706: Jay Hated His Plumbing Job - Now He Sells Beach Pools and did $50K in a Month

Nathan Chan (0:01)

Hey Foundr fam, before we jump in, I wanna take a quick moment to talk about our sponsor Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to Foundr students and members of our platform for a while now because it just works. So whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling it to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get results. And did you know, on average, Omnisend customers make $79 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment. And if you're already on another platform, here's the thing. In just five days, you could actually be paying 35% less without doing an absolute thing. Omnisend will move every flow across, list and template. You just show up when it's done. And finally, because you're part of the Foundr community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code Foundr50. Just head to omnisend.com/foundr and that's Foundr without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump in the show.

Welcome to Little Empires, brought to you by the team at Foundr. At Foundr, our mission is to support the next generation of Ecom founders. So while you may know us for interviewing some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, this series is a little different. Little Empires shines a spotlight on the builders inside our own Foundr community. The entrepreneurs who are in the trenches, taking action, learning and building their businesses in real time. These aren't overnight success stories. These are real journeys, real lessons and real founders creating their own little empires one step at a time. This podcast is proudly produced by the Foundr team to give our students a platform to share their experiences, wins, challenges, and honest realities of building a business from the ground up. Now, let's dive into today's episode.

Lea Finch (1:54)

All right, this is Lea Finch from the team at Foundr. I'm here with Jay Haddad.

He is the founder of Sunny Seekers. So dialing in from Newcastle in Australia, Jay, welcome to the podcast.

Jay Haddad (2:09)

Thanks Lea. I'm excited to be here, excited for this opportunity and to talk to you and whoever else is listening.

Lea Finch (2:16)

Excellent. You're ready to get sharing? We're going to get into the details here, I know you've got a lot to share.

Jay Haddad (2:21)

Let's do it.

Lea Finch (2:22)

All right. So I want to start from the very beginning, right? So before you even had the idea of Sunny Seekers, which you can tell us a bit more about, before e-commerce, what was your life like? What was your career and your background?

Jay Haddad (2:39)

Yeah, it was very exciting. I was walking in sewer trenches as a plumber.

I was swimming in sewer. It was very dirty, very fun. I'm actually a germaphobe, so it wasn't really that fun. I hated it, really. It was just a job.

I hated working for somebody else. I'm like being a slave to somebody else. It's not for everyone. It is for some people. But yeah, working ways of plumber, long hours, long afternoons, coming home late, early mornings. On the weekends, that's what I lived for, to hang out with my friends, my wife, and we were free diving. We were going to waterfalls, we were going to the beach surfing. I just loved being outdoors and being out in the sun, not behind a computer, not behind an office desk, which is ironic how business turns out. Yeah, I just loved being outside. We were a venture family or a couple at the time.

Lea Finch (3:37)

Yeah, and sounds like you like getting outdoors. And my very takeaway from that is that you were kind of living for the weekend, right? So you weren't really enjoying your line of work, what you were doing. You mentioned you hated working for someone else.

At what point did you have that penny drop moment when you were like, I need to do my own thing, I don't want to work for someone else?

Jay Haddad (3:58)

I've always had that in me. I became a dad, we had my first born in 2023

When we had her, I just didn't want to leave her. I wanted to keep on, just be present and have the freedom to be around. I have to go to my nine to five job and work 40 hours a week. And I'm like, I really need to start something, but I didn't know what, I had no idea.

Lea Finch (4:21)

How did the idea come about? First of all, tell us about the product, tell us who it's for and tell us how it came to life.