The Ecom Show

Hey Budai Nation,

We’re back with another episode of your favorite e-commerce podcast, The Ecom Show!

Have you ever held yourself back from starting a business because you feared how competitive or saturated the market for it is?

If yes, then you need to tune in to today’s episode. Our guest for today’s episode is Hayden Brass, the founder, and managing director of Zea, a family-owned sustainable health and wellness brand. We promise you that his story will give you all the push you need to persevere through competition.

Before we dive right in, let me quickly introduce myself and the show. I’m Daniel Budai, the host of The Ecom Show and the founder and CEO of Budai Media, the agency that sponsors this podcast. Budai Media is a retention marketing agency specializing in email and SMS marketing. Over the last five years, we’ve generated over $35M+ in additional sales revenue for over 100+ e-commerce stores from across the globe.

Having worked with several brands in the health, wellness, beauty, and skincare space, we know that sustainability itself isn’t enough of a competitive edge to help a brand stand out from its competition. In this episode, Hayden walks us through how brands can stand out in a competitive market through his own personal experiences of growing Zea.

A little about Zea and what makes it so different:

Zea is a family-owned Australian health and wellness company founded on a love for Kunzea. Kunzea is a special Australian plant that has several healing properties. Hayden and his family have put in years of research to see how they can make the amazing healing properties of Kunzea readily and easily accessible to the world.

Their solution was to launch four distinct brands for health, wellness, and lifestyle - Zea Relief, Zea Gourmet, Zea Essentials, and Zea Active that specialize in a diverse range of natural products, including pain management, skincare, 100% pure essential oils, Australian Honey, and sports recovery.

Visit Zea to learn more about their products and brand story.

https://www.zea.com.au/

Tune in to this episode and join Hayden and me as we discuss:

✅ Hayden’s journey with starting Zea.

✅ The struggles of establishing a business in a competitive market.

✅ How to introduce customers to try and test new ingredients.

✅ Hayden’s advice for entrepreneurs.

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to support The Ecom Show by leaving a review/comment sharing your thoughts.

One last thing before you go, make sure that you find and follow me so we can stay in touch!

Find me on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Find me on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, that’s packed with the latest e-commerce buzz.

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

Check out my $37M 50-point email marketing cheatsheet, and learn how we helped more than 100 e-commerce businesses make more profit:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/cheatsheet

Check out some previous episodes:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

Thanks for tuning in.

I’ll see you again this Thursday with a brand new episode and a brand new brand story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey Budai Nation, this is your host Daniel Budai and I’d like to welcome you all to a brand new episode of The Ecom Show. If you’re new here, The Ecom Show is a bi-weekly e-commerce podcast where I invite inspirational professionals from different walks of life to share their e-commerce journey and some expert strategies and tips that they’ve picked up on the way.

This show is sponsored by Budai Media. Budai Media is a leading retention marketing agency that specializes in personalized SMS and email marketing campaigns for e-commerce stores. Budai Media has helped over 150+ businesses generate over 30M+ additional sales revenue through their unique strategies and detailed execution. Visit the website to learn more about the agency.

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/

My guest for today is Staci L Wells, the co-owner and CEO of Zen BooTique. Zen BooTique is a sustainable fashion brand with a successful international presence. Staci is the true embodiment of turning your dream into a living and in this episode, she lets us in on her secret to success.

Staci grew up with the dream of one day owning her own boutique and decided to follow her passion when she stumbled upon a sales listing for an online boutique on Facebook Marketplace. Staci used the customer list from the business she bought to start Zen BooTique, a sustainable fashion brand that now sells to customers in the US, Canada, and Australia. Apart from Zen BooTique, Staci also runs her own lifestyle management course where she helps professionals find the balance between work and their personal life.

Click on the link below to visit and shop from Staci’s website:

https://zenbootique.com/

I’d like to invite you to check out this episode to discover more about:

✅ How Staci turned a brand she bought from Facebook Marketplace into a successful e-commerce business

✅ The tools and marketing channels Staci uses to manage her e-commerce store

✅ Starting a business from scratch

✅ How to grow as an entrepreneur

Before you go, find and follow me so we can stay in touch!

Find me on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Find me on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter that’s packed with the latest e-commerce buzz.

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

Check out my $37M 50-point email marketing cheatsheet, and learn how we helped more than 100 e-commerce businesses make more profit:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/cheatsheet

Check out some previous episodes:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

Thanks for listening in; don’t forget we come out with new episodes each Tuesday and Thursday!

If you enjoyed this episode please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Ecom Show!

If you’re looking to discover e-commerce entrepreneurs and learn the latest industry secrets from their success stories, you’re in the right place!

Joining us today is Alex Volodarsky, the founder and CEO of Custom Caricatures.

Alex is a very special man because he’s got the superpower to make you a part of your favorite fandom. His company Custom Caricatures owns a line of personalized gifting e-com stores that take your pictures and turn them into a unique piece of art that makes you look like a character from your favorite fandom.

Tune in to today’s podcast to know more about how Alex acquired the popular e-com store TurnedYellow and used its growing success to launch multiple other custom caricature e-commerce stores.

But before we jump in, here’s a little about us!

The Ecom Show is a bi-weekly e-commerce podcast sponsored by Budai Media. Budai Media is a retention marketing agency that helps e-commerce businesses hyper-scale their revenue through email and SMS marketing. This show is hosted by Daniel Budai, the founder, and CEO of Budai Media.

Visit our website to learn more about us:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/

Now let’s get back to the episode!

Back in 2020, Alex decided to set out on an adventure to acquire a business. That’s when he stumbled upon TurnedYellow, a custom caricature e-com store that takes your pictures and turns you into a Simpsons character. Drawn by the quirkiness and fun behind their business model, Alex decided to come on board. Seeing the success of this memorable and unique gifting store, Alex had the brilliant idea of leveraging the existing database of artists and customers they had acquired through TurnedYellow to branch out to other fandoms as well. He created an LLP called CustomCarciatures and now has two other stores that cater to Potterheads and Star Wars fans as well.

Find his journey interesting?

Then tune in to this episode and learn more about:

⚡ How Alex acquired TurnedYellow.

⚡ The secret to building a personalized gifting store.

⚡ The reason behind TurnedYellow’s wild success.

⚡ How Alex used the success of TurnedYellow to launch several other print-on-demand businesses.

⚡ The advantages of having a lean team.

⚡ Alex’s advice to investors looking to invest in e-commerce stores.

(There’s more, but you’ll have to tune in to find that out!)

Find Alex on:

Twitter

https://twitter.com/volodarsky?lang=en

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-volodarsky-b96ab87/

Buy a unique and memorable piece of art by visiting:

TurnedYellow

https://turnedyellow.com/

MakeMeJedi

https://makemejedi.com/

TurnedWizard

https://turnedwizard.com/

You can also find us on:

Daniel’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Our weekly newsletter that’s packed with the latest e-commerce buzz straight to your inbox:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

Our previous episodes:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

Thanks for listening in; we release new episodes each Tuesday and Thursday!

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Hello Budai Nation,

Today we’re welcoming Brian Roisentul, CEO and founder of BSR Digital, a social media marketing agency specializing in paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads. The successful agency is managing over $3.6M/year worth of ads for different e-commerce brands.

Besides his position as CEO, he’s also the host of the Fit Growth Machine podcast which treats customer acquisition strategies for e-commerce brands. Brian will share with us his success story and journey in the world of social media marketing, but also some pretty valuable strategies for e-commerce brands to scale their businesses quickly and more effectively.

Welcome to The Ecom Show! Your go-to weekly e-commerce podcast for uncovering new stories, strategies, secrets, and everything e-commerce. This podcast is sponsored by Budai Media, a retention marketing agency that’s helped 125+ e-commerce businesses generate over $35M+ in additional sales revenue.

Join Daniel Budai (our host and the founder of Budai Media) and Brian Roisentul in this episode to learn more about:

✅ Brian’s Success Story in the Digital World

✅ Marketing Strategies for Fashion and Apparel Brands

✅ The Use of Third-Party Data to Scale Your Online Business

Let’s jump right in.

Brian comes from a background in computer science. He used to work as a software developer for a software factory, based in the US. During the 2008 recession, they closed their doors, like many other companies in the USA back then, which lead him, along with other partners, to start a brand new venture, with which he will keep working in software development, until 2010. He then started his first solo Software Factory to raise its capital shortly after, evolving into a startup with 40 collaborators.

A few months of existence later came the “boom” of social media, when everyone was looking to grow their organic prospects online, trading trucks, cars, and all the crazy stuff for fans and followers. That’s when Brian decided to surf the digital marketing wave and offer viable solutions to their clients, generating leads and sales through social media, shifting from software engineering to leading a pure social media marketing agency, specializing in scaling e-commerce brands in a specific industry he loves: Fashion and Apparel.

Brian Roisentul, through his own personal experience, breaks down the process of going from the product idea to the end customer into 3 simple, yet very complex phases:

🔸 Choosing the right industry:

His example is pretty clear, he totally left the Tech world for the Marketing world. It took him passion, and motivation, but mainly knowledge since it was a flourishing discipline back then, and he witnessed the birth of social media marketing, taking the opportunity to put into practice his knowledge in software engineering and transcribing it into Digital Marketing. And then, once again, focusing on what he was comfortable and experienced with the most, the Fashion and Apparel industry.

In short, do what you know best, get knowledge, try and fail, learn and focus on a niche or two, and give it all you got to make it grow and evolve into a successful business.

🔸 Differentiating your brand within the industry:

Brian gives a very interesting example of a phone case brand, and how they differentiated themselves from the competition: They helped catch babies’ and toddlers’ attention with fun phone cases that make them look at the camera and smile, making thousands of parents happy, as they take beautiful pictures of their loved ones, thus keeping amazing memories. It was simple, yet ingenious.

And that’s just one idea among many others. You might sell the same product as everyone, but a single asset can make you stand out from the crowd. For example, selling the same T-Shirt as your competitors, but using special fabric, like organic or recyclable materials. The possibilities are endless.

🔸 Acquiring leads and making sales:

Probably the hardest phase to reach, but also the most satisfying, once you start making your first sales, and taking off your business. Brian’s experience showed that the best leads are people who previously bought products similar to yours, or showed interest in your industry or niche. And the best way to get those leads is to actually know them.

And what do you need to be able to know and target them? DATA! There is no marketing as efficient as data-driven marketing, and that’s why everybody’s rushing to gather data about their target audience, they will know what they like, and what they buy, but also their expectations from a specific type of product, making it easy to satisfy their needs.

Even though it becomes harder and harder to access Third-Party Data, most notably with the launch of iOs 14, which affected Facebook and other Social Media’s data collection and ad targeting, there are still other ways to gather data to better target your audience and convert them into leads. Brian explains that since 2018, and how the algorithms drastically changed, organic reach is definitely harder than before.

Today, it’s more time for zero and first-party data, but what if you don’t have your own database, and if you do, is it rich enough for you to reach the expected results in sales and impressions? And that’s where Data Exchange comes into place! Anything from targeted Facebook ads that are still showing great results, to partnerships with notorious influencers with a great audience that includes your target, accessing their behaviors, or, even better an exhaustive e-mail list of organic, real, and active demography of potential leads, future-customers.

That’s all for this episode of The Ecom Show. If you enjoyed it, make sure to join us again next Thursday for a brand new episode.

Get our $37M 50-point checklist to take your e-commerce retention marketing to the next level 👇

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/cheatsheet

Follow Brian Roisentul to learn more about him:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianroisentul

Visit BSR Digital to learn more about them:

https://www.bsrdigital.com/

Follow Daniel Budai

Daniel’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Daniel’s Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

The Ecom Show

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

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Hey Budai Nation,

We’ve got a celebrity joining us for this episode of The Ecom Show!

You may recognize Rasmus Barfred and his company TheMagic5 from the huge splash they created with their show-stealing speech on the popular business reality show, Shark Tank. Their pitch threw all the sharks into a feeding frenzy, and the co-founders walked out of the tank with a deal from Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec.

He’s here with us today to share the business lessons that helped him land the deal, and of course to get candid about his experience in and beyond the tank.

Join Rasmus Barfred and our founder/podcast host Daniel Budai to learn more about:

✅ The Story Behind TheMagic5

✅ How To Prepare For Shark Tank

✅ TheMagic5’s Marketing Strategy

Let’s dive right in!

TheMagic5 is a made-to-measure swimming eyewear brand co-founded by Bo, Niklas, and Rasmus. All three of them were swimmers that struggled with finding a good long-lasting pair of swimming goggles. United by their passion to solve this issue, the three of them set out to create a brand new technology that completely revolutionized this space.

TheMagic5 uses optimal fitting technology to map a customer's face and then creates a completely customized pair of swimming goggles. Their technology is so precise and advanced that they have a return rate of only 1%.

TheMagic5 was founded back in 2017, and soon after Rasmus moved to the USA to expand their business further. Magic5 has spent a lot of time researching and developing its product. They started out by surveying over 450 athletes, swimmers, and triathletes to understand the core issues that people faced with swimming goggles. They then purchased all the different kinds of swimming goggles available in the market to understand the design aspect better. After their primary research, they were clear that they needed a customized product to solve this issue properly, and hence put all their resources into developing the technology they needed. And all that research paid off well for them as TheMagic5 has successfully sold over 100,000 pairs of their personalized swimwear, and has two wonderful sharks as investors to help them scale their business to newer heights.

It’s impossible to watch Shark Tank without visualizing how you would go about pitching your business to the Sharks. Rasmus got candid about his experience on and beyond the tank. Here are some of the highlights from this episode:

Why did you decide to take your business to Shark Tank for an investment?

There were two things that drove Rasmus and his co-founders to pitch on Shark Tank. The first was awareness:

“Our customer base is everyone from top Olympic athletes, to regular swimmers that swim once a week. We wanted to reach that audience through a mass consumer television show that was super interesting.”

The second was the need for a strategic partner. The optimal technology TheMagic5 uses can be adapted to work with other products as well, but expanding to new verticals requires some strategic guidance which drove Rasmus and his partners to approach the tank. They were particularly interested in getting a deal with either Mark Cuban or Robert Herjavec for their expertise in technology, and they were fortunate enough to walk out of the tank with investments from both the sharks.

How did you prepare for the tank?

The key thing is to know your numbers. If you don’t know your numbers the sharks will see right through you. Secondly, have an explanation to justify any questions that may arise after you share your numbers.

Prepare and practice your pitch several times before you go in. Run yourself through all the different scenarios before walking in, and make sure that you discuss how low you’re willing to go during negotiations beforehand. This makes you look more decisive.

Who should go into Shark Tank and do you have any advice for them?

Shark Tank gives you access to an audience of 5 million viewers on primetime US television. All the press, tension, and visibility surrounding your business make Shark Tank the ideal show for several businesses. Especially those that have a consumer product, tangible product, something that's easy to relate to and can be easily bought online. But the tank has also worked great for transactional websites, apps, and vending machines in the past.

The key is to go in if you know your numbers, strengths, and weaknesses. You need to know your business in and out before you go in for a pitch because only the first minute of your time on Shark Tank is uninterrupted, post that the sharks question you on all the aspects of your business, and depending on their interest this can last from anywhere between ten minutes to an hour.

TheMagic5’s main focus has been on getting their Facebook, Instagram, and Google PPC ads in order. They focus a lot on SEO and have used their Shark Tank fame to compete for better keywords as well. They’re also very building their social media presence on multiple channels like Pinterest, Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram.

Apart from this, they’re exploring how traditional marketing channels like offline advertising and strategic partnerships with swim clubs can help them gain more visibility. Their main goal is to reach the customers while they’re experiencing issues with their current swimming goggles to drive instant conversion, and in order to do so, they need to increase their visibility and awareness.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, make sure to be back here next Thursday for our next episode.

Meanwhile, you can check out some of our previous episodes of The Ecom Show to uncover other interesting e-commerce stories.

Visit TheMagic5 to order your own pair of custom swimming glasses:

https://themagic5.com/

Follow Rasmus Barfred to know more about his journey:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmus-barfred-38a5b636/

Follow Daniel Budai

Daniel’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Daniel’s YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Daniel’s Newsletter

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

The Ecom Show

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

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Hey Budai Nation,

We’re honored to share that Juan Chavez, the CEO of the successful automotive business JMC equipment, is our guest for today’s episode. JMC equipment has been holding the title of an Inc.5000 company for the past 4 years now. They have a successful B2B e-commerce store that you’ll learn more about in this episode.

Welcome to The Ecom Show! Your go-to weekly e-commerce podcast for uncovering new stories, strategies, secrets, and everything e-commerce. This podcast is sponsored by Budai Media, a retention marketing agency that’s helped 125+ e-commerce businesses generate over $35M+ in additional sales revenue.

Join Daniel Budai (our host and the founder of Budai Media) and Juan Chavez in this episode to learn more about:

✅ Juan’s Journey With Jmc Equipment

✅ A Business Lesson That Juan Learned the Hard Way

✅ Juan’s Advice for New eCommerce Owners

Let’s jump right in.

Juan is the second generation to be leading the team at JMC Equipment. The business was founded by his father, and Juan joined in after he decided to call quits on his first venture. JMC equipment is an automotive parts distributor to repair shops and retail stores. Before Juan stepped in, his father would approach stores in New York one at a time, and find leads door to door.

Juan helped launch JMC into the world of e-commerce by setting up a website and letting customers approach them instead. JMC is a unique company because their team is based out of Medellin, Colombia, but their sales are focused entirely on the US market.

Juan E. Chavez is based out of Medellin, Colombia. He has another successful business venture as well. Juan runs his own travel and real estate company that helps clients based out of New York find their dream apartments in Colombia.

Back to the Inc.5000 company though, JMC equipment has a solid team of skilled professionals that take care of the SEO and e-commerce side of things. They’ve also invested in building a strong team of salespeople, and customer-care executives that make sure that their leads get the information and push they need to purchase.

JMC Equipment sells high-ticket products with their average orders running anywhere between $2000 and above. In order to close a deal, they’re very active with their email marketing and even go a step beyond by calling their abandoned cart to close the sale. Their paid marketing efforts include a combination of Google ads, Facebook ads, and email marketing. For organic marketing, they also have an enriched library of educational blogs.

Juan has over a decade of business experience under his belt. We asked him what’s the hardest thing that being in business has taught him, and here’s what he had to say: “The hardest thing I’ve learned goes beyond business, it’s basically about how to pick yourself up from a failure.”

I have been in that position where I thought that I might have to shut my business down. But the resilience to push forward despite the difficulties is what helped. Every other skill is a skill that you could probably just learn, you know if you put in the work, and if you put in the hours, but actual experience of like, you know, the experience that you go through when you make a mistake, and you lose money, or whatever, maybe you're or you're thinking about quitting is not something easy to understand.

But if you stick with it, you will eventually come out the other side a lot stronger with tougher skin. So the biggest lesson is not to give up when failure is knocking on your door.

The best way to start an e-commerce business is by finding a good product that you have knowledge about, and that you’re motivated to sell. Ideally, find a way to sell this product without having to start with production. Dropshipping is a great way to escape inventory management. Once you have your e-commerce storefront, and marketing taken care of you can look into expanding into starting your own production. This gives you time to focus on taking your business off. The second piece of advice would be to know your industry. Research and talk to your potential customers, it’s the best way to grow your business.

That’s all for this episode of The Ecom Show. If you enjoyed it please make sure to be back here next Thursday for a brand new episode.

Click on the link below to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive actionable tips, strategies, and resources to help you grow your e-commerce store. 👇

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

By the way, we are giving our email marketing cheatsheet for free, and it has already helped more than 100 companies increase their revenue. Here is the cheatsheet link:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/cheatsheet

Follow Juan E Chavez to learn more about him:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmcequipment/

Visit JMC Equipment to learn more about them:

https://jmcautomotiveequipment.com/

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Daniel’s YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

The Ecom Show

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s no secret that social media applications have taken over the world we live in. Every business owner is now a creator too. In fact, we’ve spoken about how important story-telling and social media can be in creating a strong brand identity in today’s world in several of our previous episodes of The Ecom Show.

But we’ve turned the tables around for this episode. Join Brandon, the founder of Vintage Gentleman, to learn more about how a social media creator/influencer can use their platform to bootstrap a brand from scratch.

Before we begin, here's a small recap of what this show is all about for all the new listeners. The Ecom Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Daniel Budai, the founder and CEO of Budai Media. Daniel invites e-commerce business owners from different industries to share their experiences, learnings, and expert tips to highlight the latest trends, hacks, and best practices for all e-commerce stores out there. This show is sponsored by Budai Media, a retention marketing agency that’s helped over 130 businesses scale their e-commerce stores with personalized email and SMS marketing.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s continue with the show!

Tune in to learn more about:

✅ How Brandon Started the Vintage Gentlemen

✅ 3 Things That Have Helped Brandon Build a Successful Business

✅ Brandon’s Advice to Creators Looking To Start Their Own Brand

Brandon has benefited from having an early adopter advantage. He began using Instagram in 2015 when he started noticing how the application helped create trends. He noticed an opportunity to build an audience and created the Vintage Gentlemen, which back then was just a simple lifestyle account that offered suggestions for men’s lifestyle products.

Since men’s lifestyle was a new niche he quickly gained traction and built an engaging community of about 20-30,000 followers. He started getting offers for brand endorsements and became a popular influencer. Brandon knew that there was scope to build something bigger using the community he had created, this is what led to him launching his own e-commerce store.

Brandon began by dropshipping products from the artisanal brands he had previously done endorsements with. After seeing how well that worked he slowly expanded to creating his own range of products. Currently, about 70-80% of Vintage Gentlemen’s range of products are manufactured in-house.

With a following of over 240,000 followers on Instagram, Vintage Gentlemen has grown immensely since it began. What was once an influencer account is now a fully functional e-commerce store that manufactures most of its in-house products. Here are three key factors that have helped Brandon fuel Vintage Gentlemen’s growth:

Reinvesting money back into the business: Despite the success of Vintage Gentlemen, Brandon has still retained his job in the insurance industry. His job allows him to fund his own lifestyle without needing any money from Vintage Gentlemen enabling him to reinvest all the profits into growing the business.

Leveraging organic social media platforms to build a community: Vintage Gentlemen might have gone from being a lifestyle social media account to a full-fledged brand but they haven’t forgotten their roots. In fact, Vintage Gentlemen has expanded its social media reach by focusing on TikTok as well. Their strong social media presence and use of other social media creators to aid their growth has helped them build a community.

Finding a balance between paid and organic content marketing:Since Vintage Gentlemen already had an existing community of followers that supported the brand from its inception, Brandon spent the first few years focusing on fine-tuning the e-commerce operations. He set up other paid marketing channels like Google Ads to drive more leads, and email marketing to convert/retain these leads. His end goal is to create a brand that has both strong paid marketing as well as an enriched library of content that's engaging enough to build a community in the men’s lifestyle space.

We asked Brandon what his main advice would be to content creators looking to start their own brand with very little capital. Here’s what they had to say:

• Have a strategic approach to starting your business.
• Consider drop shipping to save initial start-up costs, invest in a basic Shopify plan, and look at low-risk methods of bootstrapping your business.
• Your initial focus needs to be on grabbing user attention and creating a community around your brand.
• The key is to find creative ways to build your business.

Catch Brandon and Daniel’s entire conversation by listening to this episode.

To know more about Vintage Gentlemen check out their website:

https://www.thevintagegentlemen.com/

Follow Brandon on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-higginbotham-031118197/

Follow Daniel Budai

Daniel’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Daniel’s YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Daniel’s Newsletter

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

The Ecom Show

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you know that 77% of Americans take at least one supplement? The supplement industry is booming, it’s valued at over $163 billion in 2022, and it’s predicted to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.4% in the next eight years.

Supplements are great for your health, and running a supplement business can help you generate immense wealth! In this episode of The Ecom Show, we’re going to be scratching the surface on how you can create a name for yourself in this extremely lucrative and competitive industry.

Michael Muscari, the founder and CEO of the premium Liposomal Vitamins and Dietary Supplements brand NanoNutra will be joining our podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai, to share some proven strategies that can help you market a supplement brand.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about:

✅ Michael’s Journey With NanoNutra

✅ 3 Strategies To Market A Supplement Brand

✅ Michael’s Advice To New Entrepreneurs

Michael worked as a financial advisor for a couple of years but he wasn’t too happy working a job where everything depended on the market’s volatility, so he started venturing out and landed a gig with an ad agency. At the same time, he was also working as a freelancer for a supplement company who were in the diet and weight loss space.

That’s where he got his first introduction to the world of e-commerce. Around the same time he stumbled upon the famous book, The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. Determined to live by the four-hour philosophy, Michael decided to take control of his own life and started his own e-commerce venture.

Michael’s first venture was called ImmunitySport+ where he focused on creating a niche in the supplement market with his single green immunity tablet. By the time he got this brand up and running, he’d become an expert at SEO and selling on Amazon. He then launched his second fitness and wellness brand called Healthy Start. Healthy Start focused on a wider range of products. His business now exhibited over a dozen supplement products. He realized that he had cracked the code with his research on nanotechnology and liposomal supplements, and decided to go all in.

He sold off all the other assets and moved his sole focus to building NanoNutra.

NanoNutra is a premium Liposomal Vitamins and Dietary Supplements brand. Most oral supplements are unable to help human bodies retain 80% of the nutrients they consume through the pill. Michael’s research on liposomal technology helped him find a solution to this problem which led to him starting NanoNutra. They now sell a full line of supplements, all using liposomal technology.

The supplement industry is highly competitive and diluted. There are a ton of new brands springing up everyday and making a name for yourself requires strategic brand positioning and effort. We asked Michael to share the marketing secrets that he’s picked up over the years of working in this industry.

Here are the three strategies that he’s used to grow NanoNutra:

1. Focus on Education: NanoNutra uses a combination of technology and natural nutrients to create supplements that aid your fitness journey. Since they’re an early adopter of the Liposomal technology they focus heavily on educating consumers about the benefits and real life value of their products. They’re extremely transparent about what goes into their supplements, the results that customers can expect, and the process of how their supplements work. Michael also sends out a lot of high value emails to his subscribers to share credible information that can help them enhance their fitness and wellness journey.
2. Get Endorsements: NanoNutra focused on getting doctors, nutritionists and fitness coaches to endorse their supplements. They prioritized creating high-value content from credible fitness and wellness personalities over spending on influencer outreach. This has helped them build trust.
3. Create Subscriptions or Value-Packs:Supplements are something that you require on a cyclical basis. NanoNutra recognized this and created subscription packs that have helped them create a base of returning customers. They also provide discounted prices on variety packs to encourage customers to test their wide range of supplements.

We asked Michael what his advice would be to new entrepreneurs. Here’s what he had to say:

“You have to have a lot of passion for whatever it is you choose to do or sell. You know, if you're just trying to make easy money, it's going to be very short lived if you find it at all.”

Find something that aligns with you and your values that you feel comfortable selling to other people. E-commerce has gotten nuanced and you need to be able to completely get behind your product to be able to create a solid brand which is why you should chase something that you’re passionate about.

Michael even has a free course called, The Purpose Method, that helps individuals find their true calling. You can check it out by clicking here.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Ecom Show.

Before we go, here’s a special cheat sheet to help you audit your Klaviyo account.

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/cheatsheet

Follow Michael on LinkedIN.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmuscari/

Visit NanoNutra

https://www.nanonutrausa.com/

Follow Daniel Budai

Daniel’s LinkedIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Daniel’s Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Daniel’s Newsletter

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The Ecom Show

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Hey Budai Nation!

Welcome to The Ecom Show. If you’re new here, The Ecom Show is a weekly e-commerce podcast series hosted by Daniel Budai where he invites new speakers each week to talk about their experiences and share their expert insights on trending ecommerce topics. This show is sponsored by Budai Media, a retention marketing agency that helps customer obsessed e-commerce brands grow with email and SMS marketing.

If you’re a regular, welcome back! We have an exciting episode lined up for you. We’ve got Matt Edmundson, a serial e-com entrepreneur, founder of a successful e-commerce agency, and e-commerce coach, here with us today to talk about his 7-step strategy to successfully scale and sell a brand.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about:

✅ Matt’s eCommerce Adventures

✅ The 7-Step Guide to Scale and Sell Your Business

✅ How Livestreaming Can Help You Stand Out

Let’s jump right in!

Matt was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug at an early age. His first venture began while he was still in school. He started a candy shop and was so successful that he was asked to stop because his school decided to start their own candy store.

But it was back in the last nineties when he properly got into e-commerce. Matt was working as a salesperson for a company that designed and installed saunas when he was approached by a friend that needed some help with building a website for their church. He offered to help his friend build this website in exchange for his friend sponsoring the software required to launch it.

Matt taught himself how to code and built a functioning website using Dreamweaver. He then thought about taking his knowledge of building a website to create his own ecommerce store, but he had one problem, he didn’t have a product to sell.

Matt approached a business that sold tanning lotions and started selling their product through his ecommerce store. This worked out fairly well, and he ended up selling the website to the business he sourced the products from. That was twenty years ago.

Currently, he’s the founder and CEO of Aurion Digital, a group of e-commerce services companies dedicated to helping companies grow online. He’s also an e-commerce coach, serial entrepreneur, an avid podcaster, and a pastor.

Matt Edmundson has generated over $50,000,000+ in sales revenue through his combined e-commerce ventures. He’s set up, built, sold, or failed at 19 e-commerce websites in various forms, and has decades of global experience in the world of e-commerce. All his years of mastering the world of e-commerce has helped him devise a 7-step guide to help scale and sell businesses.

Here are the seven steps:

Step 1, The Story: Before you start your business ask yourself what your brand is all about. Do a thorough research of the market you’re entering, and figure out how you plan to position yourself.

Step 2, The Product: Make sure that you understand the product you’re trying to sell before you hit the market. Anticipate the demand for the product you’re trying to create or sell, and ensure that you’re knowledgeable enough to be an expert in that field.

Step 3, The Website: Research on which platform fits your needs the best and create a website to start selling your product.

Step 4, Marketing: Figure out your go-to strategy for digital marketing and create a presence on platforms that your target audience are the most active on.

Step 5, Engagement: This stage focuses on how you can maximize your investment by generating more value out of your leads. How do you get a customer to keep coming back to your brand? It basically talks about how businesses can formulate a strategy to continue selling to their existing customers.

Step 6, Customer Experience: One of the most important steps that most big businesses struggle with. In this stage, Matt talks about all the tiny actions that create a lasting impression on customers, and the steps that businesses can take to elevate their customers’ shopping experience.

Step 7, Growth: In this stage, Matt shares how businesses can scale and repeat the success they received from the previous six stages to grow their business. He deep dives into what gives successful businesses the cutting edge over the rest in the market.

Live Streaming is a great way for brands to engage with customers in real-time. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow businesses to engage with a live audience and are becoming increasingly popular platforms for brands to introduce their new collections, or even address their audience about upcoming news.

Matt Edmundson’s number 1 advice to e-commerce businesses this year is to pay attention to live streaming, and find a way to incorporate it with their website. He believes this could be one of the best ways for brands to stand out in the near future. Live streaming allows business owners to turn their own business into a QVC kind of set up, and has great potential to not only help businesses increase their sales but to also positively impact their engagement.

That’s all for this episode of The Ecom Show.

If you enjoyed this episode, you can check out all our previous ones by clicking here.

Follow Matt Edmundson

Website:

https://www.mattedmundson.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/mattedmundson

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mattedmundson/

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/mattedmundson

Visit Aurion Digital:

https://auriondigital.com/

Follow Daniel Budai

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

Newsletter

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/weekly-newsletter-signup

The Ecom Show

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

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Hey Budai Nation,

Welcome to The Ecom Show! A place where you can discover a new e-com story each Thursday. This podcast is sponsored by Budai Media, a growing retention marketing agency that helps e-commerce businesses boost their sales with email and SMS marketing.

This week, chief underwear specialist, Alex Bortoluzzi, will be joining our podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai. Alex will be getting personal about his personal wear brand Krakatoa’s story. Krakatoa is a unique men’s underwear brand that’s won over customers with its honest approach and attention to detail.

Tune in to learn more about:

✅ How Alex Founded Krakatoa

✅ How to Win Over Customers Without Discounts

✅ 4 Product Design Takeaways From Krakatoa

Alex’s entrepreneurial journey began after he left college. He studied computer science in Brazil and then got a job working with computer graphics back in the 80s. He was always inclined toward computers, and he started two companies early in his career. First, he had a motion graphics and advertising and broadcasting company. Needing a new challenge, he relocated to the USA and searched for game designing jobs. He worked with several big gaming companies like Treyarch and Activision and even ventured out on his own to create mobile games from scratch.

However, Alex wanted a change from the tech industry and was looking for a fresh project to dive into. He’d always struggled with finding the perfect pair of underwear and realized there was space for innovation in the men’s personal wear industry. He began researching patterns, fabrics, and the male anatomy and eventually started Krakatoa.

Krakatoa is named after the world’s most powerful volcano that’s located in Indonesia. Alex connected with the name because he felt that his underwear line was the perfect blend between power and beauty, and he believed that a name that connects with eruptions and loud noises would resonate with his male audience.

Alex built Krakatoa without any prior experience in the fashion industry. He put a lot of work into finding what the existing market was lacking and created a superior product by testing out various fabrics, cuts, and styles with multiple prototypes. He’s majorly a one-man show that’s done everything from creating the website to photographing his products. He’s very personally involved in the brand’s story and growth which has helped him create a strong bond with all his customers.

Krakatoa is a unique brand because they don’t use discounts or sales to attract customers. Alex has always believed in creating a strong brand identity and feels that his community might feel cheated if they see the products they’ve bought go on a clearance sale just a few months after their purchase. This is why he keeps his pricing consistent.

Alex found his target audience and has designed all his marketing to fit what resonates with them the best. He realized that his core audience were men between the age of 30-60 year old. Everything from his product design to the messaging he uses in his ads and emails is catered to them.

He developed his product after testing other underwear from brands across the world. Alex approached different manufacturers from different parts of the world and created various samples before landing up with the perfect prototype for his product. His goal from the start has been to create underwear that delivers the ultimate level of comfort.

His collection consists of solid colors with minimal print because he’s catering to an older audience. His brand’s advertising and tone of voice have always been educational to highlight the advantages of shifting to Krakatoa in a straightforward manner, and it’s worked really well for him because he now has a community of loyal customers. He frequently engages with this community through weekly email campaigns that he works on himself.

While Krakatoa doesn’t offer discounts, their products are very competitively priced, which attracts customers all year round. The secret behind Alex’s success with Krakatoa is his attention to detail and commitment to his brand. He’s consistently working towards improving his product and is very personally involved in most aspects of its growth. The way to create a successful brand without relying too much on discounts is through knowing your target audience and personalizing everything to build strong brand loyalty.

As we mentioned earlier, Alex has a great eye for detail. He’s managed to successfully create a men’s underwear brand without any prior knowledge or professional experience in the garment industry. This has been possible only through thorough research and unwavering interest in wanting to improve. Here are four product design takeaways from Krakatoa that give it the cutting edge needed to thrive in the fashion industry:

1. Experimentation: Alex isn’t afraid to use products that his competitors haven’t tried. He also prioritizes the quality of fabrics over their price.
2. Product testing: Alex ensures that he personally tests out every new style or fabric that he’s planning to launch. You’re your first customer; if you’re not satisfied with your product, no one else would be. He also gifts samples to people around him to get honest feedback on his products from people across different body shapes.
3. Research: Alex makes it a point to consistently update himself with whatever’s new and trending in the market. He not only researches his competitors but also keeps an eye out for new fabrics, styles, and designs to innovate and inspire his new collections.
4. Feedback: Alex makes it a point to incorporate the feedback he receives from customers. His main goal is to solve the problem of finding comfortable underwear for men, and he’s extremely open to feedback that can help him improve Krakatoa. For instance, he redesigned the underwear pouch in his upcoming collection as some customers requested roomier underwear.

That’s all for this week’s episode of The Ecom Show. Make sure to check out Krakatoa.

To learn more about Alex, follow him on LinkedIn.

Thanks for tuning in!

We release new episodes every Thursday. Meanwhile, if you feel like listening to some of our other podcast episodes, click here.

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