IAM1240 – CEO Sells Appliance on a Well-Defined Market Niche

Jim Estill is CEO of Danby Appliances which is a niche manufacturer of specialty appliances distributing over 2,000,000 appliances per year.

Jim is a Canadian technology entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist. He started his first computer distribution business from the trunk of his car while in university and grew that business to $2 Billion in sales.

Jim has invested in, mentored, and advised over 150 technology companies including Blackberry. He joined their board before they went public and served for 13 years.

• CEO Story: After spending five years in venture capital, Jim started on the board of Danby Appliances, then he took over when the CEO resigned, and finally bought the company.
• Business Service: Selling appliance products to retailers and online stores that target smaller apartments or households.
• Secret Sauce: Finding the right niche for the business.  Entrepreneurial mindset, doing the right thing based on the need of the current environmental situation.
• CEO Hack: Book: Why We Sleep – guard your sleep, sleep makes you powerful. Health trumps wealth – the reason you’re able to do what you do is because you’re healthy.
• CEO Nugget: Fail often, fail fast, fail cheap, and having a failure does not make you a failure. Jim attributes his success that he failed more than many other people. Don’t fear failure.
• CEO Defined: Being everything. Servant leadership. The CEO’s job is to help everyone succeed, help people get what they want and so you get what you want.

Website: www.danby.com

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Transcription

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00:19 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEO's without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is to I AM CEO podcast.

00:47 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jim Estill of Danby Appliances. Jim, it's great to have you on the show.

00:56 – Jim Estill

Thanks for having me.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, super excited to have you on. And before we jump to the interview, I want to read a little more about Jim so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Jim is the CEO of Dan B. Appliances, which is a niche manufacturer of specialty appliances, distributing over 2 million appliances per year. Jim is a Canadian technology entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist.

He started his first computer distribution business from the trunk of his car while in a university and grew the business to $2 billion in sales. Jim has invested in, mentored, and advised over 150 technology companies, including BlackBerry, and he joined their board before they went public and served for 13 years. Jim, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:39. – Jim Estill

You bet I am.

01:40 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's make it happen. Your bio got me all choked up, but I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story.

01:50 – Jim Estill

Well, I was in university engineering and I wanted to design circuit boards, but I needed a computer and got a better deal if I bought two of them. Back then, computers were expensive, so I bought two, sold one, and then someone else wanted one, so I bought another two. And then someone wanted a printer, then a disk drive, and next thing you know, I'm buying and selling computer hardware, software, and peripherals. And that's the business I built. The reason? It's from the trunk of my car.

At that time, living in a university residence, the safest place was the trunk of my car. And back then, cars were big, so cars were boats, right? Computers were expensive, so that's where I kept my inventory. And I grew that business to a couple of billion in sales. Then I retired and spent five years doing venture capital, and angel Capital. And I moved to New York just to get a. Because I always wanted to live in the States for a while and see how that was.

And then my dad got sick, so I moved back to Canada, and I was on the board of Danby Appliances. The CEO resigned. And I, I said, oh, I can go in and run that for a while. I started running. I said that's what I like to do, is I like to run. It's not a big company, but it's not a tiny company. A company that has some half. And then the ownership group said they wanted me to sell the company. I said, oh, wait a minute. That was my next decade gig. So how much do you want me to try to sell it for? And they told me, I said, okay, fine, I'll take it. So that's how I ended up owning Danby appliances. That's probably the gist of the story.

03:16 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. No, I appreciate you sharing that. I think, you know, all good things kind of come from either the trunk of your car or a garage or somewhere around there, somewhere in between. So I love how you got your start and then, of course, how you sound like you found, you know, where you wanted to be. And they kind of create everything with AMB appliances.

03:34 – Jim Estill

Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I actually see when you're young, you have this theory. You go start your business, you grow it to a big size, you sell it for a lot of money, and then you retire. And I retired and figured out maybe that's not that fun. And so I unretired. And that's why I'm doing Danby appliances because I. And it's actually been much better because I know my purpose more now. And it's not the urgency.

I don't know, like when I was starting my first business, it's like, oh, how do I make payroll on Thursday? And am I going to have to eat and craft dinner again? And it's like, how are you going to live right where now I don't actually worry about whether or not I'm gonna have to eat Kraft dinner tonight or not.

04:20 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's a beautiful place to be. And do you feel like the time away or the time in between, maybe a better way to say it was? What kind of led you to, like, that realization or maybe that understanding of your purpose?

04:31 – Jim Estill

Definitely. Definitely. During that time, I actually don't do anything I don't want to do. Now, of course, that's not true. I still file taxes and do some stuff, but at the end of the day, I am responsible for what I want. And I only take meetings for that. I want to take. I only do what I want to do. And it's been very liberating for me. I say this to everybody.

When I have my team with me, I am in a meeting and I say, well, okay, so you're going to do this and work with the team? Because I don't do anything. They do everything. And that's what you find in a mid-sized company like Danby. I can take my time and do stuff like this. It is where I get my most leverage in doing those things that I'm uniquely capable of doing. And I don't get much leverage on doing things that other people can probably do better than I can.

05:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. But I think that takes a lot of, I always say a lot of times, especially from a leadership standpoint, you have to be on the balance beam where you have the ego to believe that you can create something, create the impact, and like you said, making the 1% growth of a billion dollar company and what that looks like, but also the ego to understand that there are a people that do better things better than I do or in certain places. And I think that takes that balance beam act to kind of execute well.

05:44 – Jim Estill

You're absolutely right. That's exactly what the.

05:46 – Gresham Harkless

So I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear a little bit more about Dan B. Appliances. Could you take us through what you all do there, how you make that impact, and how you're serving the clients you work with?

05:55 – Jim Estill

Sure. So we sell our products through all of the retailers, like Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Target, you name it. Plus a bunch of independent, smaller appliance stores. And we sell online through Amazon, homedepot.com, comma, Wayfair, and all of the others. So we're a consumer product, and our products mostly focus on things with compressors. So that would be refrigerators, freezers, and wine coolers. We do sell other appliances that we don't make. Ranges, microwaves, laundry. We sell really a complete thing.

And then because we do things with compressors, we do dehumidifiers and air conditioners, which sound. Why would you do an air conditioner like a window air conditioner? Because it's got a compressor. People don't know this, but it's the same compressor you'll use in a bar fridge. And our niche tends to be smaller, large appliances. So we are perfect for a New York apartment. We're perfect for the. The refrigerator in your garage or in your basement. We're leaders in second appliances. We don't tend to be. We aren't, we don't do great big, huge side-by-sides that you can climb into. That's not what we do.

07:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. And do you feel like a lot of that success and maybe even that secret sauce of kind of niching down within the organization has led you to kind of find your own lane, for lack of a better term?

07:21 – Jim Estill

Well, yeah, I mean, the. I've always believed in trying to find a niche because if you find a niche, then there's less competition around that niche and you get really good at it. So you've interviewed 100 CEO's. Well, you get good at interviewing CEOs, where someone else interviews a CEO and then a vice president and then someone else, and they don't get their questions. They don't get how to do it. So I'm a big believer in niche, and we are lucky. Actually, one of my beliefs of the secret to happiness is gratitude.

And I'm very grateful that we are in the right niche. I'd love to say that we planned it, but we didn't totally plan it. And the reason we're in the right niche, everyone's going to smaller spaces and everybody's like, the condos that are being built today are 300 square feet less than the ones that were built ten years ago. And at the same time, the pandemic has meant that everyone wants more refrigeration and freezers. So everyone wants to have a freezer. They don't want to go to the grocery store. They want to, you know, they're eating more at home and they have to put their leftovers in the fridge. So the recession or the pandemic has actually been good for our business.

08:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. And when you really think about it, just like, that's why I always hear those stories of whenever less than ideal things happen, everything's kind of quote-unquote doom and gloom. But in reality, there are a lot of times, some opportunities, because of habits and. And shifts happen with people. And as you mentioned, people not going out as much or maybe getting things delivered that they need to have a refrigerator or in a certain place. So all those things seem to have fed well into the company that you have.

08:59 – Jim Estill

We thrive on changes, and right now we're going into a post-pandemic economy, and the post-pandemic economy won't be identical to a pandemic, won't be identical to the pre-pandemic. So as an entrepreneur, there are ways that we can capitalize on it and make money, likely better than the other bigger companies because the big companies, they take. And I know that. Cause I'm writing, you know, a medium company, you can skate circles around me because we're medium-sized, and I can skate circles around the $30 billion company because we're smaller. And of course, I'm an entrepreneur. We get entrepreneurial.

09:32 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And do you feel like I was gonna ask you for what I call your secret sauces, the thing you feel kinda sets your part and makes you unique? Do you think it's that ability to be entrepreneurial, to think strategically, to understand it sounds like all of the knowledge and information that you have?

09:47 – Jim Estill

Yes. I think actually being a niche player really helps because we get good at making bar fridges, and half-size mini-fridges. We put all our focus into R and D and packaging and being perfect in that. And the competitors do that, but then they make most of their money on big, big fridges. So they're trying to get everybody into the big fridges. How much time do you spend on a fridge that costs $200? That is definitely part of the secret sauce. The entrepreneurial nature.

Yes. That really has helped our company. When the pandemic started, we actually assembled 10,000 ventilators. And of course, we're not a medical company. Why would we do that? Well, when it started, I thought, oh, my God, we're not going to be able to sell anything, and how do we keep people employed? So we did that. That, of course, is on the fringe of being too entrepreneurial, but it's also part of our saving the world and doing the right thing. And at the time, we needed ventilators to help people that needed them, right?

10:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I think you hear a lot of times the businesses and the organizations that last long, a lot of times they're doing the right thing.

10:57 – Jim Estill

People are inspired to work for companies to do the right thing more than companies that want to make an extra 10,000 freezers.

11:04 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. I love that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO Hackley. So this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:16 – Jim Estill

Well, the latest book that I love is Why We Sleep. And that it goes against my earlier self. I wrote a book years and years ago, and one of the things I said I'm embarrassed to say it's about time management. One of the things I more or less said is sleep is for wimps. But I will say as I get older, I have come to learn true wisdom is to guard your sleep. Sleep makes you more powerful. And that ties to another thing that I always say, and that is health trumps wealth.

The reason you're able to do what you do is because you're healthy and you've only got one body, so you look after it. And that is, it really is more important than any amount of wealth. And I know wealthy people who would give all their money to have their health back. So for all your listeners, pay attention to your health. And I don't have to tell you how to do that. Everyone knows how to do it. We just don't do it as well as we can. Of course.

12:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you sharing that, especially on the evolution. It sounds like you've gone through as well, too, because I think that's, I don't know, I don't put words in your mouth. I feel like that's part of being entrepreneurial, which is understanding that things change as you get more data, information knowledge, and even lived experience.

A lot of times, our habits, and our hacks are things that we lean on change and they evolve. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO. Nuggethe. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self, I believe in failure.

12:43 – Jim Estill

Fail often, fail fast, fail cheaply. And having a failure does not make you a failure. I attribute much of my success to the fact that I have failed more than many other people. And failure is not trying. Failure is not. If you try something and it doesn't work, then just shake it off, learn, and drive on. But don't fear. Failure doesn't mean you try to do things wildly but just don't overthink it and have a few failures. That's the way it is.

13:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I want to, you know, kind of zero in on two things that you said. You said fail cheaply, and then you said, you know, I think you said fail often or you failed more than.

13:20 – Jim Estill

Other people often fail fast, fail cheaply. Yeah, exactly.

13:23 – Gresham Harkless

There you go. And I think so many times we forget about that. A lot of people that are, quote-unquote success and however we define that and whatever that looks like are the people that go over and over again and they get such an opportunity to learn from those experiences that every time they do the next thing, and the next thing, the next thing, they're doing it with so much more knowledge and information.

It also sets them up for success, because while somebody might try three times, this person has tried 30 times 40 times, or 50 times, and they've increased their likelihood of being successful just by trying more times. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEO's on the show. So, Jim, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:02 – Jim Estill

Being a CEO means being everything. I'm a big believer in servant leadership. My job is to help my team succeed, and the CEO's job is to help everyone else succeed. Help enough people get what they want, you'll get what you want. So it's not what some people think. Some people think, oh, you're CEO. You run the whole show. You're the king of the castle. You're actually at the bottom. You have to help everything else to make the whole system work.

14:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I love that, you know that phrase, you know, the servant leadership in that perspective as well, too, because I think so many times I would say the better the leader you are, the more of the servant you end up being, and the more that you realize that it's not just you. You end up, you know, having a great impact in so many different ways. So you become a servant, it becomes an incredible responsibility, and it's something that you lean into and you also, you know, pay attention to every decision that you're making.

14:56 – Jim Estill

Absolutely. I'm a big believer in servant leadership. It's the only way to lead, in my opinion.

15:03 – Gresham Harkless

I agree. I echo that as well, too. So, Jim, truly appreciate that definition. Of course. Appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best they can get a hold of you. But about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

15:19 – Jim Estill

Well, of course, everyone needs to go and buy lots of Danby appliances. That goes without saying. And you can reach me on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn. And if you have Google, then you can Google and get my contacts. So don't worry about that. But I will leave you with the secret to happiness. The secret to happiness is being grateful for what you have, not ungrateful for what you've lost or ungrateful for what other people have.

And I learned that from a project we did where we brought in several hundred refugees, and we're continuing to sponsor Afghan refugees to come to Canada. And if you look at it, be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for where you're born, grateful for where you live. Any problems I have, they're first-world problems. I'm not going to have to sleep under a bridge tonight. That's not so be grateful.

16:14 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Jim. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well to help you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:20 – Jim Estill

You too. Thank you.

16:23 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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