell me if I'm remembering it correctly, is I drew an impressive crowd, and you were like, I should throw in with this idiot. Like, is that about how it felt?
That seems like the opposite of what I remember, but you can run with it.
I will
I will correct you.
You threw... You were... So... Anyway, we got together to do this thing. Right?
And John's like, we're gonna, like, have a parade through the room, and then we'll give it... Like, you're doing a giveaway. We'll do your giveaway and, like, my giveaway and, like, and whatnot. And and I was very dismissive because I I don't... I said to John, was like, look, you could do this.
First of all, I don't wanna be involved in the planning. Please leave me out of it. And and I said, and if this goes badly, I will pretend I don't know you. So...
That that part is true.
Yeah. 100% correct. If four people show up for your parade, I won't be one of them. I will walk away. So I don't need the stink of your failure on me.
Okay, John? So... But but but nevertheless, I think we might have drawn every living person at Friends Room.
It was... Yeah. It it it was a little more than either of us had expected.
Definitely didn't go the way we thought. And then once I saw it going right, I'm a bandwagon guy, I got on full board. I I peep... Like, once the first 50 people showed up, I was like, oh, this is gonna work. And then there was, like, another 50, and then I was like, there's a few 100 people here.
And then John's, like, leading, like, the... We were just gonna walk around the floor. Like, if you've never been to Friends for Life, it's like a lot of, like, tables and setups from different companies like Dexcom and, you know
We were going to have people come to our booth, like, start at your booth, and come to our booth at the end and do, like, a SugarPixel giveaway at our booth. Yeah. And you're... It was like
That wasn't gonna work. Hundreds of people. We need... So there's, like, some empty space in the back room. But as we kind of, like, took a lap around the room, that's where my competitive of this took over.
And I was like, I'm gonna get every living person in here in this line. And and we're moving around the room, and then I think I took it out in the hallway for a second just in case there were people out there and brought it back in again. And then you and I are, like, standing on chairs, like, to, like, a throng of people. And and I was like, this went really well. And, anyway, afterwards, John being a business person came up to me and he was like, hey.
Would you like to come back here next year with me? And I was like, what now? Because I was on the, I was on the pauper plan. Like, I I was down there through the kindness of Tandem Diabetes. Like, I I did some, interviews with some kids down there, that used Tandem.
And in trade, you guys will hear me say this. Like, a lot of people in my position will charge a lot of people a ton of money to do stuff like that. I'm like, just get me down there and, like, pay my hotel, you know, and I'll do the thing for you. Like... But I want a table.
So I was like, oh, I'd like to try to have a table at Friends for Life. I don't wanna pay for it. I also don't know that there's a ton of value here that somebody should be paying me for. Like, let's just do something equitable. So, anyway, I had a small table.
It was lovely. And John's like, I'm gonna... Like, I'll get a bigger booth next year, and we'll do, like, a Pixar... Like, a SugarPixel, you know, juice box booth together. And I was like, John, I don't wanna pay for that.
John's like, I'll pay for it. Was like, oh, then I'll be there. Count me in. But then at some point, like, it felt like weeks later, you called me one day and you're like, there are a lot of other events. Do you wanna come to them?
And I thought, oh, John. I've been avoiding those events for ten years, but okay. And I've had such a lovely time getting together with you and your family at event after event after event this summer. My family doesn't know me anymore, but I... I'm now very close with your children, which
is Yeah. I I don't know why everybody likes to schedule every major diabetes conference over the summer because, like, my whole summer's gone. Starting in April was our first one, and then the last one is in two weeks. But I hope you found them beneficial for you to be there for JuiceBox also.
I... So what I think I... I've learned something new at each one. And so at Friends For Life, what I learned is that's a meet and greet for me. If you just think of it as a as a business thing first.
I'll think of... I'll I'll break it down as business and personal. Like, so as a business thing, I'm not making a ton of new listeners at Friends for Life. It's more of a, oh my god. You're the guy.
Can I take a picture? Right? And which is absolutely lovely, and I really do a million percent enjoy. I don't leave there with extra listeners. I've...
You know, maybe it reminds people to listen again or something like that if they've fallen off or whatever, and I can't say for sure. But I don't leave an event like that after having met a thousand people and wake up to a thousand new listeners the next day, which if I'm gonna be honest about, you know, what I do is part of that is, you know, I... You gotta get new people. Personally, I find it incredibly fulfilling. Like like, being there and seeing people interact with each other and just seeing the comfort that comes over them being around a group of like minded, like impacted people, there's...
It's very, I don't like to say goofy stuff like this, but it fills your cup kinda thing. Like, know what I mean? Like, after a year of, like, hustling and doing the back end part of this, it is really nice to see people so happy and comfortable.
I'm this exact same way. You're still there on the clock, if you will, for business, but you're also part of the attendees, if that makes sense. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, everybody's there for the same reasons.
It's just... To me, that's my favorite one from... For that same reason.
Mhmm.
The others, you know, ADA, ADCES, obviously, for different reasons, but those are more, hey. I'm on the clock hustling for business reasons.
Mhmm. Well, I I would I would say too that something happens at Friends For Life every couple of hours that if I wasn't in control of my faculties would maybe make me cry. Like like, you know, you just see something sweet or something sad or a kid struggling or a parent looking tired out of the corner of your eye or something like that, but then looking over at their kid and seeing how happy they are, you know, that kind of thing. Like, there's... You could easily get overwhelmed with emotion at that thing every every five seconds, like, genuinely.
Yeah. It's it's really lovely. And and... Anyway, and I I like that event. I've I've enjoyed that event very much.
Then you made me go to... I mean, then we went to the ADA. Right, the American Diabetes Association. That was in, some godforsaken place with humidity.
That was in New Orleans.
Oh my god. Everyone leaves immediately. What are you doing there? Okay? So what I remember about that mostly is twofold.
I remember walking very slowly from my hotel to the conference center so as to not break a sweat. So I would I would... I get up in the morning. I go just move very slow. Feel...
Like, because the worst thing I could think of is getting there and being moist. I didn't want that to happen. I'm also sorry to everybody for using the word moist. That ended up being, for me, a great thing to do because I am sort of like, oh god. I was I was trying to make the behind the curtain reference, but then, like, I realized that all the words, like, great and powerful go with it.
And I was like, that's not what I mean. But I'm a little like the Wizard of Oz in the diabetes space. Like, I don't usually come out from behind the curtain very often. Yeah. And so I don't do things like this.
And it... That made me realize that I have real business relationships with actual adults who I've never met, and that's not a good idea. So I really got to meet people in person and and to... They meet people I've known for sometimes up to a decade who I've never met in person, people who I speak to weekly who I've never met in person. And that was really something.
And stuff came out of that. Like, you guys are gonna get the bold beginning series remastered. Hopefully, I'm shooting for putting it out right at episode 2,000. And you're gonna get that supported by Minimed Because I had a conversation with somebody and I was like, I'd... They're like, what are you doing that you need help with?
And I said, I would really like to re... Remaster the bowl beginning series and put it back out in order, like, but I can't really afford to. They were like, well, what would that look like? And I said, well, you know, I would take out all the old bumpers and all the old ads, but keep in the content that people really enjoy and get it fresh in the feed again. They're like, well, we'll put ads in it.
I was like, oh. And I'm like, and that'll pay for the work that needs to get done to get it done. I was like, oh, that's awesome. Like, never would have happened if I wasn't there. I also had an experience at ADA where a lovely man, an endocrinologist came up to me and, like, embraced me and told me how much he loves the podcast and how valuable it's been for him and his patients.
And I have people tell me stuff like that online, but it really does hit you differently in person. It doesn't just feel like a person saying something because it's easy to say. Do know what
It does. And it it it... Back to your fulfilling comment about friends for life is those moments those moments happen at all the events for us. Mhmm. Just obviously more frequently at one where it's mostly people with type one, not doctors and and educators.
But, yeah, those are the those are the times where I step back and I'm like, okay. This is why I do what I do.
I I saw a number of people share with you that they felt like Sugarpixel had, like, literally saved somebody that they cared about.
Yeah. We get that we get that actually frequently. Mhmm. We had... One guy sent me a Facebook message, actually, while I think we're at one of the shows.
“How you saved my life last night”1:13:22
He was at camp with his son. So he was, I think, a, you know, like, a parent, shepherd, or counselor. Yeah. He has type one. And he was in a cabin, didn't hear his phone alerts.
His Sugarpixel at home woke up his wife. She couldn't get him on the phone. She called another parent that she knew was there, finally got a parent on the phone. By the time they got to him, I think he said he was 40. Pretty low.
But those stories where it's like he sends me a message and says, basically, here's the story of how you saved my life last night. That's the only reason we do what we do. Yeah.
It's
fantastic. Is to help people like that.
It's fantastic. It really is. And then we went to a... It's ADCES.
Right? ADCES.
Yeah. I It's 100% know what it stands for, but it's there's definitely a word
diabetes cert... Wait. Certify...
Oh, I think.
Diabetes certified... A d... Educators Society.
Should've just left it at CD. You made the whole thing complicated for no reason.
It's the educators conference.
Yeah. So there was... That was the one time that I thought, oh, this is my chance, like, to talk because what you'll see... Well, what you would see if you were me is that many, many people find their way to the podcast through their physician.
Mhmm.
And I thought, well, maybe I could go meet other clinicians who don't know about the podcast and tell them about it. And it's too early for me to tell how that went, but I can tell you that the website that I shared with those people, those like a... I have a place for clinicians to go to on the website where they can share series easily. It's getting brisk traffic.
That's good.
Yeah. So I think it's... It it reached some people. I mean, there were some people who looked right through me. It was also lovely, like, humbling at times because, you know, after you...
If you walk up to five people and you go, hi. I'd like to tell you about the Juice Box podcast. They go, I listen to the Juice Box podcast. You're like, of course, do. Why am I even here?
I've wasted my time coming to Ohio. I'm everywhere. I'm omnipresent. And then you get to the sixth person. You're like, hi.
Like to tell you about the Juice Box podcast. They're like, I don't know what you're talking about. They look at you like, you make a podcast? Get away from me. And and I'm like, okay.
Good. Well, not everybody knows about it yet. There's more ceiling is what that made me feel like. Yeah. And that actually...
Like, not that I didn't expect to reach everybody. I guess, like, sometimes you have takeaways from these things you don't expect, and one of mine was there's more people to find. I thought maybe I had found them. And... But there were definitely people out there who were...
Like, some of them were like, oh my god. I need stuff like this to help people with. Like, thank you for giving me this. And there were some people who didn't know who I was, and there were some... Plus I get to I get to work on my my stand up sales skills, which I think you'll agree are are not bad.
They're improving.
I'm I'm getting there. Really. It's coming together. Really is. Really is.
I have no filter. I just walk up to people and start talking. I don't even wait for them to, like like, focus on the idea that they're speaking to someone. I just I just start going. But I'd...
Another thing is... And to watch them learn about the SugarPixel and, like, the most fun I've had this year is watching people's... John brings this, this little platform that goes on the floor, and it has the bed shaker from the SugarPixel bed shaker, like, mounted inside the platform. So you can step up on it, and then it vibrates the holy hell out of you. And and to watch people, like...
Because you'll say to them, like, you know, this thing has a... It's an optional bed shaker that'll help you wake up if you don't hear the alarm. And you can see people kinda go like, how would that work? And then, like, what a brilliant simple thing to bring it with you to show them. You know?
Yeah. And that is the funnest part of the whole sort of sales pitch of telling people about it is seeing them when they step on that and feel the bed shaker go off under their feet.
And they think, oh, this would wake me up. Yeah. It's like... It's a comfort that comes over. There's...
Every once in a while, like, I saw a few 18 year olds who were like, I don't know. I don't think that would do it either. But it's it's just a really... It's... I don't know.
It's a lovely thing. And I actually... I'd I'd had enough of flying, so I drove to Ohio and back again. It gave me a little time to myself to think and be quiet, which I really appreciated. And and I had to agree.
Also, it should be said your your brother comes, who, I guess, is... You know, I don't know if you don't talk about him. Right? But he's... You know, he works works in the business.
Right? I don't know
how public don't we don't talk about it.
We don't talk about it. Yeah. I just met... I gotta know how... Yeah.
Chris has been great. Chris Chris works for the company also. So he's been sort of business partner in all of my varying ventures over the years.
Over the years.
Including this one.
And he's terrific. And your children, your son, your daughter, I don't know if you say everybody's name, but, like, really lovely people. Like, you should be incredibly proud. They're, like, wonderful, like, human beings and... But...
You know?
Yeah. And they they do great. So Lily, you know, she's the... Our type one. She's been coming every single year.
Mhmm.
So she's been helping at at all the booths, ADA, ADCES, Friends for Life, And even at the medical ones, you know, the ones where it's the doctors or the CDs, we don't shy away from, hey. We're a small family run business because this... That's the story of how the whole product even exists, why, you know, why we're even in business. And so she's been great coming to all of them. Elijah, this is his first year, and he came to every single one this year.
And I'd tell you what, he just... He killed it at Friends for Life. He had on a whole Wild West theme with his cowboy hat and his bandana, and we just let him run. And, yeah, I mean, I couldn't be more proud of of both of them.
Yeah. No. You have a lovely family. You really do. And...
But will Lily not be at touched by type one?
She will not. She had some other prior commitment for that day, but, so, yeah, Elijah, and Chris will both be back. So you'll see them again also.
Irony of that is, do you know who is gonna be attached by type one? Who? Arden.
Oh, fabulous. I look forward to meeting her in person.
She's gonna run my table at touch by... I said, listen. I just stand there, and you... You'll be alright. Meanwhile, there is half of me who thinks, like, she's gonna get she's gonna get inundated.
And I don't... Like, I'm... I guess I'm gonna have to prep her for it a little bit, but she'll be fine. But there is a world where, like, she... I think she doesn't realize that there are people walking around who think of her as, like, a two year old.
And it's and it's gonna flip them out to see her standing there as an adult, I think.
And she is sorta equal part... I hesitate to use the word celebrity as you with the podcast because of how you started the whole thing.
I think it's gonna be weird for her, but in a good way, and she's never been to an event before. And I actually... I'll just say this kinda quietly privately here. I think it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good for her to go.
Like, because it's not a thing she would, like, gravitate towards on her own, I don't think.
Okay. So I'm laughing because you you... Your voice got a little quieter. Well, it's a secret. And you said, I'm gonna say this privately.
Yeah.
You... It's a clue. It's a secret we're keeping.
So so we're gonna keep it quiet, to all the thousands of people Yeah.
Well, so the people that hear this know not to tell her when they see her. Don't go, oh, your dad tricked you into coming because he thought it was gonna be good for you.
Like, keep that to yourself, you
sons of... Just shut your mouths. Okay? Just smile and go, hey. It's hard.
Like, I... But, also, I'm telling people, so, like, go slow. Okay? She's never done anything like this before. But she did this earlier this year.
She and I... I'm sure by now people have, like, seen, but we we made, like, an Omnipod commercial together. And, it's really was her first time, like, being out. Like, not that she... She doesn't hide from her diabetes, and if you know her personally, you would see her devices constantly.
Like, she's not she's not shy about it at all. She doesn't hide it. She has no, there's no shame that's aroused. She just doesn't do this part. And that's, you know, her personality, and it's fine.
And I think that if you go back over the last however many years I've been doing this, you'll see that I I go to a great effort that... Isn't a podcast about Arden or it's, you know, like, it's... I do my best to keep those things kinda pretty separate. But I... Again, I think it's gonna be nice.
And I like going away. She's getting older now. It's cool to hang out with her sometimes and, you know, have those kind of opportunities. So, anyway, I'm I'm excited to see you there. I'm sorry that you missed me.
It's it's a it's one of the things that happens when you when you get around me. You get into this bubble and you go, what a lovely guy. And then I'm not there and your life feels empty. It's... You start...
I mean, have you had to talk to a therapist? It it wouldn't be uncommon. I've I've heard of it before. People are oh, Scott was there, then he wasn't. I just...
I couldn't handle it anymore.
Well, yes. But it was in preparation for having to see you again
and Having to... Yeah. Just talk to a therapist about how to handle it. Let me ask you a handful more questions about about your business stuff, and then I'll let you go. Are you at the keep it working, keep it growing part?
Are you at the there's more to do part? Like, do you start thinking about, like, this is a turnkey thing now? Maybe I should go do something else and run two things at the same time. Like, how do you imagine the the years going forward?
Oh, I do not want to start another company and, you know, let this run and... While I'm doing something else. It's... I mean, it's a full time job to to keep the company running. Now, obviously, we're a small team with just the four of us, you know, basically running the whole company.
But it's definitely not something that you can, you know, set it on autopilot or anything because there's always... You know, aside from the general business y side of things, there's always the new feature ideas you come up with, you know, new marketing ideas, things like that. The hope is the hope is actually that, you know, we... We're just getting started, and this is, you know, like, more coming over the years, not just, hey. We built a thing and here it is, and it's just gonna be what it is for the foreseeable future.
I mean, I ask because have... Having gotten to know you, you have an intense amount of energy. And in a good way... In a really good way. Like, I mean, it's funny.
I I think you and I probably mirror that, like, to the, you know, the way we think about things. And I find it weird when I tell people, like, making the podcast is really hard and time consuming because I think they must feel like, how can that possibly be? But it's the back end stuff that you can't imagine that takes, like, all the time and effort. But I just can't imagine you sitting still is, I guess, what I'm saying.
So the, you know, the interesting thing with me is I... I've come to realize it as a... Has run four businesses now that I reach a point where I actually get bored if it's... If there's nothing new. Mhmm.
You know? So the the new ideas, like, the the last year of working on... Well, actually, year and a half now because it's been... It's... We released Sugarpixel Plus six months ago.
So that last year and a half was, like, exciting for me because it's building hardware and software like Blue Sky. I can do anything I want for both of those. But when you get into the daily grind of business, the end of month inventory counting across... Have one, two, three... We have six, seven locations globally that we store inventory at.
And those aren't just completed products. Those are even pieces parts of, you know, like, the button for the SugarPixel Mini. How many buttons do we have? Like, do not want any part of having to do, like, inventory counting and logistics and things like that because my brain is constantly spinning
Yeah.
With new ideas. And so, thankfully, both my brother and Elijah do a fabulous job at the, I guess, more the the numbers data side of things. Mhmm. So, you know, as a as a guy started a business is... You also have to be self aware enough, and it's taken me decades to realize this through several different businesses.
Self aware enough to know when you need someone else to handle certain aspects of it so that you can best move the company forward. Yeah. I So for me, it's always been the... I have crazy ideas at times, great ideas at times, horrible ideas at times, but it's always the new ideas of of what keep me moving forward. Mhmm.
I I can't tell you. Like, I... The boredom is the wrong word, but it's exactly the right word at the same time. Like, I get to this, like, spot where I'm like, I should be doing something. Like, I don't know what it is, but, like, there's gotta be more to do.
I should figure out what there is to do and do it. And, you know, when you're busy doing something, like making a podcast that's popular, it's a lot of it is... Like, the conversations are the best part of it. Like, sitting and talking to people are fantastic. Then those conversations have to go...
You know, they have to get... You know, I don't do, like, a ton of editing as far as content goes, but you don't realize how much sound balancing and and things like that go into making... Like, so that when you turn it on, it's at one level, and John's voice and my voice are reasonably balanced, and you don't... That's... And the music doesn't come on and blur.
You know, it's... I know it sounds easy. It's not. And then there's, you know, an episode once a day every day for five days. And there's, you know, business relationships with people who are like, well, I want my ad to go there.
Or, you know, the ad says this, but we wanted it to say that. And, like, like, alright. Okay. And, you know, like, link link tracking and reporting back to people, like, okay. Your link is working and, like, the stuff that just, like...
It's just like, oh, I don't wanna be doing any of this. That stuff takes up a lot of time, and it makes you feel like all these ideas in my head are not being... Like, I do have things I wanna do for the show and for people, and and ice... I either feel like I'm ignoring something or ignoring a great idea that I'm having that I can't get, like, I can't birth to. It's a Yeah.
It's a strange feeling. And I can't really... I I I... The way you've got your kids working for you, that's brilliant. I can't get that to work for me
for some reason. So Well... And one of the great things with with some of the logistics and daily business things off of my plate is I have been able to work on more of the creative marketing and that... Those side of things. Mhmm.
So
No. You do a great job, John.
Do do you wanna hear a secret, Scott?
I think you're supposed to get quiet or not louder, John, but go ahead.
Oh, I talked at a whisper, but I moved closer to
You did. You got closer to the microphone. What's the secret? So
so you know how we've been doing the music like you've been doing the music?
That... Can we tell that story real quickly?
We can't tell that story. I don't have anywhere to go.
Alright. Alright. We're at ADA. We're having dinner. John does a thing that, like, I just...
I thought was amazing. He's like, let's just let the servers bring whatever they think is good. And I was like, well, what a great idea. I I don't know why I've never thought that before. And we're sitting there eating, and John's like, I wanna tell you about something I'm doing.
And he starts explaining it, and I'm literally doing the same thing, but we've never once talked about it before. And then I felt odd even bringing it up because I felt like I was about to say, oh, yeah. Me too. And that it would be really strange. But go go...
You start. What
you Well, and I even texted you, like, later that night. I was like, here's a screenshot of when I told my brother about this to prove to you that I'm not stealing your idea.
I just think what it proves is that you and I look out in the world, see the same things, and we had a reasonably similar reaction. Like, oh, I can see what to do with that. Let me try it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so around the same time, Scott started working on you. Sorry.
I was talking to the listeners now. Understand.
They understand, John.
Don't worry. Breaking the third wall. You started doing music that's now on... Is it just juiceboxpodcast.com/jukebox?
Yeah. That's it.
There you go. Mhmm. Or you can click it right at the top of the the website, I think.
I'm sure
you're sure. Listening to the other day. Yeah. You started making this music for, your site, essentially songs related to diabetes. And correct me if I'm wrong, you're taking ideas out of podcast episodes.
Writing songs, and a live concert1:32:19
Right?
So what what first occurred to me was I I was online, and I... There was that moment where everybody was putting their text messages to song, and it was, like, clearly AI. Right? But, like, it was catchy, and it was, like, people were taking, like, their back and forth with their moms and stuff and turning them into songs. And I was, well, that's such an interesting thing.
And then one day, I thought, I wonder if I couldn't make, like... Like, if I couldn't turn, like, the pro tips, for example, into, like, children's songs because people are always asking me for content for their kids. Like, I want my kids to learn about the diabetes, but they can't really listen to these conversations. I thought maybe I could turn them to, like, like, one minute, like, you know, I don't know, like, songs for little kids. And I was doing that, and I was like, oh, that's working.
I like that. I like how that's going. And then I was like, well, let me make some for tweens, like, in the same topics, and I did that. And then it hit me, and I was like, what's a song? Because because while you're doing it, I don't know how you do it.
I write the song... By the way, there's quotes around all these words. I I I I write the song with Claude, but I... And and I used I used it to put it together as in, like, format, like, of, you know, lyrics and verses. I don't know anything about song structure.
I don't know anything about it. And then you move into, another app called Sunu that actually... You know, if you can hit it with style, like, you know, like, I want it to sound like this or like that, or it should have, like, a big band feel or something, and it kinda puts it to music. And then you can describe the voice you wanna use and etcetera. So I was like, okay.
And I... At some point, I looked at the lyrics that came back from something, and I was like, oh, they're so robotic. So I started rewriting the lyrics. And I was like, okay. Like, it should say this here and this here, and I'm like, then it should go more like this.
This is really great. Then I got stuck. And I said to Claude, my assistant Claude, I said, this one verse here, it's it's explaining. It's talking. It's not poetic.
And then it hit me. I was like, oh my god. All of the episodes with Erica are about how people feel. What's a song if not about how people feel made into a poem that somebody sings? And then I was like, all the episodes with Erica are gonna make really good songs.
And then I think they have actually. So Yeah.
My idea was basically leading up to Friends for Life. They had this Wild West theme. And I was like, you know what? I can make an entire country album just for Friends for Life. Mhmm.
It was just part of our sugar pixel marketing lead up to it. So we actually went so far as to create a band name, fourteen Novembers. Obviously, a take on Fanning's birthday, World Diabetes Day. But the reception of that went so well that as you know, I've been writing a lot more music since then.
Yeah.
And my structure's a little different than yours. I've played guitar for forty, thirty nine years. So I've actually recorded 10 studio albums in my life, full bay... Everything from full bands to me playing all the instruments. So mine...
The writing starts the same as I always have. The benefit these days is, like you said, I can plug my lyrics in to Claude and say, hey. I'm struggling coming up with something for this one line, where in the past, I'd be flipping through a thesaurus or I actually had a rhyming a rhyming thesaurus. I think that's what it is. Is that thesaurus synonyms?
Yes. I believe so.
Where I could start with words that I needed to rhyme with, and then it would give me synonyms for that. But that takes forever. Yeah. So I start with the lyrics, and then the music side of it is probably more of a mashup than yours. Some go all the way down to I've recorded singing in it.
I've recorded singing in it. I've sang the guitar line that's in my head and then asked the computer to change it to a guitar, if that makes sense.
Yeah. Sure.
But we... What what we've been working on is we're actually trying to prep for a full live concert next year. So I'm not gonna say where because it's still in the planning, but we've gotten approval from one place that we can fit it into the schedule. So we're actually looking... I intentionally wrote all the songs for a female lead vocalist.
So we're actually looking for a female lead vocalist. I play guitar. Chris plays bass. We've both played together in bands for years, and then we have a drummer already. So we're actually prepping to turn what started as this sort of fun thing of writing songs about diabetes for Friends For Life into a full band and a full concert where every song is related to diabetes.
That's amazing.
Yeah. I So we're we're pretty excited about that.
I believe if someone's gonna accomplish that, it would be you. So
Thanks, Scott.
I fully expect to be standing tapping a tambourine watching you guys play thinking like
Do you
Oh my god.
Can you keep a beat with a tambourine?
Not at all.
Then you're not then you're
not Where my genius lies, John? Listen. Where my where my musical genius lies is that I... Like, I hear the words, and I go, oh, you know where this would have worked great? It would have been great in, you know, the...
Like, I... Like, one of the songs I made, I made it to feel like it could fit in the waitress play. Like, the the Sara Bareilles because I like the cadence of the way she sings and everything. Now you can't just tell so people know. You can't say, hey.
Just make this sound like Sara Bareilles. Like, doesn't work that way. But you can do a little bit of, like, sitting down and going, when I think of Sara Bareilles, I think of this. I think of this. I think of these, like, these ingredients into her voice and her style.
I wanna build a style around that. And so, like, that's how I did it. I was like, I... This is the... I wanted to be a female voice.
I wanted to do this and this and this and this and this. Like, let's build a style. Then you plug the style into Sunu, and then it tries to mimic that style.
And then That's that's exactly how, for lack of a better word, analog songwriting works is, you know, you don't... As a human, I don't magically grab my guitars and some lyrics that I wrote and spit out something random. Usually, my brain has a style already, other artists, maybe even a few songs where there was some hook that I was like, oh, some riff off of that is slightly different. You know, pretty much every single combination of notes that can be made has already been made. Exactly.
Yeah.
You know what
I I'm sorry. So humans humans write in that exact same way.
I I find myself thinking this must be how it works. Like, I am a... What I've learned about myself, John, is I am a singer songwriter musician who can't sing and can't play, I can't play an instrument, and probably, you know, can't do the rest of it either. But what I do know is I like language, and I can I can? I like the the kind of the pentameter of words and, like, the way things bounce and feel and, that kind of thing.
And so I get the words. So what I've learned to think of... The way I think of it is I did write this song because what I do is I bring Erica on. I pick the theme, and then we talk about an emotional idea around type one diabetes. I am the one that they're not preformed conversations.
I ask questions. She kinda relays back a therapist perspective. Right? And then I ask more questions. So when that episode is done, I built I built that episode out of my own brain live while I was making it.
And then I basically go to Claude, I go, there's a song in here. Go find it. And then it brings back elements, and I go, nope. That's not the right element. Like, it's it's I'm...
I know this episode. Like, this is where it is, and they go, okay. I missed that part. It brings back those elements. Then I take those elements and build them into a song.
Then I let it... I spend so much money on Sunu for... That gets that gets erased because I just need to hear it once. Like, what I realized is that in a real situation, I would have somebody with a guitar strum a little chord and sing along, and I go, oh, no. Not like that.
So I have it do that, and then I go back and I go, it's too much like this. That's terrible. This doesn't work. Like, we have to change these words here. That...
The genre I picked was way wrong. Like, let's try it in this genre. Any song you've heard, I have in 10 different genres until, like, it hits me and I go, okay. Here's where it fits. And you have to work around the limitations of the software because the software wants to write country songs.
Do do you know what I mean? Like, it leans into that into that that bounce, like, really well. This is a a crazy good job of it, actually. Yeah. Anyway, so I have a bunch of adult songs I now hear back from people.
I get notes that sound like this. I can't believe I'm... I've played a song made by AI more than once. I really like this. This one's great.
But what I learned more was, like, I made this kind of, like, like, this kind of, like, anthem about pre bolusing, and I got a lot of notes back from people that are like, this is really fantastic. Like, who would make music about pre bolusing? No one. Yeah. I would.
I think it's incredibly important. So we'll see what happens.
Yep. So what I love is a lot of years are like that, like, about pre bolusing or some of the ones I've listened to the... That are made for the younger kids. Yeah. You know, like, how they're feeling and stuff like that.
With the... So the one we did for Friends for Life this past year, a lot more of them were leaning heavy into straight up diabetes things like, you know, my CGMs beep. You know, there's something beeping
Mhmm.
And they're trying to find what it is. Is it the pod or the CGM or whatever? With all the new stuff, I took a different approach is all the bands I've played in in the past have been sort of, like, pop rock general type of vibe. Obviously, there's varying degrees of that. But I started as, okay.
I'm gonna write a pop rock album that's really good music and then fit diabetes into it, but not necessarily always in your face. There's a few songs where if it was on the radio, someone without type one that didn't know anything about it would have zero clue it was a song about type one. I... Yeah. Someone who's type one, the only the only words in it are, you know
Imaging. Low
and a high Mhmm. A crash. So there's words that paint the picture when someone knows this is specifically written about type one.
Yeah. I'm not happy till my song has... Is, like, double entendre. Like, so instead of, like, don't don't everyone go do this, but I was listening to Groove Is In The Heart by Dee Light the other day, and the opening line is very sexual. And I did not realize that at first.
A song that I've known for twenty five years, I've never thought of it that way before. And I kind of... I I do the same thing. I I say to myself, like, this needs to be a song somebody would actually listen to. Yeah.
And that that gives people with diabetes the feeling that it's for them without it feeling, like like I was saying earlier, like someone just singing along to words about diabetes. Mhmm. And and I've I've... Again, you and I are, the same person. I've been, like, focused on that for whenever I get a chance to...
I'm not sitting down trying to make an album like you are. But once in a while, I'll I'll hear an episode of the podcast, and I'll think, that person's life is a song. And so... And and I and I will sometimes take a day of my life to make a song about it. And then I put it out.
I'm like, I don't know if any ability to hear this or not, but I even feel more connected to the conversation after I do that. Oh, yeah. I bet. I bet. So I've done it a few times like that.
I'm sure there are some people that will hear this and just, like, yell at their radio. I have to tell you at this point, if you're a person who says AI slop, I just assume you're just trying to make a political statement. So you should go listen to them. They're they're pretty good. And if you don't wanna listen to them, don't, but, you know, whatever.
I... Listen. I use AI for a number of things. My website is maybe the best collection of information for people with type one diabetes that exists, and it just... I say all the time, it it wouldn't be there if it wasn't for AI.
So Yeah. You know, I'm doing my best to try to help people with things and I'm trying to use the tools I have at my disposal. And I have to be honest, I have fun making those songs. So
Yeah. It is it is a blast, and I've made some that will never see the light of day for, you know, anybody other than myself. But
I'm writing one for my son. I've been writing a song for my son for a while. Like, I don't know if I'll even... Like, maybe I'll give it to him one day. I don't know.
Or maybe I won't. It... But it keeps me... It's interesting because it it lets me be creative. It lets me learn the process, and it helps me remember this moment in my life with my kid.
Like, it's it's a it's a it's a nice way to practice. Also, I, you know, I was at a bar three nights ago listening to a, you know, a a real band play music, and it's awesome too. Like, I'm not saying any of it, like, should take the place of anything else.
But Yeah. I know that's awesome. We're hoping to do both with this.
But, yeah, you're gonna take it in and out of year. You're gonna take it something from the real world, put it in the digital world, take it back out of the digital world, put it in the real world again.
Yeah. That's that's what the that's what the hope is. And we're actually... We've been talking about... Behind the scenes, I can...
Listeners can hear this. So you and I have been chatting about doing another livestream together like we did for our product launch. So it's looking like that's gonna be the first week of October.
Oh, coming up. Okay.
So we're gonna release the first album of new music here at the beginning of October, and I've been working on not just lyric videos, but for a lot of them, full blown music videos. So John, let me pull this idea. Step.
You become a Twitch DJ for diabetes music made on AI.
Oh my gosh. I don't know how to use Twitch. So
I don't either. But gonna work. I know if I put it in your head and you wanna do it, it'll get done. So I'm just saying it out loud to see what happens.
Yeah. Social media and Twitch and all of those things that... You know, I'm a little past the age where I don't even really care to learn them anymore.
I love that you said a little. Thanks. Yeah. You're welcome. I...
Because I'm well past the age, and I really don't care. And yet I put up an episode today with, like, a really popular diabetes TikToker. And I asked her, like, during the thing. I'm like... She's like, you should do this.
And I'm like, I really don't think I should. She's like, no. I... Like, I would want you to make this content. I'm sure other people would too.
And I was like, I really don't feel like that's right for me, but I don't know what I'll do. So we'll see.
Well, back to the earlier discussion on, you know, keeping the focus on what you do best. Yeah. Like...
Well, the problem is is what I do best is fed by social media too.
Yeah. Well, it seems like the whole world is fed by social media these days.
Right. Right. So we'll see. Alright. Well, John, I appreciate you doing this with me.
It's very cool for you to share how you came up with the idea for your company and, you know, sort of a founder story here of of how you got through it all. I I love your success. I hope it goes on forever. You're a really good dude. You know, seriously, like, I I hope people know.
I don't I don't have a lot of experiences where I leave people and think, oh, that was nice. I missed John. But I did have a really good time this summer, and I'm looking... Are you gonna make me do it again next year? Right?
So I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.
Yep. We are doing it next year too.
I just I just don't wanna leave my house. That's all. I just... I... Once I'm there, I'm fine.
But I complain a lot on the way... John knows. I complain a lot on the way to this.
Do you want one of those little robots that has a screen for the face where you can just, like, control your robot, move it around, and you're on the screen?
I'm not gonna be happy until I can get into a pod in my living room that goes outside and flies to where I'm headed, and that I can sleep in it so I don't know what's happening. If you can get me to that or or that Star Trek thing where they take you apart and then put you back together somewhere else Yeah. I'd be good with that as well. I just like... And I don't even dislike travel.
I don't know how to explain. I just very much enjoyed complaining. And so my wife's like, I come back from one of these things. She's like, how was someone? It was really great.
And I talked, like, all... She's like, you about it for, like, two weeks before you went. I was like, wow. I know. I was like, and I will complain about the next one before I leave, which I will probably have a great time at.
I just wanna be clear. Find the poor person at Omnipod who had to talk me into being in that commercial that's where everybody said 100 over and over again. Yeah. And I'm sure she'll tell you about the unending phone calls of me just complaining before I
said yes.
At one point, I begged her not to ask me to do it. I was like, please don't do this. Please stop. She's like she's like, you don't wanna go away. They'll be sunny.
And I'm like, ugh, leave me alone. Then I went and did it. Had a fantastic time. Anyway, that's my own problem. Thank you, John.
Hold on one second for me. Today's show is sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care, the Eversense three sixty five, and Touched by Type one, who you can learn more about on Facebook, Instagram, and at touchedbytype1.org. Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care. I think you're gonna find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the Tandem Mobi system. I'd like to thank the Eversense three sixty five for sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast.
And remind you, if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every fourteen days, you want the Eversense CGM. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. One year, one c g m. If you or a loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're seeking a clear practical perspective, check out the bold beginnings series on the juice box podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over thirty five years of personal insight into type one.
Our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions. You'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the juice box podcast. The bold beginning series and all of the collections in the juice podcast are available in your audio app and at juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu. Thank you so much for listening.
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