Dillon Turnbow of Body Cooling Innovations: From Avocation To Vocation; How I Turned My Hobby Into A Career

Fail fast. The worst thing you can do is try something for a very long time and still not know if it will work or not. Do what you need to do to make a yes or no decision. We tested over 80 different kinds of cooling packs. Some didn’t get cold enough, some didn’t stay cold long enough and others ruptured.

As a part of our series about entrepreneurs who transformed something they did for fun into a full-time career, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dillon Turnbow.

Dillon Turnbow is a Co-Founder of Body Cooling Innovations, LLC. He has a MBA from the University of Colorado and has experience working for start-up, fortune 500 and non-profit companies. He is a fitness enthusiast who loves running, boxing and hiking. He has completed 10 full or half marathons in 10 different cities. He helped invent the Cooling Cuff so that he would be able to cool down and stop sweating quickly in his busy schedule, and also to improve his running and boxing. As a former Firefighter, he is also passionate about giving first responders a safe way to quickly cool down for their safety. He lives near Denver Colorado, with his wife and 2 daughters.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Growing up, I was not very athletic, but I was positive that I would play in the NFL. I spent all my time and energy on football and got pretty good. Unfortunately, a serious neck injury ended my football career in high school. Even though I’ll never be a professional athlete, fitness is still vitally important to me and one of my biggest passions.

What was the catalyst from transforming your hobby or something you love into a business? Can you share the story of your “ah ha” moment with us?

I was working in corporate America and found that I couldn’t be honest with my mentor through lots of career questions such as what do I value, what do like doing, what’s important to you in a job, etc. My honest answers screamed that I should start my own company (I modified my answers, so it didn’t sound like I wanted out). I also thought it should be related to fitness and ideally with a partner. Then, my best friend called me and said he was starting a fitness company and asked if I wanted to be 50/50 partners. After researching the idea and science for Cooling Cuff, I quickly fell in love. It was too perfect to pass up.

There are no shortage of good ideas out there, but people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How did you overcome this challenge?

Persistence! We went through 13 prototypes for the band and 80 different prototypes for the cooling pack that gets inserted. There were some incredibly frustrating times, but we knew we had a great idea that would help people. So, we looked at each setback as a “barrier to entry” and tried to see it as a positive that others would not be able to easily create a similar product.

What advice would you give someone who has a hobby or pastime that they absolutely love but is reluctant to do it for a living?

That’s tough because a lot of hobbies are better off staying as hobbies. You don’t want to lose the joy for it by adding lots of pressure. I would ask them if spreading their hobby to other people would make other people’s lives better. If turning your hobby into a job makes the world a better place, do it!

It’s said that the quickest way to take the fun out of doing something is to do it for a living. How do you keep from changing something you love into something you dread? How do you keep it fresh and enjoyable?

Keep learning new things and expanding! Whatever you started out loving, it’s a part of the business, not the whole thing. Learn to love marketing the product. Learn to love managing inventory. Learn to love finance. I think people run into trouble when they stick to their comfort zone, and neglect all the other things that go into running a business. It’s the other things that they dread. Keep learning and keep adapting, and of course, keep doing the things you love.

What is it that you enjoy most about running your own business? What are the downsides of running your own business? Can you share what you did to overcome these drawbacks?

The most enjoyable thing to me is the freedom. I didn’t like how I had to get consensus for decisions in corporate America. I had to run ideas past 10 people, each one of them would slightly change it, and in the end, it wasn’t even my idea anymore. When it’s my company, I can make a decision and go forward with it. Right or wrong, I can live with that.

The biggest drawback is that everything is actually your own money. When you want to spend for something, it comes directly out of your pocket, and that is stressful. To overcome, it’s important to remember why you are doing it, to have faith that it will work out and put your trust in a higher power. Running your own business is a bumpy, adventurous road, but you know that going into it. Once you’ve made the decision, try not to second guess it, just enjoy the adventure.

Can you share what was the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

Covid has drastically changed our plans. I thought we would be starting this as a fitness product and then someday expanding to other use cases like hot flashes, working outside on hot days, cooking, etc. I planned on visiting gyms all over the country and doing demonstrations and asking them to sell the product at their gym. However, with Covid and gyms closing, we’ve gone mostly online. For fitness, we’re targeting people with home workout equipment.

Has there ever been a moment when you thought to yourself “I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to get a “real” job? If so, how did you overcome it?

Nope. I’ve had “real” jobs. Jobs where I worked crazy hours on things that didn’t really matter to me. Things that didn’t make much impact for the company or the customers or anyone. I’ve been very frustrated and discouraged, but I’d rather be frustrated and discouraged on something I believe in than the alternative.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the most challenging things about marketing the Cooling Cuff is that it can used by almost anyone. It’s a good problem to have, but it makes targeted marketing a challenge. When we started, we mixed our marketing. As a result, we would get super athletes interested in the product and then follow up with remarketing ads that showed women having hot flashes and vice versa. It led to some very interesting comments. We’ve learned to target the use cases. So, if people are interested in using these for exercise, we send them fitness ads and to a fitness landing page. The lesson is don’t confuse your audience with inconsistent messaging.

Who has inspired or continues to inspire you to be a great leader? Why?

My Grandpa is my biggest hero and my role model. He started his own company when he was 50 years old with a passion for helping animals. He followed his heart and got to travel the world doing what he loved. And every one of his employees absolutely loved him because he truly cared about them and was honest, decent and treated them like family. I would love to build something that makes him proud.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We have not gotten where we want to be yet. However, just like we want to prevent overheating in people’s bodies, we want to prevent overheating of our planet. We have big plans for using our profits and our platform to fight climate change. We’re just getting started and need to become profitable first, but I’m very excited to launch that phase of the business.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Fail fast. The worst thing you can do is try something for a very long time and still not know if it will work or not. Do what you need to do to make a yes or no decision. We tested over 80 different kinds of cooling packs. Some didn’t get cold enough, some didn’t stay cold long enough and others ruptured. We spent too long working with some of those prototypes trying to make them work. In the end, we found a supplier in Pittsburgh that makes incredible products. But when something isn’t working, don’t linger, fix it or move on quickly!
2. Other people don’t know better than you do. We started with the idea that we would focus on what we were really good at, and we would hire people to do the other parts. But we found that we had to spend copious amounts of time changing their work to fit our company. In most cases you can learn something (like how to build a website) in less time and way less money, than hiring someone else. I’d encourage all entrepreneurs to try and do the work themselves and only hire someone when you really get stumped.
3. Write out your plans, but be agile. Things change. We knew going into this that our plans would change, but they changed more than I ever thought. Instead of targeting athletes, we were targeting women with hot flashes because they had the most immediate need and were proving to be our most enthusiastic fans.
4. Don’t be afraid to sell to your friends and family. You have to love your product and believe that it is good for people. You would be doing them a disservice by not trying to sell it to them. Plus, they will be some of your biggest fans and enthusiasts as you get started. I was reluctant to ask friends and family to buy my product. But they eventually did and they have all given us such valuable feedback. It’s vitally important to learn from your customers. And learning from your family and friends is just as important.
5. You will not be an overnight success. I guess I knew this. But when we launched, my biggest fear was that we would immediately sell out of inventory and we’d have lots of potential customers waiting a long time for more inventory. Our first few months were slow though. I guess that’s to be expected. Running out of inventory because you sold out quickly would be a great problem to have.

What person wouldn’t want to work doing something they absolutely love. You are an incredible inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Find something fitness related that you love, and do it! People living unhealthy lifestyles is putting a lot of pressure on the world. It’s raising healthcare costs, increasing depression, etc. But I also believe that people think fitness means something specific when it really doesn’t. If you don’t like going to the gym, don’t try to force it because you’ll never stick to it. Try different activities until you find one that you genuinely enjoy. And if you don’t find an existing one, create a new game or activity. Then stick with that! It could be a movement of very unorthodox exercise.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — John Eldredge, Wild at Heart.

I always wanted to help people and make the world a better place. I worked for non-profit organizations that were making an impact. But the work I was doing was not exciting to me. I was bored and frustrated. It’s nothing against those organizations or the people who work for them, they are all amazing. But I needed to find something that made me come alive. That’s when I found happiness and meaning in my work life.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I’d love to meet the Founders of Peloton, especially John Foley and Tom Cortese. I’m inspired with how they are changing fitness and making it more accessible to everyone. And I personally love their product. Being a very busy person with 2 young girls, finding time to exercise is huge challenge and Peloton has solved that for me. I’m also inspired by their persistence. I love that their Kickstarter campaign failed (so did ours), and that they found alternative ways to succeed. I would love to meet them, thank them, and get their thoughts/suggestions on the Cooling Cuff.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!