Changing the world, one vend at a time
Check out this demonstration video on how healthy vending machines work:
As you can see, there are tons of features that set HUMAN machines apart from your standard vending machines. From credit card readers to energy-efficient LED lights, these healthy vending machines are truly state-of-the-art.
Recently, GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parsons sold his company for $2 billion. How did he get to be a billionaire?
GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parsons knows best
Check out Parson’s 16 Rules For Success:
1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone
2. Never give up
3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be
5. Focus on what you want to have happen
6. Take things a day at a time
7. Always be moving forward
8. Be quick to decide
9. Measure everything of significance
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate
11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing
12. Never let anybody push you around
13. Never expect life to be fair
14. Solve your own problems
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously
16. There’s always a reason to smile
Whether or not we envision a life of champagne wishes and caviar dreams, this is great advice for business and for living life.
Go out there an CRUSH IT!
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Let me give you a scenario. Imagine you have two groups of people working on a challenging task. You tell Group A that if they are the first to finish the task, they receive $25. You don’t tell anything to Group B. Who do you think will finish the task first?
If you said Group A, you are DEAD WRONG!
You’re probably thinking, “What? How is that possible? Giving someone a monetary incentive will surely increase their productivity.”
Businesses have used that kind of logic for centuries. Reward people with money and they will work harder, faster, and stronger. Science, however, knows better.
Watch this video to learn more about this dangerous discrepancy:
The surprising science of motivation suggests the complete opposite of what businesses do to motivate their employees. Monetary incentives only work when the task is clear-cut with an obvious solution. However, for complex tasks such as the classic “candle problem,” this strategy is a bust. More workers are doing more creative, conceptual, right-brain tasks. Solutions to these tasks are not clear.
Thus, the classic reward and punishment approach may cost you time AND money. In the 21st century, it simply does not work.
What we need to focus on is intrinsic motivation--motivation from within. This can be broken down into 3 main components:
These 3 components should be the building blocks of your business.
Autonomy is especially important because it allows people to pursue their creative thoughts and turn them into action. Google’s “20 Percent” philosophy is a great example. Google employees are required to spend 20% of their time developing new ideas. 50% of all new Google products are the product of 20 Percent time.
So, instead of using the old “reward and punishment” philosophy to spur motivation, look at the facts. Entice your employees with intrinsic motivation. Give them autonomy, increase their desire to master whatever they do, and reinforce their sense of purpose in their tasks.
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When you think of frozen foods from a vending machine, what products normally come to mind? You would probably guess ice cream--ice cream sandwiches, drumsticks, ice cream cookies, etc. Just one serving of one of these frozen treats may contain up to 430 calories and 19 grams of fat!
If that fact doesn’t make you shiver, I don’t know what will. But have no fear, HUMAN’s “Arctic HUMAN” machine is here!
Here are some features:
• Frozen Healthy Meals: Want a healthy frozen food meal but didn’t have time to buy any at the store? The “Arctic HUMAN” vends a wide variety of tasty and nutritious full frozen meals (in multiple shapes and sizes). This machine has you covered!
• The Fort Knox of Vending: “Ruggedized” design that is built to withstand the elements. Rain or shine, sleet or snow. We’re right up there with the US Post Office.
• Advanced Insulation: Keeps your products cold while reducing energy consumption, which is good for you and the environment!
• Vend-Sensor Technology: Strategically-placed infrared sensors virtually eliminate misvends.
• Self-Diagnosing System: Clears vending errors automatically. A smart machine with some heart-smart products.
• Increased Versatility: Uses conveyor belt dispensing technology, not Coils, which greatly increases versatility and capacity.
• Cash/Coin Validator: Can be upgraded to any form of cashless payment (Credit/Debit).
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With the advancement of technology, networking has become more and more important. The 21st century has already brought us a diverse array of social networking sites, from Facebook to LinkedIn. Even before the influx of these websites, people have been networking. After all, isn’t that the primary purpose of a business card?
Although networking has transformed into the digital realm, the basic premise is the same. The more people you have in your network, the better.
Now, that isn’t to say that a person with 1 million fans on Facebook is better off than the person with 100 fans. However, quantity is important. Simply put, good networking depends on the quality of the quantity.
Let me give you a lesson in economic sociology. When you network, there are two main types of people you network with: strong ties and weak ties. This is known as “structural embeddedness.”
The Strength of Weak Ties
Strong ties are people you know on a personal level. They share most of your interests, know most of the same people, and work for the same companies. Typical examples include friends, family, and close coworkers.
Weak ties are people you know at “an arms length.” They require less time and energy which produces an array of social acquaintances.
Most people focus on maintaining relationships with their strong ties. However, focusing on strong ties is the BIGGEST mistake you can make when it comes to fostering innovative ideas.
That’s right. Relying on strong ties only leads to conformity, which in turn inhibits innovation.
It’s time to break away from your comfort zone and realize the strength of weak ties. Weak ties are more important in spreading information and resources because they serve as bridges between disconnected social groups. Strong ties lead to less efficient resource transmission because a large number of people in the strong tie network also know each other. Although they can also build bridges among social groups, they tend to be redundant sources of information.
Weak ties are extremely indicative of innovation. Research has shown that entrepreneurs who engage in innovation are more likely to be “embedded” in their weak ties than in their strong ties (Reuf 2002).
This makes sense, since innovation requires that the innovator has access to information of novel ideas. I doubt most people get innovative ideas from their mother.
That being said, capacity for creative action depends on an entrepreneur’s ability to:
(1) Obtain unique information from their social networks
(2) Avoid pressures for conformity
(3) Sustain trust in developing novel--and potentially profitable--innovations
Our vending machine business is unlike 99% of other vending businesses. Why? Because we didn’t rely on our inner circle of vending operators to get ideas. The vending industry as we know it is stagnant. We refused to conform. Thanks to our weak ties, we created the first-ever, 100% healthy vending machines. We were able to avoid the dangerous trends of the vending industry, and we are growing more profitable every day because of it.
Take it from us--weak ties offer a plethora of ideas. Consider them your watering holes for innovation.
After all, they just may be your fountain of youth.
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Check out this video about networking and innovation. You’ll learn that the most successful innovators are those who network with each other.
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Meet Joe HUMAN, another new addition to the HUMAN family.
If you’re like us, you probably need at least a cup of coffee to get your day started. Now, you can wake up late knowing the best cup of Joe in town is just around the corner. The best part is, you don’t have to pay $5 to get it!
Here are some features:
Exceptional Taste: WAY better than your average cup of Joe! This machine offers some of the best coffee around.
Fresh Ground Whole Beans: Machine grinds whole coffee beans on-the-spot for every cup
Wide Drink Selection: Serves coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, mochas, espressos, & more. Talk about a coffee-lover’s dream!
High-Capacity Design: Machine serves over 300 cups of coffee before re-stocking, which means less trips to your machine. Gotta love efficiency…
Self-Cleaning Systems: Self cleaning mixing circuit, product delivery, and grinding assembly saves you time & effort!
Solid Construction: Coffee so good, people will be lining up to get a taste of it. But just in case they get a little too crazy with their coffee, this machine features a steel cabinet with rust-proof treatment, vandal-proof lock, and crow-bar resistant design.
So, wake up and smell the coffee. Literally.
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We are always interested in your comments and new ideas that we can discuss in our future Crush It Reports! Leave us a comment below to tell us what you think. Or, if you have a topic you would like us to explore, let us know!
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FAIL. Now that’s an ugly 4-letter word.
We’ve been conditioned our whole lives to do everything possible to avoid failure. From school to work to play, everything comes down to winning and losing. We learned to work hard to succeed, and if you don’t succeed, well, you aren’t trying hard enough. Of course, we have heard the “if you fail, just pick yourself up and try again” line, but how many of us really live by that advice?
Before you read any further, throw everything you learned in the past away.
We need to fail to succeed. It’s that simple. But here’s the catch--once you fail, you need to do it fast. And you need to do it cheap.
So what do we mean by “failing fast and cheap?” Well, in business for example, people normally create a product or service that is almost 100% complete and send it out into the market. They think they have everything figured out, know exactly what people want, and are confident it will be a smash hit.
Trust me, you don’t know anything about anything until you test it.
If you discover any fatal flaws in your product after you’ve released it to the market, it’s already too late to change it. By that time, you’ve already exhausted all of your resources and spent all of your money. When failure comes to your door, it doesn’t knock. Rather, it huffs, and it puffs, and it blows your house down.
The key here is to generate an idea that is 50% right, and then let your customers tell you what you did wrong. That way, you can learn from your mistakes, make any necessary changes, and hit the ground running with a new-and-improved, customer-researched product.
Extra nugget: Click here to see this interesting video about failure.
We are no strangers to failure. In fact, we made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. Here are 3 mistakes we made (and how we succeeded from them)
Mistake #1: We placed healthy products next to unhealthy products inside of vending machines.
The unhealthy foods & drinks just cannibalized the healthy ones due to their lower pricing & more recognizable brands. Nothing influenced or motivated the average customer to choose the healthier goods. Talk about money down the drain!
Lesson #1: We refuse to allow our healthy vending machines to be filled with ANY unhealthy products thus maximizing sales, profits, & positive dietary influence.
Mistake #2: We used the same “coil” vending machines as everyone else & added no attractive features
Bad idea! It’s one thing to sell junk food out of brown, inanimate machines that are clunky to use & unappealing to approach. But it’s an entirely different thing to use these same machines to sell premium healthy foods and beverages while also trying to make a positive, emotional connection with the customer. Our machines shouted “Junk that makes you feel bad sold here” instead of “Better your life today!” and, therefore, it didn’t matter what products we were selling.
Lesson #2: We make sure our state-of-the-art, proprietary vending machines include new technologies such as conveyor belts (NOT coils), digital video screens, robust remote monitoring that texts you inventory alerts, and touch-screen LCD displays in order to improve the customer experience, which directly boosts sales & profits.
Mistake #3: We put products in our machines without adequately testing them for consumer acceptance.
This one really hurt! We simply stocked our machines with all of the products we liked & knew, not understanding that different people have different product preferences. By not realizing the great importance of customizing product offerings per location, we ended up throwing away tons of products that didn’t sell and paid a huge opportunity cost along the way because of it.
Lesson #3: We require that all products are taste-tested, nutritionally- screened, and sales-verified before gaining placement in our machines, and also make sure that every single product mix is customized per location with no exceptions.
You see, we have learned to fail FAST and fail CHEAP. Failure is necessary for any successful business.
Best in health,
Sean & Andy
Founders, HUMAN Healthy Vending
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Whether you’re out camping in the wilderness, hiking the mountains, or taking long walks on the beach, The “Rugged HUMAN” serves all your vending needs (wait a minute…is this eHarmony?)
Check out the specs!
The Fort Knox of Vending: “Ruggedized” design that is built to withstand the elements. Rain. Shine. Anywhere. Anytime.
Advanced Insulation: Keeps your products cold while reducing energy consumption…talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Vend-Sensor Technology: No more banging the vending machine like a mad man to get your money back! Strategically-placed infrared sensors virtually eliminate misvends
Self-Diagnosing System: Clears vending errors automatically. Just when you thought brawn AND brains was an oxymoron.
Increased Versatility: Uses conveyor belt-dispensing technology, not coils, which greatly increases versatility and capacity
Cash/Coin Validator: Can be upgraded to any form of cashless payment (Credit/Debit)
As you can see, Vending 2.0 is here! The Rugged HUMAN has got you covered, wherever you may be.
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That’s right, we’ve moved! HUMAN Healthy Vending Headquarters is situated right in the heart of Santa Monica, CA, which is one of the nicest cities in the United States.
I Think I Can See Our Office!
Come see us…we LOVE visitors!
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We have a new addition to the HUMAN family! Our new “Hot HUMAN” healthy vending machine is your one-stop shop to all your healthy vending needs.
Here are some features:
All-in-One Vending: Vends hot food, cold drinks, and healthy snacks
Ad-Serving System & Network: 23″ HD Video Screen generates an extra profit stream effortlessly
Internal PC Computer: Also known as the brains behind our Adventising program. Definitely essential to keeping your machine on the cutting edge
Eco-Friendly Design: Uses up to 50% less energy than your standard vending machine
Enhanced LED Lighting: Improves product presentation without requiring any service for 5+ years! Also, reduces energy costs by 40%
Product Selection: Wide variety of healthy menu selections available. Vends packages of all shapes and sizes
Credit Card Reader: Offers cashless (Debit/Credit) payment system to maximize purchase power
Remote Monitoring: Track sales and inventory from anywhere! Even generates custom reports so you can run your business more efficiently
Wait a minute…what exactly is “bricolage?”
This is probably a common question among anyone reading this right now, but I guarantee it is something you can’t afford NOT to know.
“Bricolage” is a French term with definitions corresponding to a variety of disciplines. There’s bricolage in art, literature, philosophy, and of course--business. According to the dictionary, bricolage is defined as “a construction made of whatever materials are at hand or something created from a variety of available things.”
In it’s simplest form, it means “creating something out of nothing.” Bricolage in business is working with limited resources and making something happen.
When you think about it, aren’t the most novel things the product of bricolage? Imagine being given a backpack
filled with notebooks, pencils, binders, etc. and receiving instructions that you must create a different use for that backpack while incorporating EVERYTHING inside of it. It would probably be difficult, considering we already have the idea of a backpack and its use engrained in our heads.
Now, imagine you were given one item from that backpack, a pen for instance. Imagine you were given instructions that you must find a new use for that pen other than a writing instrument. Your resources are severely confined, but I bet you could think of a new use in no time. That pen could be a paperweight, pointer, or a “ruler” you could use to draw straight edges.
You just created something out of nothing. You just took a part in bricolage.
In business, it’s necessary to use bricolage to your advantage. Having too many resources sets you in a tunnel-vision state of mind. It leaves your business stagnant and outdated. Bricolage gives way to innovation, and we all know how important that is to a successful venture.
In our case, we took a standard vending machine and used bricolage to take a creative vision and make it into a reality. We turned a traditional vending machine and made it into an innovative healthy vending machine with credit card readers, remote monitoring, LCD screens, LED lighting, etc. All of these resources were out there somewhere, but never associated with a vending machine. Bricolage allowed us to gather all these resources and incorporate them into one machine.
The bottom line: Creating something out of nothing will set you up for SUCCESS. It is way more effective than creating nothing out of something.
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Watch this video on how to deal with our body’s natural tendency to crave instant gratification. The bigger the challenge, the more resistance we have to overcome that challenge.
You’ll learn some interesting stuff.
The Media Mogul boasts a robust 23″ HD Video Screen designed to attract attention, display product information and nutrition advice, and video ads. Helping you line your pockets with advertising revenue, effortlessly.
The internal PC computer keeps your machine on the cutting edge by seamlessly integrating the latest software updates with the machine’s remote monitoring system, and credit card reader. Them Media Mogul’s Eco-friendly design uses 50% less energy than standard vending machines, and it’s strategically-placed infrared sensors refuse to allow misvends and vending errors.
The increased versatility allowed by the conveyor belt dispensing technology, and the larger capacity allows you to stock 40% more of our over 5,000 options.
Because Health and Nutrition Shouldn't Just Be An "Inside" Thing
Refrigerated, ruggedized snack & beverage combination machine designed for the outdoors. This machine has increased capacity, high-security and reliable service.
Fresh, Delicious, Healthy Meals
Healthy, delicious, full-meals delivered to you instantly -- from a rugged, reliable machine. It’s high-capacity and high-security will give you peace of mind, and allow you to focus on more important things, like your health.
Hot and Delicious
This refrigerated food and snack machine serve delicious HOT meals, as well as snacks. Great for any location that needs nutritious meals on-the-go.
Technology and Reliability, The Apprentice
The Apprentice features all the capabilities of the Media Mogul, without the LCD screen.
The internal PC computer keeps your machine on the cutting edge by seamlessly integrating the latest software updates with the machine’s remote monitoring system, and credit card reader. The Apprentice’s Eco-friendly design uses 50% less energy than standard vending machines, and it’s strategically-placed infrared sensors refuse to allow misvends and vending errors.
The increased versatility allowed by the conveyor belt dispensing technology, and the larger capacity allows you to stock 40% more of our over 5,000 options.
