Leveling Up with Eric Siu

Today on Leveling Up we welcome Andrew Fischer from Choozle. Andrew is the co-founder and CEO of the company and he shares some of their story and what makes the business tick. Choozle is a digital advertising software platform that leverages detailed consumer data to power programmatic advertising campaigns across multiple platforms. They do this through one, intuitive interface and this model has proved very successful for Andrew and his team, having raised over $14 million since they began work in 2012! In our conversation, we chat about the service they provide to their clients and what sets them apart from other advertising services in the space. Andrew gives us a few interesting statistics and breaks down some hiring numbers before we talk about customer acquisition and adapting to the new world in a post-COVID landscape. We chat about the future of media and the increasing trends away from cable television, so to hear it all, make sure to tune in!

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:21] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [00:54] How Choozle works, the service they provide and how they make money.
• [02:30] Why to choose Choozle! Making the most of the average consumer. 
• [03:40] Ideal business sizes for the company and their preference for independent agencies.
• [04:53] Employee-growth at Choozle; the peaks that the company has hit.
• [06:15] Choozle's focus on programmatic advertising campaigns.
• [07:19] Costs involved in working with the company and the array of budgets they work with.
• [08:30] Current steps that Choozle is taking to extend their service for customers.
• [10:50] Trends in television and media consumption in the contemporary climate. 
• [11:25] Business during the pandemic and how Choozle is weathering the storm.
• [12:57] Customer acquisition strategies at Choozle over the last few years.
• [14:11] The type of startup Andrew would back right now!
• [14:51] Andrew's two essential book recommendations.
• [15:55] Why Andrew has returned to a simpler practice of note-taking.

Resources From The Interview:

• Andrew Fischer on Twitter
• Choozle 
• Roku
• Fire
• AT&T
• The Last Dance 
• Evernote 

• Must read books: The Hard Thing About Hard Things and Shoe Dog

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here

• Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes

• Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed

Connect with Eric Siu: 

• Growth Everywhere

• Single Grain

• Eric Siu on Twitter

we discuss four underrated SEO strategies that will help you boost your organic traffic. Updating your content and keywords, removing old dates from your URLs, and using power and pillar pages effectively will all contribute to reviving your organic traffic. Tune in to hear about the tools that will get you to your traffic goals. 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

[00:25] Today’s topic: 4 Underrated SEO Plays That Will Double Your Organic Traffic. 

[00:39] Upgrade your content regularly. 

[01:01] Consider your top performers and explore new keywords to update them. 

[01:30] Boost your traffic by removing dates from your URLs.  

[01:45] Write long-form pieces of content and consolidate different pieces together. 

[02:04] Consider what Animalz does with their power and pillar pages.  

[02:24] Turn your content into videos and put them on YouTube.  

[03:01] That’s it for today!

[03:02] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ubersuggest

ClickFlow

Brian Dean 

Animalz

vidIQ

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.

Connect with Us: 

• Neilpatel.com
• Quick Sprout 
• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @neilpatel 
• Twitter @ericosiu

Zapier CEO and co-founder, Wade Foster, joins on us on Leveling Up today to discuss his business, remote work and the vital importance of building a company culture! It became apparent to Wade quite early on in the journey of Zapier that if they were going to grow in the right way and continue to scale what they were doing, a well-suited company culture was necessary. This led to the development of their ethos and core values and these steps have served the company immensely in recent years! We get to hear from Wade about some of the financial aspects of the company, including their freemium model and the way they lay out their pricing plan. He also comments on leadership, with particular reference to the challenges posed by a crisis. The global pandemic has provided many challenges for us all and Wade weighs in on his approach to these and making the most of the connected opportunities. The conversation also covers the utility of podcast appearances, hiring practices at Zapier, and profit-sharing! Tune in and hear it all!

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:21] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [00:54] Zapier's place in the no-code ecosystem!
• [01:39] A refresher on Zapier and where they are currently as a business. 
• [03:24] The freemium model at Zapier, the pricing model, and how they make money.
• [07:28] Key lessons in growth and scaling for Wade around remote work and company culture. 
• [09:41] Evaluating communication skills during the hiring process. 
• [11:54] Practical steps towards building better company culture!
• [14:41] Employee retention at Zapier and how the remote model contributes to this. 
• [16:09] Lessons that Wade has learned during the pandemic about leadership during crisis.
• [19:45] Feelings about the current uncertainty; the positive and negative sides of the pandemic.
• [21:17] Profit-sharing and employee incentives at Zapier.
• [24:20] How Wade thinks about podcast appearances; qualitative feedback and recruiting.
• [26:11] Wade's favorite recent business book: The Outsiders.
• [29:48] The usefulness of Workona and Krisp!

Resources From The Interview:

• Zapier
• Wade Foster 
• Wade Foster on Twitter
• Wade Foster Email
• Slack
• G Suite
• QuickBooks
• Trello
• MailChimp
• SalesForce
• Stripe
• Twilio
• Basecamp
• Glassdoor
• Nathan Barry
• Workona
• Krisp

• Must read book: The Outsiders

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here

• Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes

• Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed

Connect with Eric Siu: 

• Growth Everywhere

• Single Grain

• Eric Siu on Twitter

You don't need a college degree to make 6 figures, even during this year's uncertain times.

Offering a SaaS product that services agriculture presents unique challenges for growth and today we chat with Allison Kopf, CEO of Artemis, about what this process looks like. Artemis is a cultivation management platform that enables growers to manage people, processes, and compliance all in one place while creating a virtually risk-free operation. Allison starts by telling us about her background in energy and what drew her obsession towards enterprise-level management and infrastructure in the agricultural industry, weighing in about how software can optimize farming and supply chains to streamline operations, bring growers closer to distributors, and more. We turn our attention to why Artemis services high-risk specialty crop farmers, and how the company makes money while encouraging compliance by using a subscription model that charges by acreage and complexity. From there, Allison talks metrics for growth rates before speaking to Artemis’ customer acquisition strategies and how direct to farmer lead generation in the format of digital events is faring since COVID. The risk of burnout due to over-productivity while working at home in the pandemic is real so we query Allison next about how her passion projects of baking, venture capital, and playing Zelda are working as buffers against this. Wrapping up, Allison weighs in on her favorite venture capital books and the massive strides Zoom and Slack have made in recent months. Tune in for this amazing conversation.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:41] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [00:42] Allison’s background in farming and idea to tweak supply chains by creating Artemis.
• [02:25] What a cultivation management platform is and how software can optimize supply chains.
• [03:13] Why Artemis works with high-risk specialty crops directly consumed by consumers. 
• [05:24] How Artemis makes its money using a subscription-based SaaS model.
• [05:43] Encouraging compliance and why Artemis charges by acreage not user.
• [06:26] Employee size and growth rates at Artemis for Q1 and COVID’s influence. 
• [07:16] Unique customer acquisition challenges Artemis faces as an agri-SaaS product.
• [09:58] Talking virtual events as a way of generating quality leads during the pandemic. 
• [12:08] Allison’s focus on baking, venture capital, and Zelda since COVID to resist overworking.
• [16:30] New creative business models since COVID and venture deals Allison has closed. 
• [17:22] Favorite books of Allison’s about venture capital and underrepresented founders.
• [18:29] Talking Zoom’s growth, Slack’s usefulness, and Allison’s favorite work tools.

Resources From The Interview:

• Allison Kopf on LinkedIn
• Allison Kopf on Twitter
• Allison Kopf on Instagram
• Allison Kopf Email
• Artemis

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars

• Zelda
• XFactor Ventures
• Zoom
• Eric Yuan
• Slack

• Shoe Dog

• Little Black Stretchy Pants

• Must read book: Raising the Bar, and It’s About Damn Time

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here

• Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes

• Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed

Connect with Eric Siu: 

• Growth Everywhere

• Single Grain

• Eric Siu on Twitter

In episode #1432, we are going to be giving you seven game-changing tools for marketers on a budget. This great session covers Eric and Neil’s famous self-made tools for optimizing traffic and SEO, getting more views on YouTube, tightening up your copy, and so much more! Tune in and find some tools that should accelerate your growth and which you can either get for super cheap or better yet, absolutely free!

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:25] Today’s topic: 7 Game-Changing Growth Tools for Marketers on a Budget.
• [00:30] How good and cheap Ubersuggest and Neil’s offerings are for SEO.
• [01:00] Using Content Decay to identify and maintain parts of your site that are losing traffic.
• [01:38] Making the most of your content by streaming it to multiple sources.
• [02:18] Getting way more traffic from YouTube using vidIQ!
• [02:36] How much more effective you become as a writer using Grammarly.
• [03:18] Connecting all marketing sources in one place using Google Data Studio.
• [03:53] Using fast-growing Zapier to build marketing workflows. 
• [04:53] That’s it for today!
• [04:55] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ubersuggest

Content Decay
Restream

vidIQ

Grammarly

Google Data Studio
Zapier

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.

With the explosive proliferation of SaaS products, it can be difficult to keep up to speed with developments such as pricing trends. While there are review sites for products, these have largely become an extension of marketing and sales rather than objective information for customers. Capiche is looking to turn this model on its head, and CEO, Austin Petersmith, joins us to share insights into the exciting platform. Capiche is a secret society for SaaS products, showing pricing data for a variety of companies. We kick off the episode by learning more about Austin and the company. With a background in journalism and experience in tech startups, Austin saw the flawed software development review ecosystem that comes from a pay to play model. He realized the need for elevated conversations, which set the wheels in motion for the creation of Capiche. We then move to discuss the pricing data the site has available. With pricing asymmetry and opacity as the biggest problems, by making data available, Capiche puts users back in the driver’s seat. From there, we then look at the platform’s approach to monetization and why they are opting to build their community first. Their customer-centric approach ensures that they stay true to the transparent ethos which the platform was built on. We round the show off with some tips from Austin for anyone looking to build community and more. Be sure to tune in today!

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:31] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [01:00] Find out more about Austin’s story and what led to the creation of Capiche.
• [03:56] What Austin thought was missing with SaaS products and the conversations about them. 
• [04:42] The SaaS pricing data that Capiche has available and the benefits for users.
• [06:42] Capiche’s growth plan and why they’re opting for high quality over monetization now.
• [08:00] What Capiche is working on currently.
• [09:22] Some of the ways that Austin has thought about monetizing Capiche. 
• [11:27] How Capiche looks to turn the conventional review site approach on its head.
• [11:57] Capiche user metrics and other data. 
• [14:52] Lessons that Austin has learned from the mistakes he made building Capiche.
• [17:52] Austin’s favorite business tool at the moment. 
• [19:03] A recent great business book Austin has read.

Resources From The Interview:

• Austin Petersmith on LinkedIn

• Austin Petersmith on Twitter

• Austin Petersmith’s email

• Capiche

• Jon Stewart

• Jason Calacanis

• Inside.com

• Notion

• Wirecutter

• Hacker News

• Figma

• Must read book: The Great CEO Within

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here

• Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes

• Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed

Connect with Eric Siu: 

• Growth Everywhere

• Single Grain

• Eric Siu on Twitter

Today, we are going to talk about seven Jeff Bezos frameworks that will supercharge your growth. These are frameworks that not a lot of people talk about, but when you think about business growth, when you think about longterm business, Amazon is the perfect example of that. No matter how much crap people talk about Amazon.

How many CEOs are running a million dollars a month, ad to webinar? Tanner Chidester is one of them and he joins us today to talk about qualifying calls and what it’s like grossing $12 million annually at 28 years old. Tanner is CEO of Elite CEOs and Fit Warrior, two high ticket coaching businesses that offer one on one mentorship in the fitness and entrepreneurship spaces. We hear from Tanner about how he went from playing D-I football to dropping out of college to pursue entrepreneurship following the advice of a mentor. Tanner weighs in on how he built Fit Warrior’s high ticket coaching service and used that business as a platform to start Elite CEOs. He talks about how his businesses make money, shares metrics about his staff count and monthly revenue, and also speaks to the resilience of the high ticket coaching model in this time of the worldwide pandemic. We hear more about Tanner’s business model which stresses many touchpoints between coaches and clients, and he talks about their subscription lengths, billing structures, success rates, and ideal clients. From there, we get into one of today’s biggest takeaways, with Tanner sharing about how he can close 60 percent of the calls his sales team take by using a conversion conversation model that qualifies calls for only a third of the cost that most businesses would pay. Wrapping up, we talk about some mindset hacks for optimizing the wellness side of entrepreneurship, and Tanner gives his recommendations for a favorite app and book to this end. Tune in for some lesser-used conversion strategies and nuggets about the effectiveness of high ticket offerings!

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:41] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [00:44] How Tanner dropped out of college to pursue entrepreneurship and made millions.
• [03:25] Why Tanner is focusing on Elite CEOs now and how he used Fit Warrior as a platform.
• [04:18] How Tanner made money initially with Fit Warrior by selling high ticket services online.
• [05:17] Advertising, sales, service packages, and staff count metrics for Tanner’s businesses.
• [06:09] How COVID is affecting conversion rates for Tanner’s sales funnels. 
• [06:49] The high level, one to one coaching business model Tanner uses in both businesses.
• [09:50] Ideal client types and why Tanner prefers coaching clients with high ticket offerings. 
• [10:56] Why Tanner’s conversion conversation model has been so successful for him.
• [14:00] How Tanner only pays around $250 rather than $600 for a qualified call.
• [16:26] Additional information about how Tanner’s team qualifies clients on the front end.
• [18:58] How helpful The Calm App has been for Tanner’s mental wellbeing.
• [19:52] The use of seeing a therapist for aiding in mental health.
• [20:55] Happiness after wealth and why Tanner loves High Performance Habits.
• [21:28] The best way to connect with Tanner online.

Resources From The Interview:

• Tanner Chidester
• Elite CEOs
• Fit Warrior
• The Calm App
• BetterHelp
• Russel Brunson

• Must read book: High Performance Habits.

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here

• Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes

• Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed

Connect with Eric Siu: 

• Growth Everywhere

• Single Grain

• Eric Siu on Twitter

Today

we share the ultimate checklist for selling high-ticket products and services. Some of the benefits of higher price points are that you have more flexibility and margin for making mistakes, and you should use this to your benefit. Tune in to hear the array of benefits to hosting a webinar and where to learn how to structure them for maximum benefit! 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:25] Today’s topic: The Ultimate Checklist for Selling High-Ticket Products and Services. 
• [00:35] Don’t think that having your offer on your website is enough—get on the phone. 
• [01:05] A higher price means more flexibility and more margin for mistakes.
• [01:25] Retarget people who have hit your page or have shown interest. 
• [02:02] Get tips from Sam Ovens and Russell Brunson on structuring webinars.  
• [02:17] The benefits of hosting a webinar and the best platforms to use. 
• [02:30] Think about building an ascension funnel and learn how from Dotcom Secrets. 
• [03:05] Ensure that your price points are above $1000.
• [03:35] Continue marketing to people once you get their email address. 
• [04:22] Use count-down timers to encourage people to buy before a certain time. 
• [04:36] Adding a survey to determine which funnel you should send prospects to. 
• [05:04] That’s it for today!
• [05:12] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Sam Ovens

Russell Brunson

EverWebinar

Webinar Jam

Dotcom Secrets

Dean Jackson

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.