How To Build an Outstanding Brand Through Video and TV Marketing: The Door Hickey Formula

In today's episode, Host Jon LaClare speaks with inventors and video creation experts Ginger Thomson and Jay Vanduch. They share how they transformed a daily frustration into Door Hickey - a revolutionary hands-free sliding door solution that changes how we interact with home entrances. They reveal their exciting journey from concept to TV shopping networks like QVC and Amazon's Shark Tank-styled show, “Buy It Now,” and share priceless tips for building your startup through media opportunities from mainstream media and shopping channels. Don't miss this insightful episode!

In today's episode of the Harvest Growth Project, we cover:

•  The value of past business and professional experience and skills in entrepreneurship
• Strategies for marketing a unique household solution
• The importance of trade shows in product discovery
• Insider tips for appearing on mainstream business shows like QVC, Shark Tank, and Amazon’s “Buy it Now” and maximizing the opportunity.
• And so much more!

 
Visit www.doorhickey.com now to learn more about how their hands-free door handle works, and how it can make your life much easier!


To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!

Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands totaling over $2 billion in revenues? Visit HarvestGrowth.com and set up a free consultation with us today!

Transcript

Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
Today's guests have appeared on QVC and they were part of the very first season of Amazon's new Shark Tank style show. Buy it now. If you've ever thought about using platforms like these to sell your product, then this is a must listen to interview.

Jon LaClare [00:00:35]:
Welcome back to the show. I'm really excited to be speaking with Ginger Thompson and Jay Vanduch today. Now they are the creators and inventors of the Door Hickey. It's D O O R H I C k e y door hickey.com you can check it out to learn more about it. We're going to get into the product but also we've got a really compelling and interesting story behind the development and marketing and really a lot of stuff that's gone on recently and over the years. This product's been around for a while. First of all though, Jay and Ginger, welcome to the show.

Ginger Thompson [00:01:04]:
Thank you, John.

Jay Vanduch [00:01:05]:
Hi there. Good to see you.

Jon LaClare [00:01:07]:
Now you guys have a lot of experience and this is not your first video. You guys have a lot of experience behind the camera as well. Can you talk a little bit before we get into the product about your background? So before the product, what have you been doing for the last 25 plus years?

Ginger Thompson [00:01:21]:
Well, I started out in commercial television working for a CBS affiliate. After studying journalism in college, went on to get a master's degree in Mass communications and journalism and taught at South Dakota State University and also was an on air talent and producer for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. And that is where Jay and I met was at Public Broadcasting and I'll let you take it from there.

Jay Vanduch [00:01:46]:
I'm originally from Wisconsin and went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison and got my degree in communication arts, radio, television, film production. Moved to South Dakota thinking I'd spend like two years and then I met Ginger and then this happened and then that happened and we had kids and a house and a business. But it's been quite, quite the trip so far. And then I, as she said, I also worked at Public Broadcasting here in South Dakota.

Jon LaClare [00:02:15]:
So you've got a lot of experience in video production and we'll get into that and how that's kind of benefited this business. But let's talk about your product. What is the Door?

Ginger Thompson [00:02:22]:
Hickey the door hickey is a hands free handle for sliding glass doors. So when your hands are full or if you have limited hand mobility, you can use the door hickey with your elbow. You can slide your door with your elbow, your shoulder, your arm, your hip, whatever, and it will just glide easily on. It all started way, way, way back before we even met. And I lived in a townhouse with a sliding glass door. And I like to entertain. And so. But you'd always, you know, I'd have a bottle of wine and have appetizers or I'd have a plate or two bottles of wine.

Ginger Thompson [00:03:00]:
Two bottles. Yeah, that's right. And I don't know what the guests were going to drink, but, you know, anyway, so I, you know, and so I had to put everything down and open and you know, sliding glass doors to traditionally just have one, you know, kind of. Okay. Handle sticking out on the inside and then on the outside they have that little teeny indentation you're trying, you're supposed to get back in with. So anyway, it was just a hassle. It was a hassle to put things down and the door and then pick them up and go outside and then put them down and go shut the door and they'll pick up your things. And it's like one of those.

Ginger Thompson [00:03:33]:
It just seems like there's a better way to do this. But that was before the Internet. Well, it made a bedroom. Not commercially. Yeah. And so I didn't know anything about how to go about developing a product. And so really just put the idea on the back burner at that time, just thinking, you know, it'd be really cool to try to create something like that. And then fast forward a number of years and we met and actually my mom moved into a house with a sliding glass door.

Ginger Thompson [00:04:07]:
And I said, you know, I've always had this idea that we should be able to open and close sliding glass doors when, you know, hands free. And then, you know, you just kind of bounce the idea around a little bit. And then we finally built our own house with two sets of sliding glass doors.

Jay Vanduch [00:04:26]:
And then we were giving our son, when he was very little, of course, bath one night and he had a bath toy that had suction cups, just regular suction cups that stuck on the side of the tub and you pour water in it and things would happen. And we were looking at that and going, you know, this might be it. Because our, our stumbling block to that point was how do you connect it to the door without having to drill holes and those sorts of Things. So we ripped that thing off and went downstairs. Well, took her son out of the bathtub. And I went downstairs and stuck it on the door and used it as like. Well, does this work at all this way? And it did. But we could tell that just the suction cup as a suction cup wasn't going to work.

Jay Vanduch [00:05:06]:
So we wanted to make sure that you could tighten it so that it was a vacuum tighten. And I was familiar with some of the units they use for, like, carrying plate glass, where it goes on and there's usually a big lever and you pull it up and it holds it. And people can carry it then. And I didn't want anything that was that complicated. And so we kind of noodle on it for a while. And we came up with the door hickey so that there's just two parts and they go together. And then you tighten it up to create the vacuum once it's on the door. And it seems to work really well.

Jay Vanduch [00:05:41]:
And it holds tight. And, you know, it's even on difficult doors, it usually works really well.

Ginger Thompson [00:05:49]:
So as you push that suction cup part onto the door and as you twist the handle, as Joe was saying, it tightens, the grip increases real. What we call a Herculean hold, because it really does hold well until you take it off, in which case then you just do the reverse. You just twist it counterclockwise a few rotations and take your tip of your finger and just pop it off your door. So it's that easy.

Jay Vanduch [00:06:16]:
And one of the nice things is even if it does fall off, which it usually doesn't right away, but it can. Somebody bumps into it wrong or whatever, all you have to do is unscrew the suction cup a little bit so you have room and stick it right back on. And it'll. It'll work just like new, which is kind of nice. You're not tearing out screws out of a hole and stripping those or any of that sort of thing.

Ginger Thompson [00:06:41]:
And that was when we were researching this. There wasn't anything on the market that was simple to open and close your sliding glass doors hands free. There were a couple automated. Hundreds of dollars. You could hook up electric and stuff. Yeah, that would work. But there was nothing that was just simple and inexpensive to use. So that's why we thought there would be a market for it.

Jon LaClare [00:07:06]:
And I've got to add my personal experience of it as well. So I've got four kids now. Three of them are out of the house as well. They've gotten older, like Yours as well, we've got still at home, but we like to use our outdoor patio quite a bit. We're in Colorado and we can, you know, get out almost any month out of the year and, you know, grilling and hanging out there, whatever, but man, walking out in and out every time, it's a pain. Now, luckily we don't have a lot of bugs, but it does let in like the winter, the cold in or the heat in. In the summer, if you leave your door open or bugs potentially. Right.

Jon LaClare [00:07:32]:
So I love that it is so easy to use. Literally get your elbow on there, walk right out, carry my plate of food or grilling items out, etc. And I was amazed, I have to tell you, when I first used it at the suction, because our door is heavy. So like a lot of sliding doors and our houses, we built it, but it's now almost 20 years old and just things get a little bit harder. Dirt gets down in there, etc. But it works and holds. That suction is phenomenal. Like, it's.

Jon LaClare [00:07:57]:
I love how you compared it to carrying plate glass, right? Like, oh, now it's not like a shower mirror. It's like the strength of carrying these big heavy pieces of glass, etc. There are ways to make suction extremely strong. You know, we're in the video world, of course, as well. We've got suctions that we've used on cars to hang a camera on the outside, etc. Like, there are ways to do it that maybe consumers aren't familiar with or technologies that work. And man, it does work well for the door hickey, too. I'll second that.

Jon LaClare [00:08:23]:
It's been awesome to use in my own home. I want to dive into like the, the. The video mark or video production side too. So I think, Ginger, as you mentioned when you first launched this, that the Internet wasn't really a thing. You know, it's. You kind of predate that. It's been around for a while. The product.

Jon LaClare [00:08:37]:
Back then, maybe video wasn't as important. Unless you're doing a TV spot, of course. Course. But today, of course, video has become more and more important in selling of any product. Right. Or any business, frankly. So how has it been helpful for the two of you to be so well versed on the video side of things, Being in the video world for so long to really help to drive your business?

Ginger Thompson [00:08:58]:
Well, as you know, good marketing usually involves a hook of some sort, and so you want to grab people's attention. One of the first ways we did that was coming up with a name that would be clever but memorable. And so. So Door Hickey was. It's a play on doohickey for doors. So it's a door hickey. The fact that it suctions like a hickey is what, you know, people are like, oh, did you know that? That's, you know, kind of what it infers and like, well, yeah, that's part of the suction part and kind of the fun part. But we were able to produce our own promo videos right from the start.

Ginger Thompson [00:09:38]:
And so a lot of other inventors, we would go to a lot of inventor contests. And there used to be an inventors congress in Minnesota. There was a whatchamacallit contest that was held, you know, in South Dakota and Iowa and all these places. So we'd go around and we'd compete in these pitch contests. And first of all, as a director, your background being a director, we would be able to stage it. So it was hopefully entertaining and that.

Jay Vanduch [00:10:12]:
Kind of thing, but then hopefully showed the elements of the product that we wanted people to understand. And that's always a difficulty, especially with a new product that isn't exactly like something else that's out there that people have to do. So that's a constant concern of us when we do other videos for TikTok or whatever, that we are careful about how we explain it or demonstrate it.

Ginger Thompson [00:10:41]:
So obviously we were able to save a lot of money by producing our. Our own promo video and then subsequently additional videos that we have produced, whether they're pitch videos or TikTok videos or videos that we submit to Shark Tank, for example. And we can go into that too, because a lot of people say, oh, wow, you guys should be on Shark Tank. Well, you know, I think what a lot of people realize is that they get about 40,000 applicants each season to be on Shark Tank. Of those, they choose about 100, and of those hundred, only about 40 to 50 make it on the show. And so the chances are very slim. We do keep trying. We don't give up easily, as you can tell, because we've been doing this over 25 years.

Ginger Thompson [00:11:30]:
We have actually made it to the video submission round numerous times in Shark Tank it, but haven't quite gotten there yet. But still, the fact that we have a video production background has been very helpful for us in producing the videos to promote our product.

Jon LaClare [00:11:44]:
And interestingly enough, so similar to Shark Tank, there's a new show that our audience may or may not be aware of, produced by. By Amazon, called Buy It Now. And this Was the first season, I think it just finished in early January 2025 or so. I think there were 10 episodes or something. You guys will know more or be able to explain better than I can, but you guys were on that first season. Can you tell us, first of all, for those that don't know what is the show, the general format of Buy It Now?

Ginger Thompson [00:12:10]:
Well, Buy it now is called business, competition, game show and like you said, it was produced by Amazon and they, we were discovered, if you will, at. By attending a trade conference. Actually they inspired home show in Chicago In March of 2023 or four, I don't know, I can't remember what. Four?

Jay Vanduch [00:12:37]:
No, it was four. That's right, yeah.

Ginger Thompson [00:12:38]:
I don't know.

Jay Vanduch [00:12:39]:
Time flies when you're having fun, whatever. But.

Ginger Thompson [00:12:41]:
So that trade show was really valuable for a number of reasons, but this probably being one of the biggest ones, this and QVC and I'll get to that in a moment. But they had producer at this show and they have an area called the Inventor's Corner and, and that's where, you know, buyers come around and look at your products and, and then producers unbeknownst to us were looking for potential products and in this case for the Buy it now show. So ultimately they chose about 60 inventors and not all from that, that trade show that we went to it. Some people, you know, I think there was an appeal on LinkedIn or something like that. And so they reached out to us to see if there was some interest. They didn't really tell us much about it to start with, who it was for. It was a production company that was working with them. So we didn't even know it was Amazon to start out with.

Jay Vanduch [00:13:36]:
Right.

Ginger Thompson [00:13:36]:
And but it just, you know, we kept, we'd submit more and more paperwork, more and more background checks, more and more video auditions, you know, outfits that we might wear on the show and that kind of thing. And so it was about a seven month process of vetting before we finally got the word that we were chosen to be on the show. And the following week they were going to fly us out to Los Angeles. And so it was a whirlwind.

Jon LaClare [00:14:01]:
Wow, I didn't realize it was that short. After you heard it's not a lot of time to prepare. Now I do encourage our audience. If you're Amazon prime subscribers, you can see this show for free as part of the subscription. I'm sure there's other ways to watch it as well, but that's obviously the easiest way is right on Amazon. What Episode. Is it episode eight?

Ginger Thompson [00:14:19]:
12.

Jon LaClare [00:14:20]:
12. Okay.

Ginger Thompson [00:14:21]:
There were 13 total episodes. And we're on episode 12. And it's called. Again, it's called Buy It Now. Kind of like the Buy it now button on Amazon. When you go to buy anything on prime, it's click Buy It Now. And JB Smoove was the host. And we're kind of old, so we didn't really know who JB Smoove was.

Jay Vanduch [00:14:38]:
Our son was very impressed that we hung out with JB for a while. Yeah.

Ginger Thompson [00:14:41]:
And one of the celebrity judges was Tony Hawk. We had heard of Tony Hawk because of his videos and stuff. So it was a really, really cool experience.

Jon LaClare [00:14:50]:
And then also, I can't remember his name, but the founder of Ring Doorbell is one of the other judges, Jamie Simonoff.

Ginger Thompson [00:14:56]:
And. And you know, he's got a really cool success story too, because that. Because he was on Shark Tank and he pitched. And it was called Doorbot, I think, at the time. And he pitched that to the Shark Tank judges and they turned him down for an investment. And he and Jamie Simonoff had the last laugh because he went on to sell what became Ring Doorbell to Amazon for almost a billion dollars.

Jon LaClare [00:15:22]:
Right. And now he's on. That's right. Somebody. Oftentimes it's the ones that get turned down that are big. The biggest successes. We've actually had several clients that have been on Shark Tank over the years. And there's.

Jon LaClare [00:15:34]:
It's mixed. A couple of them had good success in getting a deal. Others that had a great success after not getting a deal, just from the publicity, which is a good thing with the Buy it now segment as well, is getting that publicity. And it's something that. The nice thing with Amazon is that's something people can access anytime. Right. Shark Tank is. I know cnbc runs at 24 hours a day, but you can always search out exactly the episode you want to watch again.

Jon LaClare [00:15:58]:
Episode 12, you said. Right. So I. You guys did a masterful pitch in that. I think it was a 90 second pitch. The timer's running. I encourage your audience to check that out. It's.

Jon LaClare [00:16:07]:
It's fun to see. I'm amazed now hearing that you only had a week to prepare. Now, obviously you've had decades to prepare on the business and the understanding. But how. What was your preparation process like to go out there and have such a masterful pitch? You know, humor was in there. You showcased the product. You did a really good job. What was your preparation process like?

Jay Vanduch [00:16:25]:
The whole process really was pulling on everything that we had done up to that point. As far as presentations, we had done enough different ones together or sometimes on our own that we knew, well, this works pretty well, and this doesn't work. And nobody ever gets that joke, that sort of thing. So that's what we worked on. And then the poor people who sat around us on the airplane on the way out there got to hear our pitch. Often you would think they would call in and buy one, but I don't know.

Ginger Thompson [00:16:53]:
We rehearsed and we rehearsed and we rehearsed and then we got to the hotel room that night and we rehearsed. And then the next day, it's. And it was truly. They put you in a green room and they. We didn't know what the studio looked like. They said, we built a set for you that will showcase your product. And. But until.

Ginger Thompson [00:17:15]:
It wasn't until about a half an hour before we went into the studio that we even saw what the set was like. And so they let us go in there, practice a couple times, come back out, do hair and makeup, do some interviews, and then before we know it there, we're walking out Shark Tank style into this studio full of 100. What. What does JB call top 100 or how many?

Jay Vanduch [00:17:38]:
The studio audience.

Ginger Thompson [00:17:39]:
Yeah. And so. And you had one shot, and if you messed it up, that's too bad, yet one shot at it. It was, you know, truly a live type experience. So it was. I. I was nervous. I don't know about you, but yeah.

Jay Vanduch [00:17:55]:
And, you know, being. My background is mostly behind the camera. And so whenever I am on camera, I'm not. I'm always concerned about, you know, is this going to play or not? Obviously she looks much better than I do. But it worked. It was kind of intimidating. Walk out there, look up, and the way the audience was set up goes up quite a ways on the tears and that. And then the celebrity judges were right there.

Jay Vanduch [00:18:23]:
But they did a great job. We had a real sliding glass door and a wall. And it was really pretty impressive that they did all of this.

Jon LaClare [00:18:32]:
Yeah. Again, I encourage people to go to watch it and check it out. One of the cool things I like about the format of the show, it is tv. Right. You got to take it with a GR to sell. Not everything is real per se, but the pro. The process is very similar. You and I were talking about how, you know, the process that we've used to launch hundreds of products at Harvest Growth, my.

Jon LaClare [00:18:49]:
My main company over the, over the years, where they have this audience, I think they Call them like, like you said, the 100. So it's 100 regular people. They all have a, I think a green and a red button, right? So green they like it, red they don't or whatever. And you try to get a certain number of people to vote green or yes to your product. And then you get to go pitch to the three expert judges, the expert panel. It's very similar in a shortened way and a TV way to what we do when we launch new products. We always do an online survey and we get at least 100 to 200 people across the country and we ask them a battery of questions. They respond to these surveys.

Jon LaClare [00:19:23]:
But it's a great indication. Okay, do we have something here? Right? When you've got a good percentage of the audience, you guys had a high number that said, yes, we like the product, which is great to hear. Regular people that have no skin in the game, etc. It's a great way to go. Again, not everyone can appear on tv, but everybody can do some sort of market research to vet a product if they've got something new they're coming out with. Find out what consumers think about it. The nice thing about a non TV version of that is you can learn in more detail, okay, what do they like, what do they not like? You know, what can you change to make it better as opposed to just yes, no, but again, it's a microcosm, it's for tv, but a great indication. A couple other things are, I forget what they call them, but the five Ps of, of what makes products work, they do in the introduction of the show and it's pitch.

Jon LaClare [00:20:08]:
So how good the pitch is. The product of course has to be a good product. Popularity is, I guess that's the 100 people problem solving ability and then finally potential, the market potential. I'm glad that they got the problem solving ability. It's funny, our market research that we've done for so long is, is traditional in some ways we do like purchase intent and uniqueness, but we've always thrown in their problem solving and it's, I, I'm glad that they recognize that. Of course, Amazon knows their stuff on selling products, right? Because when you've got a product that is problem solving like yours is, right? Like being able to open the door in a way that there's no other way to do it, frankly, you're solving a big problem for people and when you do that, that means you've got a product that's viable to sell to to other people as well, so interesting show for sure. Thanks for sharing your experience. How did it compare? You've also been on qvc.

Jon LaClare [00:20:55]:
How did the experience compare versus your time you spent on qvc?

Ginger Thompson [00:21:01]:
You know, they were really totally different animals. We actually recorded the show Buy it now in Los Angeles last in March. It aired the following December. So that, you know, they did a lot of post production on the show. I went on qvc who they had, they had seen our product, the door hickey on at the trade show, the inspired home show. And so we got a purchase order out of that and then I had the option of coming out there and being an on air guest or hiring somebody else to do that. And most, a lot of people aren't comfortable being on air on live television in front of millions of people. And I've been on TV for many years, although not certainly at that level at all.

Ginger Thompson [00:21:49]:
But I, I also thought that in addition to, you know, you don't, you're really the only ones who can truly sell your own product because you're really believe in the product. And so I didn't want to leave that in the hands of somebody else. So I flew out to Philadelphia and QVC is, it's in Westchester. Westchester, Pennsylvania. So, and we had, I had two earrings. They have hosts that, of each of their segments, each of their, the, the day parts if you will, like you know, simple home ideas, you know, with so and so and so. So I was on so it's an eight minute segment that you typically do on QVC and the, the host is brilliant. They, they, they have your back and so they're not going to hang you out there to dry at all.

Ginger Thompson [00:22:41]:
They're going to be able to, you do like you, you're doing, you know, kind of work with you, you know, tell, tell the story of, of your product, what the advantages are, you know, and you know, all the different uses. So it was a really, really cool experience. And I was on two days on a Thursday and on a Friday and then flew back out and we sold a lot of door hickeys and it was, you know, it. And not just that, but the fact that, you know, QVC believes in our product or Amazon believes in our product and there is such, you know, amazing validation that comes with that.

Jon LaClare [00:23:20]:
Absolutely. So a couple things I want to mention about that. I think kind of the difference you mentioned between QVC and being on a TV show. Buy it now. Right. So the TV show, when you go on, whether it's Shark Tank, they invest. Yeah. But they care about Ratings, Buy it Now.

Jon LaClare [00:23:34]:
Same thing. It's all about getting people eyeballs to watch. QVC could care less about ratings. They want to sell product, right. They are definitely on your side. So as you mentioned, if anybody has the opportunity to ever go out there, if you're on camera with the host, right, that appears with you from HSN or qvc, they will. They want you to win because when you win, they win the more product you sell during that time. They've got a fixed time.

Jon LaClare [00:23:58]:
Like they're only selling one product at a time. They want to maximize the results. So they are definitely your friend. TV is not always that way. On whether it's Buy it now or Shark Tank, et cetera, there's a kind of a. They want you to be successful. They're nice people, right? But their goals are driven by different directions, right? So they're about ratings, you're about viewers, as opposed to QVC or hsn. The other thing too, I didn't realize.

Jon LaClare [00:24:18]:
So was it the same inspired home show that you got both of these from? So that's a great encouragement for our audience. I talk a lot about home shows and trade shows. There's a one benefit is the ability when you're selling live to people, whether it's buyers or whether it's consumers, depending on what type of show you're at, you hone your pitch. And again, as our audience, please check them out on Buy it now to see the full page. It's masterful, right? But you can tell you've been doing this for a while, right? You've. You. No one would be that good. No matter your natural ability, your first time out, you got to get through and find mistakes and hone and improve, etc.

Jon LaClare [00:24:53]:
Trade shows and home and garden shows, things like that, are one way to do that. But also something I don't talk a lot about is it is a great chance to meet with buyers right where they are looking. That's where they're going. And what two cool opportunities certainly came from that show to you guys, that's fantastic. Well, is there anything I didn't ask you guys that you think could be helpful for our audience?

Ginger Thompson [00:25:13]:
One of the other uses of the door hickey, and certainly we promote it to people who like to grill, who like to dine al fresco, who have a pool outside or whatever it might be and their hands are full. Maybe they're carrying a child and want to open and close their door. But another market that we initially hadn't thought about but has become a very popular market is the adaptive, accessible market for people with limited hand mobility, such as rheumatoid arthritis or neuropathy. We have a lot of customers who really appreciate the product for that purpose.

Jon LaClare [00:25:45]:
It's a great idea and also you can place it where you have leverage, right? So our handle in the middle of our door because again it's old and kind of heavy and whatever and dirty on the bottom. It's a little hard to pull right? So I can put the door hickey in a place that I get the most leverage for my height, et cetera. That works with that door which is so super unique. So it's very customizable. I do encourage please to our audience check out door hickey.com I've mentioned going to Amazon check out the show as well but door hickey.com is the great place to go to see the product. You'll also see links to the to the Buy it now show and other things you guys have done. So again, thank you for your time. To our audience I also want to say did you know you can meet with a of my team absolutely free for a 30 minute strategy consultation.

Jon LaClare [00:26:28]:
We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007. Learned some of our strategies while growing Oxiclean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help so please go to harvest growth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.