- 45 minutes ago
Bryan Reisberg started carrying his corgi Max around in a backpack, because of course he did. The internet, predictably, lost its mind. Brand deals followed. Then a backpack line. Now supplements. In this episode, he talks about how he launched her career and stays relevant in a competitive space.
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00:00You know, I was passionate. I knew I was creative. I loved, I think, from like high school,
00:04like making people laugh. And then you kind of figure out what your passion is. Are you
00:08really up for it? If you can outlast the person next to you, you'll find success. It might not
00:12be tomorrow. It might not be next week, but you will find success at some point. You just have
00:15to really want to stick with it. Hey, everyone. Welcome to How Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova,
00:25writer and editor at entrepreneur.com. Today's guest is the human half of one of the most
00:30successful doggy influencer teams to ever wag its tail on social media. Brian Reesberg and Maxine
00:38the Corgi have garnered millions of followers on social media and built a massive online business
00:45together called Little Chunk. So let's find out how they became top dogs. And I promise that will be
00:53the last awful dog pun, I promise, but I might break that promise. Anyway, welcome, Brian.
00:58Thanks, Dan. Thanks for having me.
01:00Well, thank you. I love your posts, and I'm sure people who are fans of yours go crazy for it.
01:10We
01:10see it. But for people who are unfamiliar, tell us a little bit about Little Chunk, the Instagram page,
01:18how it all came to be. Oh, boy. If people aren't familiar with it, it's a real wild story.
01:25You know, I put my dog on Instagram in 2015. This was before influencers were mainstream and well
01:32before the creator economy. I was working in film and advertising at a movie at South by Southwest.
01:38I was a creative director. We lived in New York City. Wife and I got a puppy right after we
01:42got married
01:43and didn't want to put the dog in daycare. Couldn't afford daycare. I was just in love with
01:47her. And I would bring her to work with me every day. And at the time, the MTA in New
01:52York City had
01:53ruled that dogs had to be in carriers to ride the subway. So I tried every bag that existed. And
01:57to
01:58make a real long story short, over the next six years, we built up our platform to about 7 million
02:02followers. And I started carrying her in a backpack that like this, you know, it was a very poorly
02:09designed. I don't want to use too many words. It was a piece of shit. That's the best way to
02:15describe it. It was awful. It was poorly designed. The materials were terrible. She fell out of it.
02:20I hated it. But people would go nuts because I forged this like deep bond with my dog.
02:26And right before the pandemic, me and my co-founder Scott Dunn, we decided like, listen,
02:31I think we can do this a lot better. Because nobody had carried their dog in a backpack more than
02:35me.
02:36And we had a really high bar for what we wanted to do. We just wanted to give back to
02:40this community
02:40that had obviously given us given me so much by showing their support. So we spent two years.
02:46And this is it took a long time because we don't come from a product design background. I went to
02:52film school. You know what I mean? Like, we knew nothing about what we were doing. So we designed a
02:58dog backpack. We knew what it needed to look and feel like. And we launched it on my dog's sixth
03:05birthday, which was December 15th, 2021. Sold out in four minutes. And it continues to sell just
03:11magnificently well rated best dog backpack by Wired and good housekeeping and men's health.
03:16So that's all kind of been off of our off of social media, which is wild.
03:21You know, I ask people this a lot and I'm curious to get your answer. You know, a lot of
03:26us have an
03:27idea. We're walking down the street. Oh, someone should do this. Oh, someone should do that.
03:30But you actually did it. And then you said in your words, this is a piece of shit. So I'm
03:35going to
03:36make it better and better and better. What do you think it was that spurred you on to actually do
03:42the thing, do the idea and not just say someone else should do it? Nobody else was doing it. It's
03:47not like I had the thought and I was like, I'm going to go do this now. I was just
03:52waiting around
03:52for a while. And then it just kind of got to the point where I'm just sick of I'm sick
03:56of putting up
03:57with this. And I and I knew that like, really, literally 1000s of people not not 10s, not 100s
04:031000s of people wanted something better. And so it was really just wanting to do everything and
04:11anything for my dog that was like the driving force. Like, I had no idea we would start a
04:16company. I had no idea I would my life, which I didn't plan for any of that money was not
04:21a thing
04:22that I really it was impact. It was like, I just need to solve a problem. And I need to
04:26solve a
04:27problem for me. It just so happened that it was a problem for a lot more people. And it turned
04:33out
04:33that, you know, the pandemic for being as awful as it was escalated a lot of things across the globe,
04:42one of which was this idea that we're treating our pets like children that wasn't so that wasn't as
04:49prevalent at the time. So I think like the world, the world just kind of caught up with opinions that
04:57I had about how I want to take care of my pet. Now, obviously, pet health is a booming industry,
05:01and everybody treats their their pets like kids. But it's it really just started from love.
05:06You know, you've expanded from from backpacks into into science and to, you know, joint nutrients and
05:15supplements. Yeah, you talk about that evolution and when that sort of happened and how you went
05:22about it. Yeah. So starting the company was, I mean, it was really wild. We really didn't know
05:27what we were doing in terms of like how to start a business, how to run a business, economics, all
05:32of
05:32it. I spent most of the pandemic listening to my wife who ran like end to end supply chain for
05:39a company
05:39called care of and just absorbed everything that she was talking about. And it just became really
05:46fascinating to me, just like the nuances and the detail of like solving these logistical problems and
05:52to drive impact in a category. And so it was like, I mean, by the way, the end of that
06:00story is she's
06:01our CEO now. So she she she runs things. You are dealing her secrets and then no, no, no. Yeah.
06:10Okay. But, you know, we decided that, like, okay, if this is going to be a thing, I firmly believe
06:15anything worth doing is worth overdoing. So that's what we did. We really went headfirst and thought,
06:19like, okay, if we're going to do this, let's try and do this the right way and really drive impact
06:25for
06:26the people that follow us and just follow our North Star of just having integrity and building
06:30quality products and and solving problems for people. And most importantly, that starts with
06:37me as like the figurehead of the company is like, what problems do I need solving? So Maxine got
06:42diagnosed with arthritis 2019. And it was a really scary time. I had no idea what that meant. What,
06:51you know, how long does she have to live? How can I take better care of her? And this was
06:55my
06:55full time job. And again, we did the same thing that we do the backpack. Great. We have all the
07:00information, we can gather all the people, we can brand this better. We can formulate this better.
07:05And not only that is we have an opportunity to give really needed information to pet parents. Because
07:11if I'm terrified going through this experience, as somebody who had the the availability, the capacity
07:16and the resources to research it, I, I know firsthand, other people are scared shitless when you get a
07:22diagnosis of any kind of joint discomfort, or you see your dog limping. And we launched it last month,
07:27and it just went, again, gangbusters, which was really great. People are really loving it. They're
07:31seeing a lot of improvements with their pets. And most of all, it's what we've gotten back from
07:38people is that they have some kind of peace of mind that you know, when they have a question,
07:41you don't hit up a customer support for some faceless company, you're coming to me and I can share
07:47my experience, I can tell you what these supplements are going to do. Most importantly,
07:50I can tell you what it's not going to do. And give people like a really concrete understanding
07:55of nutraceuticals in a way that I have never heard before from another brand. So it's not it's not a
08:02pivot. We're still focused on like the fun stuff like the backpacks, leashes. And, you know, we've got
08:07a lot of hard goods stuff coming out. That's that's innovating in their own respective categories. But
08:11really, I think like the pet health and wellness space is like a lot of bad actors there. And I
08:18just
08:18want to be there for pet parents to give them some kind of assurance that there's there's somebody
08:23working for you. You know, you've you've mentioned social media a couple of times along your journey
08:29and how it's helped sell products and helped you get indoors. And you're really good at it. And I
08:36wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you have been able to seamlessly integrate your
08:43products into stuff that's genuinely entertaining, genuinely heartfelt. I mean, some of your videos
08:50will make you cry seeing these dogs. Well, tell you tell the people what where the idea came from to
08:56take dogs from shelters out for the best day of their life and backpack. It's it's really great.
09:03It changed my life. Maxine was on crate rest last year because of her arthritis. We're
09:10she had a small arthroscopic surgery when you have really bad arthritis.
09:15The bone fragments will splinter off in the elbow. And that was causing her a lot of pain. So we
09:18had
09:18to have a surgery to remove those bone fragments. And she was on a lot of crate rest. And so
09:25it's kind of like, well, we still need to make content. And how do we keep telling that story? And
09:31how
09:31can I involve myself in things that are going to resonate with my audience?
09:38So it really just started off as a way to like, again, give back. And it was a recommendation from
09:42one of my best friends, who's another influencer is like, Oh, you should go take adoptable dogs out
09:45for a ride. I was like, of course, you know, fantastic. So I went to the best friends animal
09:52society, which I've known is for a long time is the largest no kill animal welfare organization in the
09:58country, walked in the door said, here's what I want to do. And they just kind of looked at me
10:03with
10:04like a weird eye, like, Alright, sure, you can load up one of our dogs in a bag. And the
10:09dog, his name
10:10was Axel got in the backpack, loved it, I made a video and the goal was to just do something.
10:15It's
10:15really hard. You know, at least for me, just because I ruminate over every creative decision.
10:22And so I didn't want to have a video that had a lot of bells and whistles and music and
10:25all this other
10:26stuff. So I was like, Alright, we're just gonna go out, we're gonna have fun, I'm gonna do whatever I
10:29want. And I'm just gonna cut the clips together, you know, with no, nothing, no judge, put it online.
10:38And it, it just went nuts, millions of views, the dog got adopted within 48 hours and like tons of
10:44applications. And I just kept doing it every week. And staying true to a formula with the whole goal of
10:53like, how quickly can we get attention to the shelter to get these dogs adopted.
10:57And to date, we've gotten out of like 24 dogs, like 23 dogs adopted really fast. It's raised
11:05adoptions, like they're getting, you know, they're seeing hundreds more adoptions versus last year.
11:11And I mean, I think it's like the most viral thing I've ever done. With zero intention of like,
11:18make it like all I wanted to do is like, make some good content, get some dogs adopted.
11:22But it just seems like everything I do, if you're leading with love, people will catch up to it.
11:29So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that, the schedule and the content creation, because I
11:34think I have a dog, people have dogs. And you hear about people, you know, like yourself, that are
11:43creating these these brands. And we're like, Oh, I could do my dog's cute, too. I could do that.
11:48And you make like three videos. And then you're just like, Oh, forget it. This is like, this is a
11:53lot more work than I thought it was going to be. So how do you manage that? And what's your
11:57kind of
11:58content schedule?
12:00I don't manage it. And I don't have a schedule.
12:02There you go.
12:03It's, it's, uh, listen, I think there's a lot worse jobs. But, uh, you know, it's very true
12:09with the old saying, like, there's, there, there's no better way to kill a hobby than turning it into
12:13a job. Um, so, I mean, yeah, it's, uh, I think, like anything you're really passionate about, you
12:20just want to do it all the time. And you care a lot. Uh, and I, I, I like everybody
12:25I work with,
12:26we hold ourselves to a really high standard. And that means taking like, you built this audience,
12:32uh, and you have to respect it. So you have to give them what they're asking for, but also like
12:37you want to create a fulfilling career. That's, that's kind of like why we get into this, but,
12:43um, I don't know. Yeah. It's listen, it's a hard job. If you love what you do, it's always,
12:47it's always going to be difficult. It's time consuming. Um, you know, I, I've talked like my
12:52family members have said that to me like, Oh, how much money do you think I make with my dog?
12:55I was
12:55like, try it. I I'm not here to, I, for so many people, I don't, I don't have good advice.
13:02Cause
13:02I never got it. I didn't get into this when this was such a booming lucrative category. I got into
13:06it cause I love my dog. Uh, I love making things. You got to love making things on a good
13:12day,
13:12on a bad day. Uh, I mean, you have to like, you have to bleed for it. Yeah. You know,
13:17like if you're
13:18not up for it, like if I'm not up for it, I'm not going to the gym. So I'm not
13:21going to go be a
13:22fitness influencer cause I just don't have it, but like I'm nonstop with, with the dog and, and,
13:29and like so many people I meet, I just, I'm dying to help them rescue a dog, take better care
13:36of
13:36their pets, uh, for, you know, so I think with anything that you're interested in, it just takes
13:41a long time. Yeah. And I think, I think that's such a great message to anyone listening, which is like,
13:46you know, sometimes they get questions about like, how do I know what my passion is? How do I find
13:50my
13:50passion? It seems like it's something you have, like you didn't have to find your passion for
13:57dogs, right? That you, that, that passion found you. Yeah. Fail fast. Um, and you know, there was
14:04something a while ago that where there's some, you know, you don't need to read an essay on it,
14:08but it was basically just about the idea of like, learn to give up. It's okay to give up. Um,
14:15but like, I, I don't know. I think it's just like the at-bats, um, in terms of finding it,
14:20like, you know, I was passionate. I knew I was creative. Uh, I loved, I think from like high
14:25school, like making people laugh. So it kind of fell into filmmaking. Like I didn't, I didn't grow
14:30up like living in the movie theater. I, this is something that I liked. And then you kind of figure
14:37out what your passion is when it gets difficult. Are you really up for it? Um, cause I think as
14:42with
14:43any of these things, it's, it's, if you can outlast the person next to you, you'll find success.
14:46It might not be tomorrow. It might not be next week, but you will find success at some point.
14:50You just have to really want to stick with it. Uh, so I think this more than anything is something
14:55that like, yeah, I'm, I'm down for the fight. Like you can knock me down and I'll be keep coming
15:00back over and over and over and over. Uh, I've heard you talk about some, uh, feedback that you've
15:06gotten from people who have bought your products that really moved you. Uh, is there any that you want
15:12to share any, any, uh, new ones that you've heard from that really made you think like,
15:18okay, I'm doing the right thing here. We get reviews every day that like truly stopped me in
15:23my tracks in terms of people who are just so gobsmacked that, um, you know, my dog is acting
15:27like a puppy again. She wants to go on walks because she's taking the supplements and like,
15:31that is, it's wonderful, but I'll never forget the first one we got from somebody who got our
15:36backpack a long time ago. Um, I got this DM from a woman. She was out West. Um, and it
15:43wasn't Red
15:43Rocks, but it was like, there was some big hike out in Utah. It was called like Valley of the
15:47Gods
15:47or something. Um, and she would go hiking with her dog a lot and her dog was getting older. Her
15:53dog
15:53was 15. And she sent me a message saying that, uh, it's very close. No matter how many times I,
16:00I tell this story kills me. Um, like it's, it's almost time. Um, and she told me she was planning
16:08to go on one more hike and that she was going to bring a photographer and the backpack. And I
16:15didn't
16:15see this message until she sent a few messages days later, but then, uh, I saw what happened.
16:20She sent me pictures from the hike, like our whole family dog in the backpack hiking. And it looked like
16:28a blast. And she sent a message saying like a few days after that, her dog passed away. And she
16:31was
16:31so grateful that she got to have those experiences, uh, which he wouldn't have otherwise had without
16:37the backpack. So that one, that one I'll take, take with me to my grave. That one was, was special
16:43because it, you know, it's, I think it's one thing. Uh, I always thought like the best feeling
16:47was like to get a laugh out of somebody. Right. Cause that's, that's like what got me started
16:51making stuff. It was always cool to get that reaction. And, but like, to be able to actually help
16:55people do what they love or spend more time with the family members that they love is,
17:02I mean, just a wildly different feeling. Yeah. Wow. What a beautiful story. That's amazing.
17:07Yeah. It was special. Um, I hate to segue into business talk, but, uh, you've, you've had some
17:16pretty big, uh, partnerships, uh, along the way. Uh, and I wonder if you could talk about that first big
17:24partnership that kind of like change things for you. Oh, the MTA one would be perfect. Um,
17:30that was like one of my favorite ones. So the MTA is just a really good example of just leveraging
17:34an
17:34audience and a platform, uh, and getting just a massive amount of marketing without spending a
17:40dollar. So this was 20 at the end of 2021. And I had started conversations with the MTA because they
17:46knew about us. Uh, and I knew their ridership. I mean, anybody knew their ridership was down in the
17:53pandemic. They were struggling as was everybody. Um, so we launched the bag and I knew January is
17:59pet travel safety month. So before launch, I'd approached the MTA. I said, here's what we're
18:05doing. Here's what we're launching. Um, and then here's my idea. Uh, and I pitched a barter to them
18:11when wasn't happening a lot. Uh, I said that if you put us up in your digital screens across all
18:19of
18:19your stations, uh, we will make a month's worth of content to fill your social platforms, uh,
18:27educating riders on how they might be able to ride the train with their pet. Um, positioning
18:32the backpack is, is the way to do it. Um, but we also like go to places maybe on your
18:38different
18:39routes that people could travel to that, that maybe they don't know about. Uh, so we did like
18:43long Island, uh, we did some like really fun monuments. Um, and we made these like really
18:48gorgeous visual assets that when they were triptychs that just kind of went across their,
18:52their spaces. So for all of January, we got, I would say probably like a half a million dollar
18:59to a $750,000 media buy with the MTA that just positioned our backpack, had a QR code to buy
19:05it.
19:05Um, it was for their away program, which I think has since been sunset. Uh, it was advertised
19:11their, their, their away program was like saying, use our train to go to these fun places. Um, so
19:16yeah, that was the MTA partnership. So we just made a lot of content for them, um, for their channels
19:21and, uh, it performed really well. We sold some bags. And I think most importantly, uh, it was very
19:27important to me right out of the gate in 2021 to just come out swinging, um, and to establish
19:36ourselves, not just as a social brand, which is what we are, but to get some kind of credibility
19:41in an out of home way and to try and do something a little cooler and try and spend no
19:46money. And I
19:47think we were successful. We didn't spend a dime. Uh, everybody benefited from it. They grew up in
19:51followers. What I take from that is, you know, finding a partner who you will bring, uh, a genuine
19:59benefit too. It's not a one-sided do me this favor. It's like, we're both going to really benefit from
20:07coming together this way. Yeah. I wouldn't have been able to go into those conversations as
20:12confidently as, as I did basically saying like, listen, we have a lot of things that you need.
20:17You have something we need. Uh, otherwise I can't ask somebody for, for something unless there's
20:23some kind of benefit. That's why I think we do a lot of work with, um, with like non-endemic
20:27pet brands
20:29because pets and especially pets and backpacks, it's such a cheat code. So it's kind of like,
20:35Hey, Delta or Hey, Duracell, like we can have a lot of fun. Surprise your audience. I like,
20:41I would do this in advertising all the time. Like, how can we just zag? Everybody's zigging.
20:45Like, let's get weird. Let's get fun. Let's surprise people. Cause I think everybody is
20:48just so an, a nerd to, is that the word I'm looking for? Uh, like everybody's numb to just,
20:55yeah, this constant barrage of shit you're seeing on the internet. So it's like, how can we bring,
21:01um, some levity and some social firepower to some of these other brands who, uh, might not be
21:07thinking so much outside of the box. Um, so as I mentioned, I have a dog and this is probably
21:14the only podcast that it would have been fine if he decided to bark in the middle of, but hasn't.
21:20Um, but, uh, what kind of dog and what's his name? So his name is Clark. And, um, if you
21:27can hold on
21:28for one second, I'd love you to meet him and give me your, your assessment of his social media
21:35capabilities. Yeah. You want me to judge him to, I want you to judge him. And, uh, my non-existent,
21:43uh, assistant isn't here today. So I'm just going to go run and get him. I'll be right back.
21:48Clark. Let's do it. Here he is. Oh my God. Hey Clark. Clark. Can you say hi? Oh my gosh.
21:56So I've been told that we're negative, uh, of each other in terms of the eyebrows and the hair color.
22:03Oh my God. You, by not putting this dog on social media, you're leaving millions of dollars on the
22:07table. Let me tell you millions. You hear that Clark? You're going to start earning for us.
22:13Could have been a star. How old is Clark? Clark is five. Oh, still young. He's got time.
22:19He's still got time. All right. Does he need to lose any weight or you think he's, uh,
22:24he's beautiful as I wouldn't change a thing. Oh my gosh. He's a baby. You guys really do look alike.
22:32We have similar, uh, feeding habits. Oh my gosh.
22:37Wow. That's going to go straight to his head. Um, well, uh, this has been, uh, a great chat,
22:45but we need to get to the speed round. Okay. You have a couple more minutes. All right. So,
22:51uh, tell me please, what is a habit that you are happy to have and one you wish that you
22:58could ditch?
22:59Uh, persistence. I don't get uncomfortable if people don't respond to me on email. I like that
23:05one. Uh, one I would love to do away with is talking over people as they finish what they're
23:10saying. Would love to stop doing that. Well, you've done quite well today. So, uh, you're,
23:17you're, you're on your way. Yeah. Very actively. It's, it's like once I, I've done it before in very
23:23public settings where if I, if I understand the point you're about to make or the question you're about
23:27to ask, I step on the last few words and boy, I hear it every time. And I, I hate
23:32it. And it's
23:32so hard to stop. It's so rude. And then, uh, finally, uh, Snoopy Scooby-Doo or lady from lady
23:41in the tramp Snoopy. Oh, right out of the gate. Yeah. The past one. Yeah. It's actually the same
23:48way. Charlie Brown met Snoopy is very pretty much how I met Maxine. There's a video the first time
23:54Charlie Brown met Maxine or Charlie met Snoopy where, uh, she peeks her head out from the side
23:59of like a cinder block and he sees her. And the first thing I didn't know this at the time,
24:03um, when we got Maxine from, we got her from a breeder in New Jersey. The first picture I ever
24:08took of her, there were cinder blocks that the little puppies would go in and out of and
24:12just peeking her head up the side of a cinder block. Well, that's amazing. And, and, and Maxine
24:19is, is nicer to you than Snoopy is to Charlie Brown, right? No. Are you kidding me?
24:28Famous city dog. He is a terror to me. Excellent. Excellent. So where, where can people, uh, keep
24:37up with, uh, the adventures, uh, uh, with little chonk and otherwise, what's the best place?
24:43Uh, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, tick tock, mad max underscore fluffy road, uh, our little
24:52chonk.com and our handle for a little chunk is at Hey little chunk, but mostly it's mad
24:57max underscore fluffy road. Excellent. I love that. That's a great name. Excellent. All right,
25:03man. Thanks so much. I appreciate your time. Yeah. Thanks Dan. This was great.
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