Building a Brighter Business: How Innovation Turned Everyday Outdoor String Lighting Into a Creative Movement with Matt & Lacey Roznovsky

0:02Matt Roznovsky:Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by HighLevel, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down how to build a brighter business. And to drop these eyeballs, I brought Matt and Lacey Roznovsky into EO Fire Studios. Matt and Lacey are co-founders of Lincoln Lights, creating innovative modular outdoor lighting systems that make professional quality installations simple, customizable, and accessible for anyone. And today we talk about finding the opportunity making innovation simple from idea to brand, building with your customers, and oh, so much more.

0:35Matt Roznovsky:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode. Go to Matt, Lacey, and our sponsors. Fire Nation, meet Hutworks, the number one boutique fitness franchise with 850 plus locations. They pioneered virtual workouts inside infrared saunas with recurring membership revenue, a low labor, high tech model, and a proven franchise system. Entrepreneurs gain a scalable business built for growth. Visit hutworks.net slash franchising to learn more. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place.

1:09Matt Roznovsky:And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Matt, Lacey, say what's up to Fire Nation. And Matt, we'll start with you about believing, about sharing something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:37Lacey Roznovsky:Yeah. How's it going, Fire Nation? John, thanks for having us. So excited to be here. The biggest misconception about success is that successful people somehow avoid failure. They don't. We're just not afraid of it, right? So I've learned that if your dreams don't scare you a little bit, they're probably not big enough. So every time you go and you try to disrupt an industry or build something that's never been done before, you're going to hear a lot more no's than yeses. And that's just part of the process. The people who win aren't necessarily the smartest or the most talented us, for an example.

2:14Lacey Roznovsky:They're just the ones who keep showing up. who've been told they're wrong. And after they failed and after everyone else has moved on to keep showing up, I believe success is built on discipline, faith, of course, and the courage to fail because every failure teaches you something that success never could.

2:33Matt Roznovsky:Value bombs dropped Fire Nation. As we talk about building a brighter business, how innovation turned everyday outdoor string lighting into what? A creative movement. Now, you heard from Matt. We'll hear from him again, of course. But now we're going to move on to Lacey. So Lacey, say what's up to Fire Nation and let's talk about finding the opportunity because I want to hear what inspired the creation of Lincoln Lights and the gap that you saw in the outdoor lighting market that others were just missing.

3:01Lacey Roznovsky:Sure. Thanks, John. And hey, Fire Nation. Good to be here. Yeah, Lincoln Lights was born from a simple frustration that I had myself. I was wrapping one of our trees in the front yard while decorating for Christmas, and it was a smaller tree, one that I could handle, but it had several branches. And I could see the vision in my head, but just simply could not make it happen with the string lighting that I had at the time. Because every time I would hit a branch, I still had several feet of lights. And how do you determine which way to go? So do you continue up the trunk or follow on the new branch?

3:36Lacey Roznovsky:And then what do you do? how do you connect a new line? And because the end of the line is now either at the top of the trunk or at the end of that branch. So do you see the problem I was facing? You know, and I know I wasn't, I'm not alone in this. I know everybody comes across this at one point or another. So myself, I would never cut or splice the lines. I would fear that I would either kill the line and must start over, which I definitely don't want to do, or I would shock myself at some point, maybe an irrational fear but so I continue to wrap and determine that I was not loving the look at that I was creating and I just knew at that moment there had to be a better way we could make this better and it seemed to be so clear and simple why could you not just pull out a bulb from any socket on the line and plug a new line in into that empty socket therefore every time you hit a new branch you you pull out a line right there and plug in a new line and wrap that branch while the main line continues up the trunk of the tree but this isn't just for trees the same technique works while lining roof lines with all the different peaks and valleys and lining windows and basically any structure any indoor application and now that you aren't tied to connecting end-to-end male to female the possibilities are completely in you know they're endless and we saw the gap in the market for a premium looking product that anyone could install themselves and our goal was to make extreme lighting accessible without sacrificing the aesthetics or the quality.

5:03Matt Roznovsky:I love this. And I often tell Fire Nation, like, listen, when you walk outside every day, look around. There's problems all over the place that need to be solved. Now, should you solve all those problems? Of course not. But every now and then you've got to come across when you're like, this is one I actually do want to solve. And I was kind of chuckling to myself too, because like two years ago, we put lights up around the roof of our house and I was like, so proud of it. It looks so good. but then like I remember Christmas came and went it was like February and they were still up there and I'm just like Kate I think we just keep them up until Christmas next year because it was such a pain in the butt to put them up and it was gonna be such a pain in the butt to put them down take them down and then of course I wanted to put them back up again and listen by July I had gotten enough comments from my neighbors that I was like dang it I gotta take these things down and it was just like a frustrating experience I was halfway there and I just got shamed into it But I mean, man.

5:55Lacey Roznovsky:John, you obviously are the man in your household because I can't even make it till January without getting yelled at to take lights down. And if it's freezing and there's ice on the roof, we don't care. Get them down. That's your job, Matt. Oh, man.

6:09Matt Roznovsky:Well, Matt, I want to stick with you because I want to talk about making innovation simple because your product actually makes installation and I'm sure de-installation, you know, taking things down dramatically easier. So why do you believe that simplifying the customer experience unlocks even more creativity for homeowners and businesses alike.

6:27Lacey Roznovsky:We feel that when you remove complexity to a situation, that people become more creative. So instead of worrying about hiring installers, spending an entire weekend, figuring out complicated wiring, homeowners and businesses can focus on designing beautiful lighting displays themselves. So we truly believe that great products shouldn't require specialized skills. They should really empower people to bring their own vision to life. For a long time, I, we, me and Lacey, sold medical devices to surgeons in the operating room, and I kind of correlate our lights to our lifestyle in the operating room.

7:04Lacey Roznovsky:You know, when you're walking up to a spine surgeon and you're trying to convince them to try a new technique or new procedure for the spine surgery that they're doing and that they've been doing for the last 20 years, it's very difficult to get someone to switch into a new way. But once you do build that trust and you gain that trust and you put a great new product in their hands, I mean, they're loyal to you forever. I think lights are the exact same way. This is the same thing we're doing with string lighting is we're presenting to the world a new way to do string lighting. You're not constrained with hooking lights end-to-end, like Lacey said, male-to-female.

7:41Lacey Roznovsky:you now have the ability to pull out any bulb anywhere in the line and insert a new line right there. So this leaves you with endless possibilities, John, and how lucky are we, me and Lacey, to be the ones to not only disrupt a market, but also a mindset, right? Of how lights are viewed, how a product is viewed.

8:00Matt Roznovsky:I love disrupting mindsets. I think that's one of the biggest innovations out there. Matt, let's stay with you because I want to hear your story about going from idea to actual brand because every great product, it just starts as what? An idea. So what would you say the biggest lessons that you learned turning Lincoln Lights into a scalable consumer brand?

8:22Lacey Roznovsky:So I think the number one lesson that we've learned is, John, you can't be scared to fail. I truly feel that if you aren't failing, then you aren't really trying. And we have tried a lot between the three of us. So I think one of the biggest lessons for us is learning that building a great product, it's really only the first step. You also have to build trust. You have to streamline manufacturing. You have to develop great customer support and then constantly refine and tune your system, right? Although I want nothing more than Lincoln Lights to scale extremely fast and blow up all over the world, scaling isn't always about growing fast.

9:00Lacey Roznovsky:It's really about growing in a way that maintains quality and delivers a great customer experience in our eyes.

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12:11Matt Roznovsky:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. All right, Lacey, we're back. You've been very patient, but you have a lot to share. And I want to start by talking about building with your customers. So how would you say customer feedback influenced your specific product development and has just driven continuous innovation?

12:36Lacey Roznovsky:Sure. So our customers have been one of our greatest sources of innovation, no doubt. We pay close attention to the installation processes and experiences, the feature requests, even the challenges customers are encountering, and even us, we're a customer ourselves. So many improvements to our products have come directly from listening to real-world feedback and experiences that we've had ourselves. So innovation isn't just about inventing something new, it's about continuously making the product better. And we took a lot of great feedback and advice from so many of the experts that we met at North America's largest Christmas trade show, Transworld, out of St.

13:11Lacey Roznovsky:Louis. We came away from that trade show feeling very validated in what we had created. We saw jaws dropping over something we thought ourselves was so simple and couldn't believe hadn't been created yet. People were blown away and extremely excited about the advancement in string lighting, and we had so many installers commenting that this new plug-and-play technology would allow them to pick up more projects and jobs simply by making their current design process quicker. So we're constantly listening to our customers and figuring out what it is that's maybe missing and trying to advance in that direction.

13:45Matt Roznovsky:So Lacey, I'm going to ask you for one of your favorite innovations that was inspired by one of your customers, by somebody who interacts with your brand and you as well, Matt. So I'm giving you a little heads up that I want one of yours too, but Lacey, you start.

13:59Lacey Roznovsky:The rubber gasket that goes inside because we're in Texas. We don't get big freezes. We maybe get one freeze a year. And when you have that freeze thaw that many of the northern areas face all the time, they worry about water getting into that. And that was probably the biggest one that we took away. And we have advanced and put that into our Gen 1.5 to make sure that we don't face any of those issues when we innovate into our new line. What about you, Matt? Yeah, we've taken a lot of customer feedback as far as doing different innovations. I mean, like Lacey said, we're working on Gen 1.5 and Gen 2 in the background.

14:42Lacey Roznovsky:One of my favorites is the little globe on the top. We had it kind of rounded and we made it flat because that appears to be, it comes across as a richer product. It looks more modern. And just a simple kind of tweak like that, I think really changed the dynamics of how our lights look.

15:02Matt Roznovsky:Matt, let's stay with you and talk about competing on value. Because listen, in a competitive market, which of course any market is that's worth being into, how do you balance the product quality with thoughtful design and affordability without compromising the entire customer experience?

15:19Lacey Roznovsky:You know, John, we never once compete solely on price, right? Nobody ever does. Instead, we really decide to focus on delivering exceptional value. and that comes through investing in strategic engineering, having attractive design, by still keeping the product affordable enough for the average homeowner who will be utilizing these. And it's a constant balancing act, honestly, but long-term customer satisfaction always drives our decisions as far as that goes.

15:49Matt Roznovsky:There's a great quote by Seth Godin, which is the problem with the race to the bottom is that you just might win. That's not a race, Fire Nation, that you want to win. You don't even want to be in that race, you know, to become the cheapest. Because there's always going to be somebody, Walmart, China, fill in the blank, who's going to come up with something crappier and cheaper than you can or want to. So don't even get in that race. Like, you be in the race that you need to be into. And Lacey, I want to move into reinventing the ordinary. Because what advice would you give entrepreneurs, our listeners, who want to take an everyday product and actually transform it through customer-focused innovation?

16:29Lacey Roznovsky:Yeah, so don't assume that a mature industry can't be disrupted. I mean, lighting, string lighting, for sure. There's been really no advancements in years, just maybe some of the looks of it. But some of the biggest opportunities come from improving products that people use every single day and start by understanding the customer's frustrations. Again, a lot of times you are the customer, So think about the frustrations you face and not always by just chasing the newest technology. And if you can make something simpler, more enjoyable and more accessible, you'll often create more value than by simply adding just more features.

17:07Lacey Roznovsky:So really look to disrupt a market where you can.

17:09Matt Roznovsky:Matt, how do you guys use the Christmas vacation Chevy Chase scene of him like plugging in the light? How do you guys use that in advertising? I mean, that's got to come in somewhere. You got to implement AI or something to make that happen. Cause that's such a recognizable scene for every single person. That's probably over the age of, I don't even know, let's say 20 or 30. So I guess the direct question I'm going to ask is, cause that's kind of a semi joke, even though it's probably a fantastic idea. Matt, what is your most effective advertising means right now of getting the word out?

17:42Lacey Roznovsky:So to go back to Christmas vacation, number one, that is my wife's favorite movie. And number two, we do a funny family Christmas card every year. And one year we redid that scene with our two kids. And if we build a friendship here, John, you can get on our Christmas card mailing list.

18:03Lacey Roznovsky:But I totally forgot the question.

18:06Matt Roznovsky:Your best advertising success so far. What has it been? I mean, has it been social media ads? Has it been, you know, what have you found success?

18:14Lacey Roznovsky:I think our best advertising, we're still morphing in that field. We're still trying to figure out where to go and what kind of resonates. Honestly, my main deal is I want to do things that are viral and funny and nobody else in the company will let me do it. So education pieces, honestly, John, are the most valuable. And let's think about it, right? No one has ever been able to string lights the way we do. We made these lights. We had them shipped to us, the first prototype, and we started hanging them on our house. and we realized, oh my gosh, I don't even know how to use these because your mind is geared to end to end.

18:51Lacey Roznovsky:And all of a sudden, if you can pull out bulbs in the middle, you're making sunbeams and doing all this crazy stuff, but that's not how your mind is geared. That's not how you grew up as dumb as that sounds. So the education piece of telling people, this is what you're capable of doing. Here's the opportunities, unlimited canvas, right? Blank canvas, that's the most valuable because once someone, just like that spine surgeon I was talking about, once they get that moment, you got them, right? And they understand it. So.

19:21Matt Roznovsky:Got them. Lacey, what's one lesson Fire Nation, our listeners should remember if they want to just turn a simple idea into a successful, scalable business?