The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Human Touch Unveils New Massage Chair at CES 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from the chrisvossshow.com. There you go. Welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks for coming on and being a part of the show, ladies and gentlemen. We certainly appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:00:45 Thanks for coming on and being a part of the show. As always, the Chris Voss Show is the family that loves you but doesn't judge you, at least not as harshly as the time you ruined your dad's timex by taking it all apart and never being able to put it back together. He still hates you this day. He sent that into the show and just wants you to know that he still has no pride in you. Anyway, guys, you know who you are. Thanks for tuning in.

Starting point is 00:01:03 We're covering CES show 2024. Jesus. 2024. Is it 2024 already? It is. Yeah. There you go. So all week long, we've been covering booths that will be appearing at the big consumer

Starting point is 00:01:17 electronics show in Las Vegas. So if you can't attend, you can get a chance to meet with some of the people here, see them here, figure out how to reach out to them. And of course, you definitely do because they always have some of the coolest, most innovative, cutting edge technology products that are coming out. So that's what we love about doing the show with CES Tour. We should mention that Gary Shapiro, the president and CEO of CTA and CES will be on the show tomorrow, actually. And he'll be making his annual appearance. I think we have him booked for the next 10 years. It helps to have him as a good friend.

Starting point is 00:01:51 But he makes his annual appearance every year on the show. So he'll be here tomorrow. And he'll be giving us a lowdown on what's going to be at the show right from the top of the pinnacle there, people. In the meantime, we've got returning folks on the show. We've got the company called Human Touch on the show with us. We interviewed them, I believe, last year and probably the year before. We seem to be reviewing a lot of the same folks on the show with us. We have Victoria Ladoc on the show with us today.

Starting point is 00:02:17 She's the Director of Marketing for Human Touch. Welcome to the show, Victoria. How are you? I'm good, Chris. How are you doing? I am doing excellent. It's good to have you here and excited to go to the show here. I am. I am very excited because we do have a couple of things that we are unveiling, some product launches. So yeah, it's, you know, it's always a good time.

Starting point is 00:02:36 There you go. And I always love your guys' booth. It's like a whole booth of massage chairs and there's all these people just sitting there drooling at the side of their mouth going uh you know and after you've walked like five miles on the floor of ces there's nothing better but but it's like it's like a whole catatonic display of zombies just laying in the massage chairs going i can't feel my legs uh so it's it's wonderful to have you guys put on that display because if it wasn't for you guys, we, I don't know, we don't just be in the fetal position, the corner of CES. So give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs? We're on humantouch.com.

Starting point is 00:03:16 So very easy to find. Yeah, we're there. And I will say back to our booth. Yeah, I've woken up many people from sleep. I've had some, I've probably heard it all. I've heard a lot of disoriented kind of gobbledygook when they wake up. Yeah, they're just like, ah, what? Where am I?

Starting point is 00:03:34 Why am I in a giant mall? I don't know. Expo and who are you? But that's okay. That's Fridays around here. So give us an overview, 30,000 overview, what Human Touch is and what you guys do there. Absolutely. So 2024 actually marks our 45th year in business. So we have been around for quite a while. Human Touch is a wellness company. We make massage chairs, we make zero gravity recliners, we make foot and calf massagers.

Starting point is 00:04:01 We make several products that are really just great for your everyday wellness. And just, we make products that really help you just kind of feel your best every day. That's, you know, that's really our slogan and where we try to take the company. Especially after COVID, people really kind of, there was a kind of a wake up call of like, this is what we need to do. We need to take care of ourselves. And our products really help to fill that void. So I think it's, it's really,

Starting point is 00:04:29 everyone needs that time every day to just focus on yourself. And that's what a lot of our products do. Yeah. I mean these, the, the zero, what do they call them? Zero gravity massage chairs, those things are like heaven, especially for like a tall guy like me, who's, who's, who's big and, and burly is having the extra weight of using my body to just ram yourself into those rollers and stuff that makes all the difference in the world. Like I'll see people, I'll people sit in those massage chairs and they're sitting up and I'm

Starting point is 00:04:59 like, you're not even using it right. You're supposed to roll it back to that, that whole zero gravity thing so that you can get in there and dig out those tight muscles. And then last year you guys sent us, it was the Reflex 5S, I think. Correct. Very good. The Reflex 5S. And I got to tell you, I'll give a plug here on the show. They sent it out to us.

Starting point is 00:05:19 I gave it to my mom because she's, well, she's in her 80s now, but she just had two knees replaced over the last year. So, you know, legs are really important to her. And so she loves the crap out of it. I go over to her house and I go sit. I almost go over to her house all the time just so I can sit in it. And then we talk. It makes a great conversation piece. But it is so wonderful.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I mean, it is just, you don't realize how important your feet are because you're walking around them all day and how much stuff is connected to them. But you guys have massage chairs for all different variations. We do. We sell massage chairs. So we sell them everywhere. We have them on, we sell on Amazon. We sell in a lot of big box places.

Starting point is 00:05:57 We do a lot in Costco. So we do quite a bit of a price range between that. Our latest chair is the SuperNovo X. That is the chair that we will be releasing at CES this year and the chair that we will be previewing and really kind of pushing. And that chair runs about $15,000. So it is our flagship. It is our top of the line. It is the chair that we have been working on since the previous version came out. So we're very, very excited about this chair. $15,000. You guys take a check. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. So what's the latest thing on these chairs? I mean, every one I've ever sat in, I think I've usually sat in ones

Starting point is 00:06:34 around 10,000. They do so many different features. What's the latest features that are coming out on it? So on the SuperNovo X, one of the best things, and I don't, it's very hard to put this into words, the best way to actually feel it, it does have a dual robot, which means it has two robots. Most massagers have one robot that goes from the back and goes down. This has two. So we can actually massage your back area from your back to your lumbar, and then your glutes down to your thighs at the same time. And that is a very special experience. I mean, it's like having two masseuses, you know, a four-hand basically massage happening at one time. Oh, wow. 3D and 4D?

Starting point is 00:07:19 Do I have the correct page on here? Yes, it does. Wow, man. So that too. And you add 3D, which means you can move the the robot to different depths to closer and further away from your back and 40 is actually refers to rhythm so it actually instead of just moving at one speed the the robot actually moves at a variable speed to kind of replicate how a masseuse's hands would move and i love these chairs because you crawl

Starting point is 00:07:43 into them and at first you're like is this a torture device because you got you know you have to put your hands in your hands and yeah and stuff but once it gets going you're just like i'm never leaving here i'm i'm just gonna stay here for the rest of my life in this in this cocoon chair yes and yeah yeah i'm not i'm never leaving in fact i usually fall asleep in them i don't know what it is about me and massages but i'll fall asleep usually fall asleep in them. I don't know what it is about me and massages, but I'll fall asleep during a massage, especially if I rub my head. I don't know what it is about my head, but if you, especially like, you know, there's a lot of tension in that forehead and stuff. Whenever masseuses rub my head, I just, I'll zonk out.

Starting point is 00:08:16 I just go right to sleep. But it's the best sleep you'll ever have. And then you wake up and you're like, oh, do I have to go out into the cold world again? So there you go. It's kind of like birth. At least that's what I hear. I'm going to try it sometime. So it's got a virtual therapist.

Starting point is 00:08:32 What does that do? So our virtual therapist on the SuperNovo X, it's voice control. So this is our own voice assistant. It works through the app that we also have for the chair. And you can control the chair through your app as well. But the voice control, and this will be released when the chair is actually going to be released at the end of Q1. You can sit in the chair because as you mentioned, Chris, your hands are inside the chair. You know, you can't move your hands, you're not reaching for any remote, you're relaxed, you're getting a great compression massage on your arms. So when

Starting point is 00:09:03 you're ready to, if you want more intensity or you want a different massage, you just simply say a virtual therapist, increase intensity or decrease intensity or put me in zero gravity. Or at the very basic, when you first get in the chair, say I'm ready for my massage. So you don't have to touch a remote. You don't have to figure out what you want and eventually you know you you program your own massages there's memory in there so you can say you know i i want my my massage you know my my get ready for bed massage yeah so it's like it just we're trying to make it as easy as possible for you to get the relaxation and the the stress relief that you need

Starting point is 00:09:42 i have a fear if i bought one of these, I'd just start sleeping in it. Like I just would never go to bed. I mean, and as you said, it is going to be the best sleep because your body is relaxed and you're ready for sleep. So it definitely helps. There's a, there's a, my gym, they don't have them in all the gyms, but my one gym, I got lucky. They built a brand new facility by me and they don't have the

Starting point is 00:10:06 the oyster they're not the oysters the the zero gravity massage chairs at their other gyms but they have them at this one i don't know who makes them so i won't give them a plug it might be you guys but it does the zero gravity and i gotta tell you i half the reason i own that gym membership if you guys approach zims gyms zims who the fuck is going on with the show i might be having a stroke if you guys ever go sell gyms tell them man half the reason i have my gym membership is just go get that massage man that recovery and stuff it's like so important like in fact i think half the reason I got the gym membership in the first place is because the zero gravity massage chair. It's like, screw the weights.

Starting point is 00:10:49 Yeah, it's a big deal. Recovery is a huge, huge buzzword. And this isn't a thing that our B2B program is working on is selling into gyms and to make different recovery zones. Because a lot of gyms are redoing their kind of kids club area and that kind of stuff and they're making recovery zones so yeah i tried going to my other gym uh gym locations that i go to and they didn't have the the recovery the zero gravity chairs and i was just like this place sucks and you're used to it right yeah i mean it's it's seriously like they could charge

Starting point is 00:11:23 me like 300 bucks or probably a thousand bucks a month for my gym. I think a thousand bucks a month, I just have to buy one of your guys' at that point. Yeah, you could just make the investment. I think it's probably smarter. Which is definitely. What else is new that you guys have bringing to market? Sure. I mean, we have, so the SuperNovo X is our flagship chair.

Starting point is 00:11:41 We do have a, in 2019, we brought the Super Novo. That was our first flagship chair, that chair that kind of changed the market for us because it was a $10,000 chair. It was the first time we've even delved into that price point. We are bringing a Super Novo 2.0. So it's this next version of that chair that will be, that's the one we'll have about,

Starting point is 00:12:01 I forget the last count, maybe 20 of them or 22 of them at CES. So we have quite a few. So people who come by the booth, definitely come by and get your massage because it's going to be, it's a great chair. And we sell at that event as well, but that's going to be a, that's a game changing chair as well. There you go. Note to self, go to CES and just sit in the chairs all day long. All right. There you go. I think that's what some people try and do.

Starting point is 00:12:31 Do you ever have people you're like, hey, enough with the chairs. You've been here for like two hours, buddy. Yeah, we do have to kick people out sometimes. Get out of the chair. And then give us a rundown. There's a lot of chairs I see here. There's a pop-up foot massager. I'm clearly having a stroke.

Starting point is 00:12:50 A foot massager. Maybe I'm hungry. That's what it is. There's a whole body massage chair. I thought I saw like a kid's chair on the front page. That's new. We do have. So the pop-up is a foot massager.

Starting point is 00:13:02 It's only a foot massager. Just kind of like your foot and calf that you have, but it only, it only does the feet, doesn't do the calf. It's a great, it's actually a great little piece because it pops up. So when you put your feet in and then when you're not using it, you just kind of push it down and it stores underneath the bed or somewhere. It's very, it's very portable and it's really easy. It does give a really great massage too for a small.

Starting point is 00:13:24 Those feet massages. There's something else in the cafe. People don't realize there's a bunch of these, I think chakra points or something in your feet that go to your like liver and kidneys and like all this stuff. And I remember when we first got your guys, this thing, like it was like,

Starting point is 00:13:40 it was like my feet were like glass. I'm like, Oh my God, this really hurts. And it's because my muscles were just so i don't know just super tight in my feet and now when i go over there you know it's it's nice and relaxed and feels great and you know it's like you just kind of feel your brain just kind of melt away and all your problems go away you're like i don't really care about anything at this point so i'm just gonna going to take a nap and enjoy life.

Starting point is 00:14:07 What do you guys hope to achieve at CES? It seems obvious, but I mean, from you. Well, I mean, we'd love to get a really great, some really great press on the SuperNova X. It's a great chair. Another thing about it is, as you talked about crawling into the chair, because they're very hard to get into, this chair does have what we call teardrop doors they actually open up on the side and you can you can get in you can just kind of sit and in and then they they come down so really really really neat kind of kind of contraption there but that and you know we we do also like as i mentioned we sell at the show so it is a good

Starting point is 00:14:42 place to compare i don't i don't know how many other massage chair companies are there but it used to be ces used to be a place where people actually went to go buy massage chairs because there'd be a lot of different vendors there and you can compare them but yeah so it is a chance for someone to definitely try the chair and we have great reps who can talk you through anything and give you the best massage that you had probably in a chair ever oh yeah they're They're wonderful. Yeah. I think you guys did that to me when I was there last year. You guys said, Hey, try one out. And we tried one out and then I never wanted to leave. And then I think you had to finally throw me out. Of course,

Starting point is 00:15:16 we were going to have to ask you to leave. I'm sure I didn't do that, but have fun. But I thought about, I thought about, I'm like, I should just stay here for as long as I can. Maybe if I get some disguises and keep coming back with maybe a mustache and a mask or something, they'll never know it's the same person. But I mean, that's just how comfortable you guys made me. So this is really exciting. What's the future of massage chairs that's coming up? Is there anything like, I don't know, AI or anything?

Starting point is 00:15:44 I don't know what you do with AI in a massage chair, but it seems like everyone's doing something with AIs. Sure. Any sort of future stuff that you guys see coming up? With virtual therapists, we are going to delve a little bit into AI because it will be learning kind of what you, what kind of massages you like,

Starting point is 00:15:59 what kind of intensity, what kind of, how many minutes you like your massage. So there is an AI aspect involved with our voice control. Other things, there's a lot of people do kind of like aromatherapy and there's a lot of that red light therapy. We actually kind of stay away from that because we really do like to focus on the chair and really highlight what the robotics and the technology is in the chair.

Starting point is 00:16:23 So it's a nice add-on, but we really are just looking to up our game on what the robotics and the technology is in the chair. So it's a nice add-on, but we really are just looking to up our game on what the technology brings and making it more and more lifelike and just a better and better tool for you every day to just to get in and make it. Our goal too is to make it easy for people to just get in your chair every day and be able to get that massage and feel better. Oh yeah. I mean, when I go to the gym, I know I'm giving another plug to your B2B department, but when I go to the gym, I usually go sit on my chair first because I want it to loosen me up and then usually kind of put my spine up and everything right. I've got a, I don't know if it's herniated, but I've got a bad pissed off disc from a long time ago from moving.

Starting point is 00:17:05 And I noticed on your website, there's a bunch of reviews of people who have herniated discs. And man, I tell you that, that, that back massager helps put that in my whole spine in place, gets everybody going. I'll, I'll step out of it and I'm standing like two inches taller. Yes. Right. And, but one thing I didn't, you know, I, I, I didn't never really realize until I got into them was like, you know, your hands, it's got the thing where it'll take the hands and I'm just going to use a non-technical term, squish them, you know, but it helps spread

Starting point is 00:17:34 them out and like, like, you know, get to get the muscles that are in the hands. Your wrist, of course, is a big area. And then it, you know, it'll push down on the, on all the muscles up in the thing. And I never realized like how much, you know, all down on the on all the muscles up in the thing and i never realized like how much you know all those tendons and all that all that crap makes all that difference when you're in that massage chair and it's you know it's working everything there yeah it absolutely does and i will tell you one of the best features that i when i first got in the chair is the stretch so this chair will literally stretch you as As you mentioned, it makes you feel two, two, three inches taller. It'll hold your feet down and then hold your shoulders and actually stretch out the chair, stretch you out on the chair. And supernova X does a thing that we call

Starting point is 00:18:15 horizon rest, which means it is flat. It lays flat. So imagine that you are in a flat, flat laying position and your, and your legs and your shoulders are being stretched and you can feel the vertebrae almost, you know, popping each one of those popping into place. It is a really great feeling and it's a great stretch. And it really, I think it's one of those things that kind of really makes a difference

Starting point is 00:18:40 when you're getting your massage. And it goes, we have that feature in a lot of the different auto programs. So it'll do it periodically throughout the massage program but it's it's a really great feature yeah i call that the medieval torture feature yes it could be but it afterwards it doesn't feel like you're grateful for the torture well you spend all your life compressing your spine you know sitting up walking around gravity and you know and you know it's pressing into your hips and your glutes and you know and and all that stuff

Starting point is 00:19:10 and so getting that relief especially in the zero gravity mode is like so important and i love zero gravity too because it just digs in harder to your back but also yet you're right it allows you to stretch out stuff and get everything into place. And it's just so important. Is there any studies? I mean, we talk about a chair that's $10,000 to $15,000. For me, you can't put a price on health, especially at 55. Are there any studies on health benefits of massage chairs and what a difference they make in people's lives? I mean, there might be some for massage chairs, but I think massage specifically, just in general, you know, a lot of benefits that come out of daily massage. And like we talk about

Starting point is 00:19:55 the sleeping better and the relaxation and then the recovery from, especially if you work out or even, I mean, not that you need to have a big workout, but just recovery from a hard day, you know, recovery, that word is really encompassing of so many things, you know, I mean, we tag it on the workouts a lot, but we all have hard days, right? We all have, you know, we all have kids or busy jobs or whatever, what have you, and you need recovery from that, you know, just from sitting all day, you need recovery and you need recovery from that. Definitely. Just from sitting all day, you need recovery. I need recovery from driving over to the gym.

Starting point is 00:20:30 We all do. But usually I go to the gym and I do 20 minutes, two rounds, and they've got a timer on it for 10 minutes. So I do 20 minutes of pre-workout, loosening up and getting everything going and the blood going on in the right places and releasing all this stuff. And then I go work out and it makes for a better workout for me. Like it's just a better workout. I feel good. And then usually after I get done beating myself up, then I go back in and do another 20 minutes in the room. And I mean, it just makes all the difference in the world between, you know, I don't walk around my day wanting to murder people all the time, just like maybe half the time.

Starting point is 00:21:08 It just makes a lot of difference in the world. Yeah. And your, your peace of mind too. That's the other thing, man. Your peace of mind when you're relaxed. Like I used to go get a massage when I had our, all of our big companies and hundreds of employees, I would have to go to massage every weekend for two hours and this is back before these beautiful machines you guys built and i would and if i skipped it

Starting point is 00:21:31 my employees all week long would be like you didn't get your massage this weekend didn't you and i'd be like why do you ask and they're like because you're being a bear you're just you're just obnoxious i knew yeah they would know is there i was like how'd you know and like you're just really being ornery. And so you just can't put a price on the mental health. You know, I've gotten better over the years now where I'm concerned about my body, my health, and feeling good. You know, pinched nerves or pinched blood vessels create pain. And so being able to open up that blood flow, and usually massage does that because it gets in there and it gets that.

Starting point is 00:22:06 Usually you have pain because you have blood flow constricted because a muscle is grasping it too hard. You can take Tylenol or ibuprofen that's not really that healthy for you, or you can get a massage and it'll get that muscle to release, get the blood flowing going. That's really where you feel good. You know, a lot of, a lot of cancers and other things come from, you know, backup of your cells and poison. And so the massage chair cleans out your lymph nodes and everything else. And it just, it's just so great. I can't, I can't say anything bad about massage.

Starting point is 00:22:40 And it's great to hear those stories. I mean, we get a lot of stories of people who say they, they're having a chair or doing this every day has changed their lives i couldn't walk you know for so long and now they they're able to do that they have movement they take less pills than they used to you know they don't need medication anymore it's like it when people say life-changing chair we really you know that really resonates with us and it's it's a really great they're great some really great stories out there yeah i mean i i actually went to this i actually moved to this gym because they had the chairs so lots of plugs for your b2b department anything else we should know about what you guys are doing at cs before we go out well i do want to say we

Starting point is 00:23:19 are at we are going to be we have our booth we are We are in the, in central hall. We are, if you come in through the LG entrance, which is one of the main entrances, as you know, Chris, you've been to CES many times. It's very hard to miss the LG booth. You come into the LG entrance. We are just to the left of that. So we're very easy to find. And, you know, that you can, and you'll just, just look for a bunch of massage chairs. Look for a bunch of people laying in massage chairs going, Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:46 And I got to tell you, come early because usually after 11 or noon, they fill up and they don't let out. So there's usually a queue, but we'll get you in. There you go. Note to self, bring disguises and different outfits to the show and just spend all day at the Human Touch booth. There you go. So you guys will be like, that guy looks familiar.

Starting point is 00:24:06 It was, wasn't he here five minutes ago? So there you go. Give us your dot coms, Victoria, so people can find you guys on the interwebs. Yes. So we're at humantouch.com. All our chairs will be there. And yeah, come drop by our booth if you're going to be at CES. We're also going to be at CES Unveiled if we have any media and all that as well.

Starting point is 00:24:24 There you go well i love your guys's work we love it here at the house my mom loves it it's awesome thanks for coming by the show we really appreciate it thank you chris and i guess i'll i'll see you definitely definitely i think so i'm we're still we're still on the fence about coming but well i'm not sure if we're or not but if we if we do we're showing up for a day to say hello and do the tour. So there you go. I will save a seat for you. Okay.

Starting point is 00:24:47 All right. Thank you very much, Victoria, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. All right. Thank you. There you go. And thanks, my audience, for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisfoss,

Starting point is 00:24:56 linkedin.com, 4chesschrisfoss. Follow the big LinkedIn newsletter, the 130,000 LinkedIn group over there, chrisfoss1 on the tickety-tockety, and chrisfossfacebook.com. Be good to each other. Stay safe and watch for our continuing coverage of CES all week long.

The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Human Touch Unveils New Massage Chair at CES 2024

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