Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] John Schwind: Where entrepreneurs come to grow it's passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:06] Elizabeth Gearhart: Now we're on to John Schwind with Readymask. And pull out your mask, John.
Let's go.
[00:00:13] John Schwind: You said you were gonna wear one.
[00:00:14] Elizabeth Gearhart: Yeah, I did.
[00:00:15] John Schwind: So this idea started in 1998, and this was after the first World Trade center bombing. Some friends had this idea for, you know, something to help them, and we came up with this idea of wet terry cloth. And it was going to be a cigar tube, something used in an emergency. Well, that was a huge failure. I got involved. We tried to put adhesive around it in a wet environment, and that didn't work until we hit on a dry filter, and then we added an eye shield to it, and we had two different products. But having a great product without a tremendous demand is very, very difficult. And I was passionate about this, so. And Brian could have helped me out, you know, a long, long time ago with it. The reason to make it strapless is for one reason, one reason only. It's about the seal. So we use adhesive around the perimeter of it to create a seal. Because if a mask does not seal, the things you're trying to keep out are going to find a way in. And that's the difference between our mask and every other mask on the market. People use straps to pull it tight against your face, and then you have to pinch that nose, and hopefully you have a good seal.
[00:01:23] Richard Gearhart: There's no real way to know if you're using a typical mask, if it really is sealing, right?
[00:01:30] John Schwind: Yeah. For the average person, it's very, very difficult to know whether they have a seal. There's different ways you can seal check with ours. When ours is not completely sealed, you feel the leak, and that's what makes it really different. So you can seal up that leak just by adding a little pressure to it.
[00:01:47] Richard Gearhart: So does a mask with straps. Is there any benefit at all to that? I mean.
[00:01:51] John Schwind: Oh, there's tremendous benefits if you have the right mask that fits you. And the doctor and I were talking about fit testing. He had to be fit tested annually to make sure that he was wearing the right mask. And if you don't have the right mask, the things are going to go around the outside.
[00:02:07] Richard Gearhart: So, like, during COVID people, we talked about the effectiveness of masks, and probably one reason why they weren't as effective as we thought they were is that people weren't using them properly or they weren't fitting properly.
[00:02:20] John Schwind: One of the big, big problems we had with COVID was education.
You Know, telling people, surgical masks, we're going to do things, protect you where things were going around the outside. And so it really was educating the public about it.
[00:02:33] Elizabeth Gearhart: So who's using your masks today?
[00:02:35] John Schwind: We're direct to consumer. I would say he's probably 75% are women who are either caregivers for somebody else or have compromised immune systems themselves. Probably they're 50 years old or older and they're wearing it for MRIs because our mask does not contain any metals.
[00:02:56] Richard Gearhart: So what about industrial applications, like, you know, in factories or any place where there's a lot of particulate? Any market there for you?
[00:03:04] John Schwind: There is tremendous amount of market. There's a lot of things in silica that's problematic. Bakeries is a real problem with the flour getting into the lungs. Any place where people are trying to keep particulates out of their lungs, our mask can work for, you know, you think about it, you can wash. Wash the stuff out of your hair, you can wash all your clothes, but when it gets into your lungs, it's hard to get it out.
[00:03:29] Elizabeth Gearhart: Well, I worked in the chemical industry and that was always a challenge for the people in the plant because they wanted the men to wear masks. But a lot of the men had facial hair and they tried to make them shave to wear the mask if they wanted the job and they didn't want to shave. Would your mask work over facial hair?
[00:03:47] John Schwind: Do you know? So we've tested our mask with guys having two to three days worth of stubble and they get a great seal.
But if there's too much facial hair, then you. You don't get a real good seal with this mask or any mask.
[00:04:00] Elizabeth Gearhart: Any mask.
[00:04:01] John Schwind: And there's the problem. The other problem we have is guys are tough and we don't want to wear a mask. And it's an attitude that we have.
[00:04:10] Richard Gearhart: I had a friend who was a woodworker. He used to turn bowls and he turned these beautiful bowls. He was famous artist. And he stopped turning because he had breathed in so much sawdust over the years that he was getting some sort of arrhythmia, I guess. Is that what they call it? But he was getting sick and he had to stop because he couldn't expose himself to that anymore. If he had worn these masks, it could have made a big difference.
[00:04:34] John Schwind: Yes, not only our mask, but any mask. If you can cut down on the things that are going into your lungs, that's a good thing. One thing that's different with our mask, we don't get pressure points with our Mask, which you do with other ones with straps. And the pocket that ours forms is a little bit smaller, so you're exchanging more air.
Nurses have been wearing this in ors for eight or ten hours and they don't get headaches. And the reason is, I believe, because they're not rebreathing their own air.
[00:05:02] Elizabeth Gearhart: Can you put one on now?
[00:05:03] John Schwind: I can put one on. And then if you would like to, you can.
[00:05:05] Elizabeth Gearhart: I can try it.
[00:05:06] John Schwind: You can try it, but I'll demonstrate it first.
[00:05:08] Elizabeth Gearhart: Yeah, if I could do it, anybody could do it.
[00:05:10] Richard Gearhart: We're curious about what will happen if we put a mask on my wife.
[00:05:15] John Schwind: So you would peel off a release liner just like you would a band aid.
We hold it horizontally under our eyes and we slide our fingers down the sides. And now I'm completely sealed in. I'll put my glasses on. And the glasses don't fog because I have a complete seal and you can hear. Audio communication is great with this. My jaw can move freely with it and I can breathe easily. It also works on the exhalation. Okay. So since it's a sealed mask, everything still has to go through that filter, which is what you want it. You want it to go through the filter on the inhalation and on the exhalation. Many masks have to have an exhalation valve because they get so hot.
[00:05:57] Richard Gearhart: This one doesn't. Well, you know, it's amazing because your audio volume hasn't changed a bit.
[00:06:02] John Schwind: No.
[00:06:02] Richard Gearhart: And lots of times if you're wearing a more conventional mask, it makes you softer. So you can still communicate using this mask.
[00:06:11] John Schwind: Absolutely. And we have a lot of people report that they wear them traveling on airplanes. They fall asleep with them on the airplane, you know, so it's very, very comfortable.
[00:06:19] Richard Gearhart: Can you get a color different than yellow? Maybe like black or something? You know, that is one of the
[00:06:24] John Schwind: things that people have really, really requested. We will, the next production runs are going to be coming out with a gray mask, which we had in the past. These were originally used to help people get out of an emergency. That's why the yellow color came in, you know, and we make one with an eye shield. And anybody that goes into a hotel or travels or goes on the subway should carry one of these with them at all times. We've had it tested in smoke filled environments. The ability to see and breathe is amazing.
[00:06:54] Brian Fried: I could say that you should be proud of yourself. You were definitely on this journey. And people don't realize how much went into that. They see it and, you know, they talk about the color or wearing it or not wearing it. But the tape has to be a certain approval to stick to your face. The mask itself has to be certified. It has to be made in a certain factory that is approved and then all of a sudden the packaging, marketing, everything else. So congratulations. I know there's plenty of iterations and next generations of what you have, but congratulations where you are.
[00:07:30] John Schwind: Brian, I really appreciate that and I'd like to say we became an overnight success after 22 years.
[00:07:39] Elizabeth Gearhart: So where are you selling these? Are they on Amazon? Are they on?
[00:07:44] John Schwind: We sell them direct off our website.
[00:07:45] Brian Fried: Okay.
[00:07:46] John Schwind: @ReadyMask R E A D I mask.com Great.
[00:07:50] Richard Gearhart: If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast and leave a quick review.
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[00:08:01] John Schwind: Learn more at passagetoprofitshow.com.
