From Dreams to Reality: Actionable Steps to Achieving Goals with Brian Goodell! Ep87

Richard Conner: [00:00:00] Hey, my friend. What is the one thing holding you back from achieving what you want in life? Whether it’s family fitness or business. Today I have the good fortune to share with you and insightful conversation with athlete and entrepreneur, Brian Goodell. Brian talks about keys to overcoming barriers and starting your journey to success in business. But his insights can be applied in different areas of our lives. Hope you enjoy.

Hi everyone. Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. Today I have the honor of sitting down with Brian Goodell, who is a real estate investor, inventor, entrepreneur, and [00:01:00] co-founder of BIB Boards. Bib boards makes innovative products for runners, cyclists, triathletes. And trail runners. You may know bib boards by their bib snaps to hold your bibs in place during races.

I’ve recently used their products and love them and it’s exciting for me to have Brian here to chat with us today. So welcome to the show, Brian.

Brian Goodell: Hey, thanks for having me, Richard. Hi.

Richard Conner: So you have an incredible background. I’m really curious to learn more about your journey, how you got here to co-founding this company and bringing these products to market. Considering your background in very different industries. So, you know, let’s just get the conversation started and just tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey.

Brian Goodell: Yeah. You know, um, The journey way back in my 46 young years. Um, I got into, uh, sports. I am actually a, a former collegiate, uh, football player and, and, and basketball player. but my background as, , my mom played sports and, and my dad played [00:02:00] at USC in, uh, baseball, and he, he also played for the.

What I like to say, he likes to say a cup of coffee with the, uh, the, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Yankees. I, I’ve got a, a brother who’s in sports, uh, he played, uh, baseball, played for the Florida Marlins, and, and Steve played, uh, also with the Atlanta Braves. And, um, my grandfather was an athlete, uh, played, you know, professional baseball, whatnot, , and Santa Clara.

So my background is in sports, and then I, I went to, uh, Texas Tech and Idaho State, and football was my thing. , did a little bit of running there. Try to, uh, try to get a little, get faster as a receiver. So I ran with the sprint team in Idaho State just to, uh, in the off season. Um, when I realized how fast people, uh, that run really are.

It’s different football speed versus track speed. There’s a debate for that. But yeah, my Backstory’s sports, I mean, I grew up around, it was life, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, , you know, uh, I’m one youngest of six , Yeah. So, when I was done with, college football, I did tryout for [00:03:00] the NFL things didn’t work out, you know, and in 1999, 2000, I did the whole NFL Europe, um, tryouts didn’t work out.

had some XFL tryouts, tried out for over 20 NFL teams, did some arena football stuff. Um, but when I got into real estate, I had an opportunity to, uh, play for an old coach of mine, Fred Biletnikoff Jr. , He was an arena coach. I was already making what I call, uh, a living and big kid money. So I, I was, I was already, what?

I think I was 28 and I was like, okay, football’s done. So yeah, sports into, transitions into real estate , in the early two thousands and yeah. , back up in college, I was actually inventing something with a best friend of mine. We invented the key chain breathalyzer, so it was a blood alcohol level, uh, content.

Digital reader that went on a key chain. So, , that was actually, something that Anthony and I started. , and then it was taken by Sharper Image. Funny enough story, but yeah, then we, then him and I invented another product called, uh, dip Tops, [00:04:00] uh, spill resistant lid that goes on beverage cans. And that did pretty well.

We sold, uh, millions of those and yeah, so I’ve, yeah, to answer your question, sports into transitioning into real estate and inventing.

Richard Conner: That’s fantastic and I’m so fascinated by your background because this is an area that I didn’t, I didn’t take that path. path in life, but I’ve always been fascinated by entrepreneurship and inventing. So really want to kind of learn through your journey and, and the things that you’ve done and, you know, what led you to even where you are today with BibBoards.

You’ve done a lot of different things, or I said started different companies during your life. So like how did you choose, to focus in one area versus another. Like how, what kind of brought you to Dip Tops and then kind of the BibBoards, which is something that’s pretty different.

Brian Goodell: Yeah, that’s a great question, Rob Green Spoon is, is our, is my business partner in this venture. Rob’s, uh, a runner, Rob’s also a patent and trademark attorney by day. Rob and I were friends from him, uh, enforcing my [00:05:00] previous invention. Dip tops. We had someone that stole our idea and were pitching it.

They were selling it to a big company called 7-Eleven and Rob, helped me out. He helped me out in 90 days. Uh, we won a case against this company, which was a very large company, and Rob basically made them go away and then we collected for that. And Rob, Said, when I invent something, I want you to be my business partner.

So Rob Rob’s in Chicago and I said, well, Rob, well first you gotta invent something, you know? So he’s a patent attorney and trademark attorney. And, and yeah. So what led me into BibBoards in 2009 when he, he was running this Chicago marathon, he came up with the original concept when people were fumbling with safety pins in the stall, getting ready to run the Chicago marathon.

It was freezing cold in the morning. People are stabbing their fingers, trying to get that bib straight. And Rob said there, there had to be a better way. Uh, he, he called me at that time and said, Hey Brian, I’ve got this idea. What do you think? And so the original idea made [00:06:00] holes in the garments and, I mean, I have one, I have one right here, this one’s for Abbott World Marathon Majors.

And I said, well that’s just interesting cuz safety pins make holes. And I, I know enough that doesn’t really, that’s not a better mouse trap. So yeah, fast forward Rob came to me with the idea. I said, you know, I’m just too busy. Fast forward seven years, 2016, he finally got, his first version of our patents, our ip.

, and that’s when I, I said, you know what? This is interesting. Let’s make it so it doesn’t make holes. And so we tested it, tried it, and it, it didn’t make any holes. and we made it from a recyclable nylon plastic, which was flexible. It smoothed out the bib. And I was like, wow, this is interesting.

So yeah. With Rob, you know, coming up with original concept. Him and I created this. I own the company. We both started it. He still is a trade market patent attorney by day. And so yeah, that’s how I got from, from that invention into this one.

Richard Conner: I love that. I love that. And you know, I’ll share a little bit with you and our listeners. So I discovered [00:07:00] your company not not too long ago, and. You know, what I love about it is not only that the, the product doesn’t make holes, which in your shirt, so you’re, I’m buying relatively expensive shirts. When I’m doing races.

I wanna wear like a nice shirt, uh, whether it’s, you know, my own brand or, or someone else’s brand. So that’s one. But I love that I could print my logo on, on the snaps, on the bib snaps. And I think that’s really ingenious cuz then I get to promote myself in a way, in another way. So I, you know, a lot of thought really went into the, to the product.

Brian Goodell: You know, it’s, it’s so interesting, right? Is, is everybody asked me, what do you do for a living? Some people that you don’t just, when I meet random people, I, I sell bib fasteners. We’re like, Hmm, what is that? we do put lots of logos on. I mean, I could go on and on about the brands that, that we’ve been fortunate to.

To put on there from Brooks Shoes to Lululemon, to, just local businesses, local orthopedics that wanna be involved in running, in, in, in the endurance space. Um, whether it’s Mudders cycling events, [00:08:00] five Ks to Ironmen to ultra, some of the, some of the most fit people on the planet are, are wearing our product.

Olympians. Emma Coburn does an amazing race out in Colorado. Crested Butte, the Elron, and, and. They get ’em every year and people just post socially. They love ’em, they love ’em cuz people don’t like safety pins. But yeah, the, the, the whole solve is, is, you know, there’s, there’s 250 million safety pins out there on an annual base and it really doesn’t have to be, um, ours are recyclable.

Ours are reusable, you know, they don’t get left on the race course, you know, in the streets. So, yeah, I think, I think the same reason. You like to put a logo on there, I think. Uh, It’s funny is most, most people put pictures of their, their family, friends, and then pets. A lot of dogs come through our customized tool.

Cats had some interesting stuff. Snakes actually do.

Richard Conner: I never thought of that. Oh man. So I guess if my wife listens to this episode, she’s gonna want me to do that next and put a photo of our miniature schnauzer [00:09:00] on some bib snaps. So, um, that’s really interesting and that, that’s really great to hear that there’s so many different opportunities for someone to bring their personality or bring, bring it to life, you know, kind of through those bib snaps.

Brian Goodell: Yeah, kinda going back to the invention concept, you know, I think what’s fun, fun about, you know, like in the endurance running space, you know, this is a hundred year old technology and in running specifically and cycling, uh, everything’s about breathable, aerodynamic comfort. No chafing shoes that catapult you fo uh, further faster, you know, to improve times.

Everything’s, everything’s really geared to, to get better. More efficient, you know, more sustainable, and we’re still using safety bins. And so I think that’s where we want to come in and, you know, and, and we work with, we’re in run retail stores and, and fleet feets and things like that. But we’re also in, we work with a lot of race directors and just the feedback I, I, I [00:10:00] remember just a quick story, like when we first started at the beta breakers race here in San Francisco, there’s 50,000 people that run this.

And we set up a 10 by 10 booth and I’m with my wife and Rob and we had 10 designs. We brought about 500 and a spinning rack and people walked by and were pointing at us and I didn’t know if they were laughing at us or they were like, they were like, whoa, what is that? And, and sure enough, they all came in and started crowding our booth.

Well, we ended up selling out, which is really cool. And I was, I was like, man, well, I hope, I hope one day we get a five star review. That would be really awesome. And sure enough, we got a five star review. Love the product, Hey, safety pins. Then it was, I was like, man, I hope we can get 10. And then, you know, people will really, well I, and it happened, but we have 20,000 reviews now.

I, and I think a almost, it’s a 4.8, so it’s like almost 98% or five star reviews. And it’s just really humbling and cool to [00:11:00] see that that many people embraced. The concept and idea that, you know, Rob and I came up with.

Richard Conner: Mm-hmm. And I love what you said about how there’s innovation in all other, many other aspects of, of eSports, you know, especially for runners. But this is an area that there wasn’t any innovation for, for such a long time, and you were able to bring that, um, that, that’s really interesting. And you know, I’d love to learn a little bit about your journey, so I’m sure.

Not right outta the gate. Everything is successful. Right. I’m sure it’s a bit of a journey for you. So, you know, as an entrepreneur, what do you think would be, what would you say are kind of your biggest obstacles, you know, along that journey, and how’d you overcome ’em?

Brian Goodell: I think the big, biggest, biggest obstacle is like overcoming the fear of failure. It’s like, you know, I, I think maybe it’s like signing up for a marathon that you’re scared to do, or, you know, should I really do it? Am I really gonna finish? , what happens if I get in and I wanna quit? You know, same thing in entrepreneurs like.

Can I invent? Absolutely. Anybody can invent [00:12:00] ideas. People are, people are very creative, , and come up with ideas. It’s, it’s, I think the biggest hurdle we had to come up that I’ve all had to come up over would probably be, you know, when we started this, we funded it ourself. We didn’t go ask anybody else.

You know, it’s, it’s kind of going from something that, an industry that I was doing well before, but going, wait a minute, everybody in endurance that I spoke to didn’t like this. And I’m like, wait, there’s an opportunity. It’s two 50 million safety pin. There’s what, 50 to 50 plus million bibs annually?

I’m like, wait a minute. If we could do this a quarter at a time, 50 cents at a time. This is a real idea. This is a really land, land grab. So I guess the hurdle would be is going okay, I’m in. And then actually, you know, my background making products is, is relatively pretty easy for me. , Concepts, ideas, but the market research just showed that if I don’t get in that, like I gotta, I gotta get in this and go.

So I don’t know. Does that answer your question?

Richard Conner: It does and, and it’s really interesting. So having a business background myself, I’m [00:13:00] listening to what, you know, kind of what you’re talking about in terms of that market opportunity and that’s exactly what you start with. Is there, you know, first off, is there a market for this and then is in the second.

Is there a problem that I could solve? I guess maybe that’s first, right? Is there a problem I could solve? Second, is this a real market that I can go after? And that’s going to be, you know, relevant. And you just said it, I think you said what 50 million bibs was, uh, was kind of the size. Um, so, so that, that’s incredible.

And then, so you said overcoming fear. So it was really just getting started. It wasn’t necessarily the act of. Doing the invention and doing the product development, it was like, should I invest and should I put my time and energy into this idea and will I be successful?

Brian Goodell: Yeah. You know, I think that’s the, the biggest, uh, hurdle, right? Is, is I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met people and they’re like, you know what idea I came up with? You know, I came up with X, Y, Z product and then I saw it on an infomercial at 12 at night, and the guy’s, you know, selling flashlights that hover off the ground.

And, [00:14:00] uh, I came up with that idea and I’m like, well, are you sure you did? But here’s the thing is, is like the, the fear, I’ve done this. I’ve, I’ve got, I’ve now on my third invention, , and I’ve helped others invent stuff. You know, that’s kind of fun for, you know, I’m helping another guy that I knew he’s had the idea for 10 years.

And reached out to me and said, Hey, can you help me with this? And I said, I can, but you’re gonna have to put like a lot of energy and effort into this in the first 30 days. And so 10 years, I got further in him in 90, he’s now got a prototype he’s ready to go. Product pricing, what the market bears cost of, produce the product, and he’s ready.

And he’s, he’s, his idea came to conception. It’s taken him 10 years to get here and it took us 90 days, but I think that’s just after doing it. And so, Uh, doing it a few times myself, , it just gets easier. So I try to encourage people, like, if, if you were to encourage someone to do some run training and sign up for a marathon, same thing.

It’s just about going, okay, [00:15:00] just sign up and do it. Say yes, and then find out what happens next. Right?

Richard Conner: That’s right. That’s right. And then what would you say, so, you know, some of the things that you said would, to overcome some of those fears is, number one, having confidence that there is, um, or data that there is an opportunity, , number two is having, you know, that idea that you felt really passionate about.

And then three is really kind of taking that step, that first step to say, I’m just gonna sign up and I’m just gonna do it. Whether it’s running the marathon or moving forward with, with an idea, you know, what other tips would you share with our community? Again, if it’s kind of running that race or starting up a new business, that can kind of help them along the journey, because it can be scary, especially if you, if there’s risk involved.

I mean, do they have to step on an ledge and to do this? , maybe they’re doing something that’s full-time and this is gonna require a lot of effort, so maybe it just makes sense to go full-time on, on this new idea, but there’s a lot of risk with that. So like, what are some of the other things that you would say to someone, um, who has this big idea but maybe won’t take [00:16:00] action on it because of some of these risks?

Brian Goodell: Reach out to me. , If I can add value, I will. You know, we have some really good advisors on our team that have helped me. , uh, ed Zuckerberg’s, one of them. He is a former runner and he’s given us a ton, ton of insight on a product, and I ask him, and, and there’s no reason why I can’t help anybody else.

If somebody said, Hey, I’ve got a concept and idea. A lot of times, , you know him. And then I’ve got another guy who’s who started a company called Pop Sockets, who helped us out a lot. And he’s also, you know, he’s done those ultra crazy races, those 150 mile, uh, Leadville races and whatnot. And, and so I try to take, they’ve had some very successful companies of their own and, you know, just getting a nugget here and there and, and being able to add value and, and say, Hey, listen, here’s, here’s my idea.

, if I can say, Hey, this is what I do, here’s the three steps I would do, I would literally draw it up on, you know, have, have one of your friends who’s a, a, a good, a good artist, drop. Whatever your concept, if it’s a new shoe that makes you run, you know, [00:17:00] a sub two hour marathon, and that’s your new invention, let’s draw it up on a piece of paper.

Let’s get it real. Let’s bring it to life, you know, and two, let’s find out , who can make your first prototype, whether it’s out of plastic, you know, a molding machine or whatnot. And then, you know, three, what, who’s gonna buy the shoe and how much you gonna sell it for? I think sometimes we complicate things and we make banana splits before we make scoops of vanilla ice cream, and then all of a sudden we got chocolate sauce on our face and whipped cream on our nose, and it’s like, it’s not that complicated.

I promise you. Um, if I can do it, you know, I’m a former football guy. I’ve been hitting the head a bunch, I think there’s a lot more, a lot more intelligent, smarter people than, than I, but. I’m a big, I, I, I love bringing ideas to life and I love seeing them out there. It’s, it’s really cool to watch the journey of something grow like, like our baby here.

I mean, some of the brands that have bought from us. I’m like, it’s so cool that I came up with an idea with Rob and then I’m, we’re we’re getting these companies to [00:18:00] really believe in us and send us from the Space Force to, uh, I mean here, like, I’ll just show you a couple pictures. Like these companies are, are, are buying our idea.

, yeah, I, I’ve had a few, quite a few emails over the years from runners. Hey, here’s my idea. Do you think you can help and I, if I can add value, I will.

Richard Conner: Yeah, for sure. And you know, I’m approaching this purely from an entrepreneurship standpoint cuz you know, again, this is an area of interest for me. And, and I was that guy, you know, many, many years ago. Started working on different ideas with friends and. Got prototypes working and you know, things started to work but never really carried it forward.

So, Yeah, when it’s out in the market, you’re like, I’m like, oh, I wish I just stuck with it. I wish we, you know, really realized what we had started and, and brought it to market, but I didn’t. And like you just said, I, I’m sure a lot of folks feel that way for, you know, maybe fear, maybe there’s other reasons, um, that they might have.

[00:19:00] So, no, this is very, very helpful and. And then let’s talk about for runners specifically, there’s probably a number of things, you know, just with the safety pins alone, that there wasn’t a lot of innovation around. I’m sure there’s probably other things that folks aren’t thinking about. So as they’re listening to this episode and they had that idea, Hey, I’m an ultra runner and it’d be really nice if I had X, Y, or Z. Well, if you’re listening to this, you know, go for your idea and, you know, follow Brian’s advice. I, I love it.

Brian Goodell: Totally. Yeah. And, and they’re out there. There’s, there’s ideas. It seems like we’ve invented everything, right? Like it’s done. There’s no more, no, there’s gonna be some really cool, innovative concepts. Just being in the running space myself, I’m always looking, you know, um, cause I go to the TRE, The Running Event in Austin, Texas, which is all run brands get underneath one roof.

We do the Running USA Conference and that’ll be in Orlando. And I’m around all these race directors that are really cool. You know, we do dinners and whatnot. It’s really cool. But looking for the next innovation piece, like what’s gonna be the next cool thing in running, cycling? Um, I’m always thinking myself, [00:20:00] but yeah, for, for runners to that, that use our, our product.

I mean, I think, I think from a performance standpoint, you know, it’s, it’s what we call like the jolly jogger that, that we, we sell to, but we, we also sell to people that are trying to shape, you know, seconds off their times from , colleges. High schools, youth running cross country, track and field.

I mean, division one schools to division three. , it’s, and then there’s, you know, there’s grand Fondos people that are, you know, going 40, 50 miles an hour downhill, that don’t want flapping bibs. They want more aerodynamics. So from a performance standpoint, it smooths out, you know, um, the bib for better pictures.

I remember when the Disney photographer reached out and he goes, Brian, one of the biggest. Challenges I have is that people are wearing their bibs into these outfits and everything, and they’re crumpled up and they’re sideways and I can’t see the number. So he had to, they had to bring on a team of people that would open up pictures and see if the number, where the bib number was so that they can actually give them back their pictures that they were at the race, [00:21:00] that they did this, , because the safety pin was tearing the corners.

Poor Ussein Bolt, the fastest man in the world. I watched him on, you know, running on tv and he’s got three corners secure and one safety pin pop loose, and it’s flapping. It just shouldn’t be that way for, for the fastest man in the world.

Richard Conner: We could do better, right?

Brian Goodell: I, yes, I mean, it’s, it’s true. Ours does smooth it out, secure it, and it’s not dragging in the wind.

I mean, he runs so fast and he gets less dragged.

Richard Conner: Yeah. Wow, that’s incredible. And you know, so thank you for sharing that. And you know, thank you for sharing some of the benefits that honestly, I didn’t even realize. I’m just thinking I’m secure. It’s better than a safety pin, but the, even the aerodynamics, that’s, um, pretty cool. So let’s talk a little bit beyond running.

So I know that you make products that are, Used for maybe other applications other than running. Let’s talk, you know, just for a minute about that.

Brian Goodell: Yeah. You know, uh, the, the evolution of bid boards. We’ve secured hundreds of thousands of [00:22:00] runners bibs for races, mutters, et cetera. Well, we kept getting asked, can you do lapel pens? Cause I collect lapel pens and I hate the sharp lapel pens going through my garments. And I said, yeah, absolutely you can.

So we came up with me snaps. It’s a daily wearable snap charm. You can kind of see I have one here, like this one says, I do it for the metals, but think a lapel pen. But with a safe backing.

Richard Conner: Mm.

Brian Goodell: Here’s one we did for Space Force. They’re called me Snaps. It’s a daily wearable snap charm with our safe backing.

No pins, no holes, no magnets. Um, and me snaps can be worn here. For example, my Garmin watch. You can, you can put these in here and accessorize your watch. You can put ’em in Crocs. You can put, they’re just very similar to the gbit concept, but you don’t need a gbbt. You don’t need a croc. These snap in all those shoes, like my kids wear natives.

I wear a shoe called people’s, uh, people’s is kind of a, a [00:23:00] little better material, more fashionable. As a former per former executive at Croc’s left and created the shoe. So our product fits the me snaps fit in all those shoes. So I can, I can snap ’em into my, my runners, my, I got these right here at TRE from the Under Armour team.

Um, it’s these sync to my phone, by the way, but they can snap and lock into the. Like here, I did these for Nike, so this can actually snap into my watch, right? And I can snap and lock on the backside and they actually fit in my shoe as well in the shoe hole. But of course, you can also snap and lock ’em and turn this Under Armour top, which I use.

And you can turn this into basically a Nike top. So me snaps is a daily wearable snap charm. And we customize those with all kinds of different fun logos. , it’s a way to express yourself. And I mean, the, the jts, I, I coach high school football and I coach high school basketball. 95% of my kids wear [00:24:00] Crocs with jts, all of ’em.

So they’re back and they’re popular again. I try to say, what if you could take those out of the Crocs and put ’em anywhere? That’s what, that’s what me snaps is.

Richard Conner: Very cool. Very cool. I love that. This has been such a great conversation, Brian. I’m really enjoying the conversation. I love how this went from your journey to talking about entrepreneurship and encouraging, you know, our listeners or anybody out there if you have that idea, you know, overcoming that fear and, and getting after it.

The great work that you’re doing, not only to innovate in the running space, but also in other industries and other applications. So that’s really great. So, you know, tell me what’s next, what’s next for you, Brian? And you know, what’s next for bib boards? I.

Brian Goodell: Yeah, I think for us, what we’re, we, uh, we’re constantly innovating and we’re constantly growing. I mean, my day consist of talking to run groups, track clubs and, and, and race directors. And we are, uh, we’re trying to expand our product line. Our ultimate goal, we just hit a, a 10 million safety pins gone, [00:25:00] um, program.

So we’ve removed 10 million safety pins from the endurance space. Our next goal is, is 20 million. , yeah, I, that’s, that’s, uh, in the near future, that’s what we do. Innovate new products that make, uh, running races , a better race experience is what I like to say in general, but, Yeah. New cool creative products, things I can tell you about and things I can’t tell you about.

Richard Conner: Okay. Where we go next, you wanna talk about things you can’t tell me about.

Brian Goodell: the things I can tell you about are me snaps our me our, our what we call our mini metals. , the things I can’t tell you about. Are the next great wave of cool stuff that’s coming into the space that no one’s done.

Richard Conner: All right, well, we’ll be looking forward to that. So, you know, tell us how can you know our listeners find you and follow you online and, you know, kind of watch out, look for your great [00:26:00] products that you have today, and watch out for the innovative products. You’re gonna come in the future.

Brian Goodell: yeah, I think the, the easiest way, , you can, you can email us, you can go to our website, you can follow us on our Instagram. Hit us up on Messenger. If you have any questions or ideas, share ’em. , Facebook, Instagram. We’re on TikTok email, but our website’s easy. You can fill it out and you can write me Brian.

Hey Brian, listen to the podcast. I had a question. and we sign NDAs too. If it’s an idea we’re not interested in taking ideas, we, we have. No, I have no problem signing NDAs. Um, And possibly working. Who knows what the next great inventor.

Richard Conner: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much Brian. I really do appreciate you coming on the show and you know, having a conversation with me about all the great work that you’re doing and what you’re doing to help our running community and others. So I’ll put that information in the show notes to make it easy for our listeners to find and follow you and you know, with that.

And have a great day.

Brian Goodell: Yes, you too. Thank you again. [00:27:00] Let’s go.

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