YouSaid · the spoken record

Danny Winer

lines on the record: 89
first: 2025-04-28
most recent: 2025-04-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think one time somebody asked me, well, who do you owe it all to? And I go in a way. I owe it to Xi Jinping because he showed up at the Canton Fair this day to cut like the opening day ribbon or something. And I'd been at the previewed day the night before and I met somebody. I don't even remember what it was. He had some interesting product. And I said, okay, I'm going to meet you tomorrow at noon. And I go to show up to walk into this hall and there's just 30 Chinese soldiers there and they've got their guns there and they won't let me in.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This business is not salvageable. And my ego wanted to fix it. But the thing is, sometimes you got to pull the plug, right? And sometimes you need somebody else to tell you that. It's very hard looking in the mirror sometimes. You know, very often we're looking all over the place for the reason why we're not doing well. And then we skip the mirror. In this place, I played a role, but I misjudged the market. That's what I did wrong. I don't think the way I brought the product to market, the way we tried to sell it, I think we did the right thing there. Misjudge the market and shame on me, you know. And we were in the juicer business like on a Tuesday night at 5 p.m. And the next morning. At 9 a.m., we were not in the juicer business anymore.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's a level of terror to it. Luckily, I think very often ignorance is bliss, right? So what you don't know, you know, can't really hurt you, so to speak. So there were certain areas where I've said it a couple times. I was naive, especially starting with Juice Presso. And maybe this overconfidence that because I was a good salesman and I really believed in the product I could convince you that this was in your best interest to buy this. And we saw that business drop month by month by month. And the thing is, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. And it was one of the smartest things because I had to look. I had to look. Very closely at this and go.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm so glad you brought that up because it really. Very important because the fact is there's something about this country that is both amazing and challenging, which is we love an underdog story. We love a ragsterich's story. But also there is this level in our country where we want to knock people down when they hit a level of success.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, again, we were starting to see the first half of 15 was going well. We were cautiously optimistic, but then we were seeing a little bit of a plateau. And this is as we're seeing more and more juice shops pop up. I'm like grudgingly becoming to grips with the fact that This may not have legs.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Holding hope that people aren't going to pay 10 bucks for a juice. And this was, I've said it before, never underestimate the laziness of the American public because we want it now. We want it easy. And there's a juice place in LA called the Beverly Hills Juice Club. And I think that's the one I was in, where I saw a girl order a juice and she didn't have enough money on her credit card to put it all on one card, I think. I'm like, wait a minute. That was quite an aha moment. She doesn't have $8 or $7, but she won't make it at home.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So at that point, we were selling some online, some at trade shows. We tried to find kind of health and wellness and gourmet shows, ones that kind of lend themselves to a higher price point. And we had started selling them with Costco in their roadshow program Well, what we were never expecting was in 15 that Whole Foods makes an announcement that we're putting a juice bar in every Whole Foods, fresh squeeze, cold pressed juice, that all of a sudden creation and jamba juice, they're going to even make real juice, not just delicious sugar juice. You know, we were”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, that was it. Like, we thought, I never thought we were going to sell $100 million worth of juicers. But I thought, you know, if we could get a suite of products that are complementary in the kitchen space, maybe we have five, six, seven of them. You know, my goal was can we get each one to generate about $10 million in revenue? And if we can, we got a business.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and it's also like, and very quickly, we thought also this is great. Soon as you're on there, we want you to start sharing your recipes. We want you to start sharing your videos. Now, the thing is, you know, you hope you get the participation quickly because we don't have money. There were no paid influencers at this point either. Right.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was because we also felt that direct consumer tied in quite nicely with demonstration sales because in a way I can deliver this little demo to one of two ways. I can deliver to you in person or I can deliver it to you in 30 to 60 seconds with a video on Facebook. And if it's good enough, you'll watch the whole video on Facebook.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, for this, well, there were a couple things. One, there was a level of ignorance on our part about exactly everything we would need. But our goal at the time was to really do this slowly and judiciously. So spending the money. We felt like we could do it carefully and we'd be able to self fund at that point. And then kind of reinvest the profits. So it was pretty much ready to sell, which was great.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So by the time I think I left, it took all of 13 into 14 until we were ready to sell this product. So once the product was ready to be sold, that's right about when I left the company.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we thought we found the Holy Grail because what was interesting was a cold pressed juicer. It had been invented in Korea. And what was great about it was it only had one part to clean. You've popped out the center like it was like a giant screw and you just washed it all off. So it was like. Wow, this is easy to clean. This is the holy grail. So, you know, we were very excited about bringing that to market.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. So we were doing our research and we thought the health benefits are huge. Like we had seen like Vitamix corner the smoothie market, but quite frankly still smoothies are not as good as vegetable juice”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, as we played around with what this could look like, it started at the gym. We talk about ideas. Now that he had got me back working out, we were both very, very health conscious at this point. And we had both become big juicing fans, you know, green juice. And it was like becoming huge at that point. We were reading about new advances in making cold pressed juice at home. With a couple of Korean companies, but they hadn't really, like, the big juicer was like the Jack Lelane juicer at the time.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, they wound up fading out, but at that point, I was. Was gone at that point. I think they locked the doors around sometime around 17 or so.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, because let's face it, people are terrified of change, right? Because the future is scary often. You know, I was scared to say, let's pivot slightly and, you know, really embrace social media. But when I look at it very analytically, I didn't see a downside.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Food network exploding. And I'm like, this is a big deal, and we need to create a community here. And I went to the CEO of the company. And I had Facebook up. And I go, I want to tell you my idea. I go, I don't have it completely fleshed out yet. But I go, this is where we need to be. I pointed at the screen. I'm like, we got to create a community. And then we own the experience with our customer. And this is going to lead to sales. And he quite literally did hand to the face to me and he goes. Listen, kid, this Facebook thing, it's never gonna last. And that was the moment. That was, I walked out and I'm like, I got to start my own company.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And, you know, why is this? Well, I'm like, well, there's a ton of great recipes online. Now, like say, people love cookbooks again, you know, and but at this point, they're like, oh, wait a minute. I don't have to spend $30 to buy to get all these recipes that I don't really like and the 20 that I do like. So they're starting to digest content online. And I became very aware of this and I'm seeing.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that's exactly what happened. I got excited. One thing I'd noticed at this point was I'd read an article about decline in cookbook sales.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Technically, yes, but not really. So at this point in our area, in, say, the kitchenware space, your website and the ability to purchase online was looked at as just a tool to help you sell in person. You don't buy cookware that way. You know, it's kind of like people weren't quite yet. They were just beginning to buy clothes. Online that way”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, I'm not getting fat. Maybe I put a few pounds. I'm at a desk for the first time. He goes, You're fat. Five o'clock, you're coming to the gym with me. Okay. I'm like, fine, I'll go to the gym with you. And then he and I started working out. If he wasn't off traveling for a show, we worked out four or five nights a week, which eventually is where the idea during our workouts of starting our own company came.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Coal is one of the most interesting guys I know because I met him right before I went into the office. So at this point, we're both salesmen when I meet him. And he just, you know, we have similar senses of humor. Like we like dark humor. We like saying stuff that other people won't say. So we kind of became friendly. And then when I became his boss, you know, he quickly became the top salesman. He was very, very good. And so he was like my main guy. But Cole is also, he does not mince words about stuff. So now just I'm in the office a couple years now. And I think I just got made VP of sales. And he like he'll come in the office. Now I'm his boss. He goes, he walks in, he sees me sitting there. He goes like this. Well, somebody. Getting fat.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, and look, the fact is, very few people are on that, on the plan they set for themselves lying on their bunk bed when they were 12. Identifying what I was good at and removing ego. I mean, I have a healthy ego like a lot of people do. And, you know, it was kind of interesting as I felt like I'm a friggin salesman. But I was making a good living. And I had a really good friend, an NYU buddy Who was a lawyer, and he was seeing me work these weekends and then have the days off, and he's working his ass off. And here, you know, he's got law school loans, and he's like, listen, is there any chance I could get one of these cookware jobs? And I'm like, buddy, you're a lawyer, you know He's Sucks being a lawyer. Yeah”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And you may be overly generous in afoot. It may have been my big toe at that point. But you know what? There was the point where you're kind of done And I remember, I think I had a 9 a.m. audition. And the alarm went and I looked and I hit snooze and I went back to sleep. And I knew that day. At that point, I needed to do this. It was producing a very good income at this point.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So essentially, what wound up happening in my case was I had worked for months with my friend. Like once I started generating income for him as well, he's like, hey, I'll pay you more because you're really valuable to me. I can go grab lunch and I come back and you've made sales. So by the time I was offered this, you know, this spot, I was very good. Like I was very trained. I knew the cookware space.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I saw him do well. And he's like, I go, if you need help again, let me know. And he goes, well, I'm doing another one of these in, I don't know, a week or two. Do you want to help me? I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, whenever you need the help because at that point, I'm like, oh, I do have my days free. I can still go to an audition if I get one and I can work these Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays with him. And then I got good enough at it on my own that the company Offered me to do my own events. And that's the first time where I go. Don't want to do this. This makes sense because I can make money, I can make it quickly. I don't have to completely kill my dream yet, but I can get a lot of bang for my buck and I'm getting better and better at this.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's exactly what happened. I hadn't worked yet, so I was just getting off my cane at that point. But I had a work I had no money. And he said, listen, do you want to come to this convention center? We sell Cookware on my cookware. He goes, yeah. He goes, I need somebody to help run the credit cards and stuff. He goes, I'll give you 500 bucks. And I'm like, 500 bucks. Sweet. I'm there. And I went and helped him. And it was hard because it's 10 hours on your feet. And I'm like, I'm like, I was in a lot of pain, you know.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then somehow I saw myself in the third person, you know, on the hill with these crutches, with a torn plastic bag. And I just started laughing. And I'm like, I can't believe this is what I'm going through right now. But it was a pivotal moment for me.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, this poor guy's got to stand out here. I go, how much of the bag of oranges? He's like $2. I have two dollars left after the movie. So I buy the bag of oranges and he puts them in like a plastic shopping bag. And, you know, I'm crutching up the hill. And I get almost to the top of the hill and I'm exhausted. And the bottom of the garbage bag rips and all my oranges start tumbling out and they're rolling all the way down the hill. I just I can't chase them. I'm not physically able to chase them. I look down the hill Start to cry. And the thing is, I'm not cry often. And I start crying, and I'm like, I can't believe I'm going through all this. And I had that moment of self-pity.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Buddy and I had a house in Eagle Rock, California, and we lived kind of on the side of the hill. And I had no money. And at home, I couldn't work yet. So until he came home from work, I'd be sitting in his house. And, you know, we didn't have cell phones then. I don't think we even had the internet then. Movie Braveheart came out. And I remember I had a free movie pass to the Glendale movie theater. So I'm like, I'm going to go see this movie to cheer me up. And I crutched down the hill. I go to the bus stop. You know, I have no car now. And I take the bus, I see Braveheart. It inspires me and I come back and I see there on the side of the road this gentleman who's standing there with bags of oranges. And I'm like,”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, it's obviously one of these life-changing moments. It was a bad accent. I shattered my right leg. I broke vertebrae in my back and I had to get better. And obviously when you're young and broke, now you're even broker, but you're not younger. And during that period, I said number one focus is I have to make money. I don't know what that looks like. I'd never been so poor. You know, I had this moment. In fact, this is one of the pivotal moment in my life. And I don't know if I've ever told it publicly. I've told a few friends, but. Was on crutches still, so I'd had like pins taken out of my leg, but I had to walk with crutches just because my legs weren't strong enough. And we lived.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There is a little bit, but I think in a way you still, I would say, you know, allow them like I'm probably about 27-ish. Still dumb enough to think like that, you know, it's not me, it's them. And they're going to see and people are going to want to hire me. But I think what started creeping in was I don't like failing at things. And I was beginning to feel like a failure. And the thing is when you fail, like, look, you know, eventually at the end of the fourth quarter, right, they blow the whistle and the game's over. And there's no like, oh, I don't want to feel like today you failed. So now you have to, you know, dust yourself off and decide, how do I win next time, whatever that looks like. And I think that feeling was beginning to creep into my mind. That one, I don't want to be seen as a failure. I don't like looking at myself in the mirror when I'm failing.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's funny, the things that you land that get you going, and like I don't even have access to this, but a couple of like short films that never really got anywhere. Maybe they played in a festival, but it was a really good role type of thing. And I can't even go into detail because I just barely remember them. But then I'd get like a couple commercials. And sometimes you have a line and sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's music and you're just on the beach and you're running around and you and a girl are running down the sand. And, you know, and that's the commercial. And you're like, well, I guess it's acting in a way.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started going on auditions. You know, it was so different than New York because I remember the first audition I went to. I showed up, you know, gave my resume, my headshot, and they lined me up and they were looking at my height. And then they go, okay, thanks for coming in. And I'm like, wait, do I get to read or act? No, I'm the wrong height. And I'm like, How about a courtesy? Because, like, I might be wrong for this, but I found out, I think they'd hired the girl who was going to be in it, and she was like 5'1. So they kind of wanted a guy who was like 5'8". Now I'm 5'11. It was like, it was a very disrespectful process at the time I found.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, listen, you wonder why these things don't work out for you at a given time. You know, I always wonder does the universe give you success when you're ready to handle it? I don't know. Could I have gone down the wrong path if it had been easy?”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think I ever wanted to be a Brad Pitt level star. I think what I wanted was just enough of it that I could like maybe go back to New York and call my shots in the theater and things like that and bounce back and forth and make a good living, but I didn't have to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and be a Harrison Ford.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And packaging them to save money. And then we'd be like taping them closed and we had so many paper cuts on our fingers. There sometimes would be little blood spots on the box, and we would have to take Windex and go back and clean the blood off the top of the box, and we would drive them to the Costco to sell them.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would literally line up boxes in Cole's backyard and we'd run down a line and I'd be like 12 inch pants, 12 inch pants, 12 inch pants.”
2025-04-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Hexclad: Danny Winer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT