The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

If you're just focusing on your company's annual income, you're doing it wrong.

Today, Ryan Tansom, founder of Arkona, is here to talk about why creating long term value in your business should be your priority. In 2014, Ryan helped turn his family business around and then sold it for 8 figures. Today he's helping entrepreneurs make the shift from thinking about annual income to focusing on long term value creation instead.

In this episode, Ryan shares why your goal shouldn't always be to maximize income, how to think about investing in your business, and the right way to run your business so that people want to buy it.

Whether you have intentions to sell or not, Ryan's ideas on creating long term value in your business will open up opportunities you'll have the power and choice to leverage whenever you want.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 4:49 Why Ryan is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create long term value
• 8:04 The right time for a business to think about its direction
• 11:16 Annual income vs long term value: Which is better?
• 13:51 How investing in your business could be more valuable than cash
• 18:00 Tracking the value of your company even if you don't want to sell
• 19:30 What a "good valuation" really means
• 22:28 Things professional buyers are looking for when evaluating your company
• 25:47 Understanding the J curve and the opportunities you may be missing in your business
• 30:33 When it's time to find a new CEO
• 35:37 Why you should focus on long term value even if you don't plan to sell
• 41:16 What business owners should know about the exit process
• 44:21 The things entrepreneurs actually have control over
• 46:01 What you'll learn in Ryan's upcoming Coalition training

Links and Resources:

• Ryan on LinkedIn
• Arkona.io
• Intentional Growth Podcast
• Value Builder System
• Value Opportunity Profile
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @brandgrowthx on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Implementing Traction at your company? Here's what you should know before you start.

Many of our clients inside of the Coalition have heard of Traction and have considered trying to implement EOS at their company. If this phrase is new to you, EOS - the Entrepreneurial Operating System - is a set of concepts and tools that can help your team align on a clear vision, make progress towards defined goals, and increase accountability and communication.

Our team dove headfirst into the task of implementing Traction just over a year ago and we've learned a lot since. In this episode, I'm sharing how we adopted the EOS methodology, the pros and cons of using it, and who I think has the most to gain from it.

If you're an eCommerce entrepreneur who thinks there might be a better way to run your business, this episode is for you.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 4:50 Life before finding Traction
• 6:53 The best part about using the EOS process and how it changed the game for us
• 8:05 What "rocks" are and how they address the biggest struggles I see entrepreneurs facing today
• 10:27 The feedback from my team that I didn't see coming
• 11:51 How we work around the biggest con of using EOS
• 15:07 Who EOS works best for
• 16:10 Why I think solopreneurs will struggle implementing EOS
• 18:59 How to get free 30-day access to the Coalition

Links and Resources:

• Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman
• Traction Implementation Tools
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @brandgrowthx on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Do you want to know how to hire rockstar talent this year?

Finding high-quality talent is a major key to the growth of any organization. However, it's often seen as a difficult task and can cost a lot of time and money when done incorrectly.

At Brand Growth Experts we just hired our newest Community and Events Manager after sorting through nearly three hundred applications and I'm here to tell you how we did it.

You'll learn our step-by-process on how to hire a great employee every time, ways to simplify and structure your hiring process, and the tools we used to manage hundreds of applications.

If you've been wondering how to hire without getting overwhelmed at the task this episode is for you.

Episode Highlights

• 6:36 Creating your accountability chart
• 9:39 How to attract the right candidates
• 14:24 Promoting your job with advertising
• 16:52 The number one mistake I see companies make when hiring
• 19:22 Mapping out your hiring process
• 22:20 How to hire using AirTable
• 24:06 Are you valuing your own opportunity?

Links and Resources:

• Traction Accountability Chart
• AirTable
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @brandgrowthx on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Is your content strategy worth half a million dollars?

Mark Stallings is the CEO of Casely, an ecommerce tech-accessories retailer that's gone from zero to eight figures in just four years. After dropping out of college, Mark convinced his sister Emily to cofound the company with him. They've been bootstrapping their way through everything from website coding to paid advertising ever since.

I've gotten to know Mark over the last few years after he became a founding member of The Coalition in 2018. He joins us to share what he and his sister learned over the years, including how they profitably spend half a million dollars on paid advertising every month. We also touch on how they leverage their content strategy for growth, their approach to hiring, and how they maintain a lean team.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:45 How Casely leverages the subscription model
• 10:33 Why Mark dropped out of college after one year
• 12:14 Diving into an Instagram rabbit hole to understand your audience
• 16:08 What the first six months of paid advertising looked like for Casely
• 18:31 The content strategy that's taking the business to the next level
• 22:29 Building and scaling the Casely team
• 27:22 The two biggest obstacles when using FB ads
• 29:37 How Mark spends time in the business
• 31:12 Common misconceptions people have about spending a lot on Facebook
• 31:45 The top metrics Mark closely monitors
• 35:01 Mark's biggest learning experience over 2020
• 38:51 The hardest part about building Casely
• 40:05 The secret sauce for hiring and company culture
• 43:26 What Mark is most curious about today
• 45:00 Two things every ecommerce company should focus on
• 47:15 Mark's resources and strategies for growing your business

Links and Resources:

• Casely
• The Exit Strategy by Moiz Ali
• David Hermann on Twitter
• Foxwell Digital
• [email protected]
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @brandgrowthx on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

2020 Threw Us All For A Loop. Here's What We Learned From It and How It's Helping Us Prepare For 2021.

Nobody saw COVID-19 coming and nearly every business had to make pivots while market conditions changed daily.

Not only did I see changes happen in my own business, but I also witnessed them across all of the ecommerce companies I have the opportunity to work with inside of The Coalition. This made my annual end-of-year review that much more interesting so I decided to wrap up my findings in this episode and share it with you.

In this episode, I talk about the things that went well for me and the companies we work with, the hard lessons and challenges that were presented, and the top takeaways that every ecommerce business owner needs to know to prepare for 2021.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 3:55 The number one question I'm asking myself about 2020
• 7:45 How hiring has been a game-changer for our business
• 10:07 What having a local community has done for me
• 11:25 The COVID-19 impact on our business
• 17:09 My biggest takeaways from 2020
• 18:44 Do you own your marketing channels?
• 20:09 How having multiple streams of income can help prepare for 2021
• 22:29 Industries that are going to continue to thrive
• 23:27 Why awareness might not be your marketing problem

Links and Resources:

• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @brandgrowthx on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

If you took a month off from your business would it thrive or struggle to survive?

Nat Eliason is three-time Ecommerce Influence guest who built a business that runs itself and he's here to tell you how he did it.

Nat founded an Ecommerce company called Cup and Leaf (now Sencha Tea Bar) which he sold last year. More recently, he built an agency called Growth Machine that continues to flourish without him being in the day-to-day operations.

Tune into this episode to learn how to build a system that prevents things from piling onto your plate, the roles you should absolutely hire for in your business, and the advice Nat has followed to allow for this growth.

Episode Highlights

• 4:59 Nat and Austin's elk hunt
• 12:08 The biggest thing Nat learned in 2020
• 15:49 Three reasons Nat is able to consistently put out new content
• 20:39 How to ship high-quality creative work
• 27:57 Nat's system to avoid piling things onto his plate
• 33:29 Advice Nat received that helped him build a business that runs itself
• 38:12 The roles Nat hired for to build and scale his agency
• 43:50 Three types of workstyles you should know about before hiring
• 48:59 The type of people you need to hire if you want to build a business that runs itself
• 52:00 The business model the most successful companies follow
• 56:42 How to get yourself out of the day-to-day aspect of your business
• 1:02:05 Getting trapped in a company you created
• 1:11:17 Using resistance as a tool for growth
• 1:15:25 Is your productivity destroying your health?
• 1:24:21 What Nat's most excited about right now

Links and Resources:

• Growth Machine
• Sacred Hunting
• Ali Abdaal's YouTube Channel
• Ali Abdaal's Video Editing Skillshare Course
• David Allen
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• Podcast 129: Content Marketing – What You Need To Know With Nat Eliason
• Podcast 179: Making A Comeback After The Google Medic Update
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Is your business taking you on a roller coaster ride? If so, being a conscious leader can mean the difference between your business making you happy or running you into the ground.

Are the business decisions you're making leading to more satisfaction in life? Or do you find yourself running in circles and in a constant state of reaction? These are challenges entrepreneurs have historically struggled with and 2020 was no exception. However, there's a way to start turning things around and it starts with you.

Stay tuned for a crash course in being a conscious leader. We'll go over the essential things every entrepreneur needs clarity on, how to level up as a leader and how to break through roadblocks we see so many founders struggling with.

If you're ready to start taking radical responsibility for the state of your business, this episode is for you.

Episode Highlights

• 4:50 What being a more conscious leader means
• 5:48 The number one thing every leader needs to get clear on
• 8:31 The biggest challenge holding leaders back
• 9:48 Breaking a common addiction in entrepreneurship
• 13:37 Leveraging radical responsibility to grow your business
• 17:37 Three ways to better respect your time and everyone else's
• 21:01 Questions the best leaders are always asking

Links and Resources:

• The Social Dilemma
• The Impact Filter
• Podcast 149: The Art of Doing Less But Better with Greg McKeown Part 1
• Podcast 150: The Art of Doing Less But Better with Greg McKeown Part 2
• Podcast 245: How To Build A Successful Agency (Without Burning Yourself Out)
• The Coalition
• Foxwell Digital
• [email protected]
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Have you ever wanted marketing advice from some of the best eCommerce marketers in the business?

I reached out to seven of my friends in the eCommerce space and asked them: What's the single best piece of marketing advice you've ever been given?

From words by Mark Zuckerberg all the way to legendary writer Gary Bencivenga, we're packing in 8 evergreen pieces of marketing advice that every marketer and entrepreneur needs to have in their arsenal.

Episode Guests

• Steve Chou, founder of My Wife Quit Her Job and cofounder of Sellers Summit
• Peep Laja, founder of CXL and Wynter
• Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo
• Kurt Elster, founder of Ethercycle and host of The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
• Ezra Firestone, founder of Smart Marketer
• Chris Orzechowski, Ecommerce Email Marketing Strategist and founder of Orzy Media
• Andrew Youderian, founder of eCommerceFuel and host of The eCommerceFuel Podcast
• Austin Brawner, founder of Brand Growth Experts and host of The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

Episode Highlights

• 3:56 Steve Chou: Avoiding shiny object syndrome
• 5:43 Peep Laja: The number 1 thing to look into if you're not making traction
• 8:15 Noah Kagan: What to remain focused on at all times
• 10:58 Kurt Elster: What it takes to be a true expert
• 14:26 Ezra Firestone: Are you quitting too soon?
• 17:00 Chris Orzechowski: How to never have a customer retention problem
• 20:19 Andrew Youderian: Doubling down on what works
• 23:35 Austin Brawner: Pressure over time

Links and Resources:

• Steve Chou
  • My Wife Quit Her Job
  • Sellers Summit
• Peep Laja
  • Peep's Website
  • Conversion XL
  • Wynter
• Noah Kagan
  • Noah's YouTube Channel
  • Noah's Podcast
  • OkDork
  • AppSumo
• Kurt Elster
  • Kurt's Website
  • The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
  • Ethercycle
• Ezra Firestone
  • Smart Marketer
  • Boom! By Cindy Joseph
• Chris Orzechowski
  • The Email Copywriter
  • Make It Rain Monthly
  • Founder of Orzy Media
• Andrew Youderian
  • Ecommerce Fuel
  • Ecommerce Fuel Podcast
• Austin Brawner
  • The Coalition
  • @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Do you think that agencies are a waste of money? Not sure if an independent freelancer can keep up? We're tackling the freelancer vs agency debate once and for all.

Choosing where to spend your advertising dollars is important, but deciding who to spend it on is the other piece of the puzzle. Once you decide to start pulling the levers of paid search and paid social, the question you're left with is: Who is going to pull those levers? This is where the freelancer vs agency debate comes in and the decision is crucial.

Tune into this episode to learn what conditions make the most sense for a freelancer or an agency, the pros and cons of each, questions you should ask before choosing to make a hire, and the one trap you need to avoid.

Episode Highlights

• 3:48 The freelancer vs agency debate
• 5:42 Why an agency could be the better option for you
• 7:06 Understanding the true cost of working with an agency
• 9:37 The right questions to ask an agency before hiring them
• 13:56 Why a freelancer might be the best choice for you
• 15:47 Challenges to look out for when hiring a freelancer
• 18:10 The benefits of choosing to hire in house
• 22:52 A dangerous trap to avoid

Links and Resources:

• The Coalition
• Foxwell Digital
• [email protected]
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Are you ready to improve your email marketing and stop leaving money on the table? Today I'll show you how.

Last year one of my clients had a brand new Klaviyo account -- zero emails sent. Over two days we set up the account, created a system for capturing leads, and built email flows focused on generating revenue. 7 days later, they generated $10,000 in revenue from email.

Inspired by this experience, I hosted a live training in The Coalition on how to improve your email marketing, and today I'm sharing that training with you. We cover common mistakes people make when setting up their Klaviyo account, how to increase your email lead flow, building and optimizing your email templates, the most important emails to send, and what's working right now to generate more revenue from email.

If you want some quick, actionable wins you can implement in your email marketing today -- don't miss this episode.

Episode Highlights

• 8:20 Improving your email marketing and generating $10k in revenue in 7 days
• 10:11 How to ensure Klaviyo is properly connected to your site
• 14:02 Creating an on-brand email template
• 16:22 How to increase your lead flow
• 18:35 Choosing the right email pop-up provider
• 21:03 The two biggest revenue-generating email flows to focus on
• 23:56 How to set up email marketing tests to determine what works
• 27:16 What's working with email marketing today
• 30:26 Our formula to make more money from email marketing
• 32:55 Why you should start sending more emails (and why you can't send too many

Links and Resources:

• Recharge
• Justuno
• Privy
• Klaviyo
• AppSumo
• Stamped.io
• Judge.me
• Soapbox
• The Coalition
• Brand Growth Experts
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes