John Fio: The Consumer Brand Wizard

John Fio is a product inventor who has created some of the most popular consumer products in recent years, including the Gravity Blanket, Moon Pod, Moon Pals, and Birthdate Candles.

These products have collectively sold hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

John Fio has a unique philosophy on product creation, and his approach to building brands resonates deeply with consumers as he blends storytelling to create million-dollar product categories.

1. Ideas are Harder Than Execution

Many people believe that execution is everything in business. However, John Fio argues that having great ideas is much harder than executing them. You can teach almost anyone to follow a plan, but teaching them to come up with innovative ideas is a much tougher task.

Take Airbnb for example. The idea of renting a spare room in someone's home had always existed. However, Airbnb reframed that idea into a service that changed how people travel. They tapped into an existing behaviour and transformed it into a completely new market.

Similarly, the Gravity Blanket repositioned an existing product from a therapeutic tool into a mainstream sleep aid.

2. The Story Behind the Gravity Blanket

Gravity Blanket became an overnight success, creating a new product category.

The weighted blanket, which helps people relax and sleep better, sold over a million dollars in its first 24 hours on Kickstarter.

The product didn't just solve a problem; it made people feel good, which drove word-of-mouth promotion.

The idea came to John after a personal experience of trying to sleep on a New York City subway while working on a project. While consulting a sleep scientist for a pillow idea, she casually mentioned that sleeping with 10% of your body weight helps reduce anxiety and improve sleep.

Inspired by this, John tested the concept by stitching beads into a blanket. He launched the Gravity Blanket on Kickstarter, and the rest is history.

The Gravity Blankets Kickstarter campaign made $5m in pre-sales in just 30 days. He only had to create one prototype and photograph it to raise millions.

For Gravity Blankets, John partnered with a media company to access a large audience that made this launch a success.

The team used a mood board that aligned with the clean, futuristic feel of Tesla, giving the Gravity Blanket a scientific appeal.

They initially joked about calling the product the "Trump Blanket" or "Boyfriend Blanket." However, they settled on Gravity Blanket, using a scientific angle to appeal to a broader audience.

He attributes the products success to timing. They launched at a time when sleep health was a growing concern, especially with the backdrop of political unrest (Trump’s election) in 2016 U.S. and rising anxiety levels.

It helped that companies like Casper had started the broader sleep health trend.

3. Avoiding Venture Capital

John firmly believes that if you're creating a physical product for consumers, you probably don't need investors.

He cites his own experience, where all of his ventures — Gravity Blanket, Moon Pod, Birthdate Company, and Moon Pals — were built without venture capital and focused on building brand trust and consumer engagement.

John believes that customer excitement and pre-orders are more valuable than investor money in the early stages of a consumer product business.

4. Why Positioning Matters

For John, positioning is everything.

It’s not just about having a great product — it’s about how you present it to the market.

A central theme in John’s story is the power of reframing. Many successful products, such as Gravity Blanket and Moon Pod, involved taking an existing concept and giving it a new perspective.

For example, the Gravity Blanket was inspired by therapeutic weighted blankets but was positioned as a sleep aid for the general public.

Another reframe: life insurance, originally known as "death insurance," saw sales soar once the name was changed.

With Birthdate Candles, for instance, the initial concept was centered around astrology. After struggling with this positioning, John and his co-founder pivoted to focus on personalized birthdate candles.

This small shift changed everything, turning a niche astrology product into a mainstream gift item.

Positioning goes beyond marketing. It affects the design of the product, the customer experience, and the overall business strategy.

John believes the way you frame a product can completely change how consumers perceive it.

5. Unique Selling Points of the Products

John has a unique USP for his products:

• Gravity Blanket: Positioned as a 25-pound blanket for improving sleep, reducing stress, and alleviating anxiety. The science-backed promise helped set it apart from other products.

• Moon Pod: Fio focused on creating a unique, modular bean bag. It features a custom high-friction bead system that provides better support than typical bean bags.

• Birthdate Candle: This product combines astrology with personalized candles, allowing people to buy a candle for their specific birth date. The candle also includes a personalized reading, which Fio describes as "accurately" depicting someone's strengths and weaknesses.

6. Magic in Product Creation

John emphasizes the importance of creating magic for consumers. He believes the most successful products aren’t just useful — they tap into something deeper, almost intangible, that people connect with on an emotional level. This "magic" can’t be planned or quantified. It often comes from unexpected moments and experiences, but when it happens, it resonates powerfully with consumers.

John’s Moon Pals product embodies this idea. Moon Pals are weighted stuffed animals that come with a storybook. They are designed to give children comforting hugs. Beyond being just a toy, they offer emotional support and a sense of security, which parents and children love.

Childrens can cuddle with the physical toy while engaging with the story on an imaginative level.

The storytelling around Moon Pals — magical creatures from the moon that watch over kids — further deepens this emotional connection.

This combination creates a richer, more immersive experience for children.

Consumers, especially younger generations, are looking for more than just a product - they want an experience.

7. Where Do Great Ideas Come From? Look for the Unexpected

John believes that extraordinary ideas often come from unexpected places and experiences. He shares a story of how a trip to Japan sparked the idea for his successful beanbag company, Moonpod.

While in a Japanese rock garden, he saw a monk meditating and mistook the rock for a beanbag.

This misinterpretation triggered a thought: "What if I could recreate the feeling of peace and tranquillity that this monk embodies in a beanbag?"

That single thought, born from an unexpected experience in a foreign country, led to the creation of Moonpod.

This experience taught John the importance of putting himself in new and uncomfortable situations. He believes that embracing the unfamiliar forces your brain to think differently and opens you up to new perspectives - a breeding ground for innovative ideas.

8. The Value of Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) is often undervalued in consumer businesses, but John sees it as one of the most important assets a brand can have.

Brands that create lasting IP — whether through characters, stories, or memorable experiences — can build ecosystems that grow and evolve over time.

John points to examples like Disney, Pokemon, Barbie, Marvel, and Hello Kitty, which have built vast worlds around their core IP.

For John, success in the consumer space involves more than just selling products.

It’s about creating stories, characters, and worlds that consumers want to engage with over the long term.

His work on Moon Pals, for example, includes not just the product itself but also a storybook and plans for future expansions into movies, games, and more.

9. Old Ways are Dying: A New Consumer Landscape is Here

The old gatekeepers of media and culture are losing their power. Consumers today are drawn to authenticity and experiences that resonate with them personally. This shift requires a new approach - one that combines artistry, entrepreneurial thinking, and a deep understanding of what makes people tick.

John thinks of the Barbie movie as an example. Barbie's success shows the power of this new model: blending a beloved brand with a relevant message.

John argues that true success in creating consumer brands comes from understanding both the emotional needs of consumers and the scalable power of digital platforms.

His products are successful because they tap into deep emotional connections (e.g., sleep, comfort, childhood magic) while leveraging digital platforms like Kickstarter and social media to reach wide audiences.

He notes that great creators are both Wizards and Warriors, blending creativity and business acumen.

For example, Kanye West's approach to art and commerce shows a mix of deep creativity (wizardry) and competitive, results-driven thinking (warrior).

He also cites Taylor Swift's strategic approach to releasing her concert film alongside her record-breaking tour as a prime example of a "multi-pillar" strategy. By simultaneously leveraging different platforms and mediums, Swift maximizes reach and engagement, creating a multifaceted consumer experience.

10. The Importance of Using Your Own Products

John uses his own products daily, which helps him understand customer pain points better than relying on focus groups or surveys.

For example, he sleeps with the Gravity Blanket, works on the Moon Pod, and lights the Birthdate Candle. This personal use helps him refine the products and ensure they meet customer needs.

11. Category Growth

After the Gravity Blanket became mainstream, companies selling weighted blankets saw a surge in sales.

Many even thanked John Fio for tripling their business. When Lensa AI went mainstream, Photo AI and Headshot AI saw their numbers grow as well.

12. Fio's Number

The "Long Tail" theory suggests that the internet allows for a greater diversity of niche products and creators to find success but Fio thinks that even though long tail might exist, true value and influence will likely accrue to a smaller number of brands that capture mass attention.

John argues that despite the infinite number of choices in the digital age, consumers ultimately form deep, "belief system" level connections with only a select few brands.

The "Fio Number" represents this limited number - a hypothetical upper limit on the number of brands that can achieve true cultural penetration and enduring success.

There are only a limited number of brands consumers deeply connect with. Think Apple, Meta, Microsoft.

John Fio’s journey highlights the power of creating emotional connections with consumers. Through strategic positioning, storytelling, and tapping into deeper human needs, he has built products that go beyond functionality and create lasting impacts on people's lives.

He continues to expand his portfolio of products while creating magic in the consumer space through his unique storytelling.

Credits to Invest Like The Best, My First Million, and Infinite Loops podcast for extracting insights from John Fio.

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