The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

"Systems run your business, people run your systems." Learn how to grow your business and unlock hidden profit using virtual assistants.

Barbara Turley is the founder of The Virtual Hub, an agency that pairs businesses with virtual assistants, and she's an expert at delegation. Barbara has paired over 500 virtual assistants with companies and her team is over 240+ in the Philippines. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on how it's worked for her, and how it might work for you in your own business.

This episode is very helpful if you are building a remote company, are thinking about using virtual assistants, or have tried and failed to use VA's in the past.

Episode Highlights:

• 8:38 How Barbara started her virtual assistants business
• 11:38 Roles for VAs that often get overlooked
• 13:10 Managing teams in different time zones
• 16:12 Where to start when hiring virtual assistants
• 19:20 Tools used to manage communication
• 20:32 The importance of having a process before hiring
• 22:07 Becoming a good delegator
• 26:55 Barbara's team structure
• 27:19 Is there importance in connecting with a remote team in person?
• 28:46 Building culture for a remote virtual assistant team
• 31:40 How to not get burned from a VA experience
• 34:24 Paying virtual assistants and economic considerations
• 39:30 Where people get burned when building a company
• 42:34 Why you need an operating system
• 44:25 Hiring virtual assistants through word of mouth vs hiring process

Resources:

• thevirtualhub.com
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

This Is A Special Episode – The Recording Of A Live 'Ask Me Anything' With Joe Valley On How To Sell Your Online Business, Recently Offered Inside The Brand Growth Membership.

Joe is the author of The EXITPreneur's Playbook. He's a buyer and seller of many online businesses and the president of Quiet Light Brokerage. He's an expert on how to sell for max profit.

If you listened to my earlier episode with Joe this AMA session takes those concepts and goes deeper, which is what we do in the Membership. The podcast is just a glimpse into what we cover in the Brand Growth Membership.

We're giving you a sneak peek inside the Brand Growth Membership with access to this Ask Me Anything session because we just launched a brand new version of our membership and it's KILLER - check it out here.

I hope you enjoy this session and if you want to check out more of the Ask Me Anything sessions and trainings we have in the membership...

we're offering a 21 day trial for just $1. Go here to sign up. (only available until Dec 12, 2021)

Episode Highlights:

• 3:37 Introduction to Joe Valley
• 5:19 The valuation formula
• 8:33 What multiple ranges to expect for valuations
• 8:49 The different types of add-backs and examples of how they are applied
• 10:08 The 4 things buyers are looking for (and the surprising 5th)
• 38:34 Q&A – Is there anything different about a sale of a minority stake?
• 40:53 Q&A – Should we build a brand that is targeting a different demographic as a separate brand or sub-brand?
• 45:09 Q&A – What are the differences in this process for Canadian companies?
• 46:17 Q&A – How long does it take for a deal to close?
• 48:18 Q&A – Are there any hidden fees to be aware of?
• 51:01 Q&A – How are multiples different between different types of businesses?
• 54:47 Q&A – What is the smallest SDE that a private equity firm will look at?
• 56:39 Q&A – Is there a different approach to building a business for sale to a strategic acquirer vs a typical buyer?
• 58:16 Q&A – Can agency marketing spend that has been replaced by in-house work be considered an add-back?
• 59:40 Q&A – What kind of multiples are there for wholesale businesses?
• 01:07:22 Q&A – What are the options to sell for a Shopify site vs. an FBA?

Resources:

• The Brand Growth Membership
• Podcast 322: Building To Sell: How To Get The Maximum Value For Your Online Business
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Launching a first-of-its-kind product comes with challenges, but Pela has always been a creative first-mover. They've had massive success and fun educating consumers and keeping their mission to combat climate change positive.

This episode's guest is Pela CEO Matthew Bertulli. Pela makes compostable phone cases and they just launched a new product called Lomi that went viral on Kickstarter.

Matt and his team at Pela are forward thinkers and Matt share's how that's led them to success, what it was like to go from bootstrapped to venture-backed, as well as what he's excited about for the future of eCommerce and environmental products.

This is an excellent episode with somebody who is in the arena building things and very passionate about his work.

Episode Highlights:

• 3:56 How the Lomi Kickstarter went viral
• 5:15 What exactly Lomi is
• 10:17 Educating consumers about environmental products & the problems with Facebook
• 14:52 Using storytelling to build word of mouth momentum
• 15:28 What Lomi stands for as a product and way of life
• 19:36 Is pollution a personal or corporation problem & the mission to combat climate change
• 22:01 Consumer demand for better companies
• 25:59 Better packaging options for brands
• 28:45 The power of education: from $5k to $85k in 3 months
• 29:40 Raising money and becoming venture-backed
• 31:16 Early success and first-mover advantage
• 35:39 The difference between running a bootstrapped brand and a venture-backed brand
• 38:12 Challenges of running an agency in comparison to a D2C
• 40:46 The benefits of launching a new product on top of an established company (even if they're not directly related)
• 41:57 Competition when you're a first of its kind product
• 43:45 Building a product for the future & being a visionary brand with the mission to combat climate change
• 46:29 Resources that have been helpful to Matt on his journey
• 48:06 Best in class marketing & messaging tactics
• 50:30 Identifying what's wrong with current stories in your niche and changing the narrative for your product
• 54:30 The intersection of blockchain and climate
• 58:55 The powerful culture of being a mission-driven company

Resources:

• Pela
• Lomi
• @mbertulli on Twitter
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

We're looking out to the (near) future at some very creative opportunities for eCommerce in NFTs. These ideas could help circumvent some of the margin pressure and economic challenges brands are facing today.

This episode features Taylor Holiday, the founder of Common Thread Collective. Before running an eCommerce agency he had his own D2C brand so he brings a ton of knowledge from being on both the brand and the agency side of eComm business. Taylor is an NFT enthusiast and has some brilliant ideas about NFTs and their place in the changing sphere of eCommerce.

In this fascinating conversation, you'll learn a ton about NFTs -- what they are and how you might be able to use them to combat margin pressure in your eCommerce brand.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:37 Taylors large business vision
• 6:23 The difference between running a brand and running an agency
• 7:30 Complexities around cash flow management & human relational problems
• 9:40 The importance of your product to the success of your brand
• 11:20 What the hell is going on with Facebook
• 14:33 Quantifying what other brands are seeing in metrics right now
• 15:19 The primary metric to care about post iOS launch
• 16:56 aMER (acquisition marketing efficiency rating): why it's critical
• 20:07 Diversification is not primarily an advertising strategy
• 23:39 Where to start if you're moving out of Facebook
• 25:05 Why Web3 is so exciting & what it means for current margin pressure
• 26:31 Margin innovation and opportunities in the metaverse
• 32:04 Why you shouldn't blow off investing in cryptocurrency
• 33:19 Examples of creativity with eCommerce in NFTs used to bring in fast cash
• 36:16 Why NFTs are a better version of Kickstarter
• 37:35 Creating built-in affiliates with NFT holders
• 38:44 The NFT as a community access token as well as an asset
• 43:13 How to continue to add value associated with holding your NFTs
• 47:34 Shopify beta opportunity for eCommerce in NFTs sold like a SKU
• 48:37 Using NFTs for access to special content or promotions
• 52:28 What's just interesting and what's actually important in the future of eCommerce in NFTs
• 56:51 What % of Shopify stores might invest in NFTs next year?
• 57:56 Raising funds & engaging a target market with NFTs
• 1:02:42 The calendar cleanse process that has helped Taylor manage his many priorities

Resources:

• @TaylorHoliday on Twitter
• Common Thread Collective.
• RTFKT
• The Hundreds, Adam Bomb Squad
• Mintgate.io
• Crypto Dads
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Was Facebook ever really performing as well as we thought - or was our attribution model just wrong? A post-purchase survey will tell you where people are actually hearing about your brand.

If you're spending money on Facebook you know it's incredibly hard to figure out where your customers are coming from. Matt Bahr, CEO of Enquire Labs, has a way to help you better track attribution with a post-purchase survey.

I stumbled across Enquire a couple of years ago and thought they were super interesting because their simple survey really helped us figure out what was effective marketing and what was not. In this episode, we talk all about what they're doing and how they've helped brands figure out attribution in the midst of the chaos of iOS changes.

It's an excellent episode and you'll get a lot of interesting tips for running successful marketing.

Episode Highlights:

• 3:58 Matt's timing of building a post-purchase survey app
• 6:31 How Enquire came to be
• 10:22 Where brand's think sales are coming from vs where the sales are actually coming from
• 12:50 The power of word of mouth
• 14:51 Thinking about attribution using post-purchase surveys
• 18:00 A better way to get questions answered by customers
• 21:10 Comparing quantitative and qualitative data
• 21:38 What smaller brands can learn from the bigger brands
• 24:57 Higher AOV: is it harder to track?

Resources:

• Enquire Labs
• @mattrbahr on Twitter
• Enquire Post Purchase Survey App on Shopify
• Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Cryptocurrency is the financial system of the future. Ready or not it's coming and as an eCommerce founder, there are opportunities you could be taking advantage of now.

This episode is part of a series on cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFI). My guest, Nat Eliason, has been a guest before as an SEO expert but in the last year he's made a trajectory shift and moved into the space of web3, and specifically DeFi.

Nat talks about why he made the shift, what he's so excited about and why, as a business owner, you should care. We go into the basics of DeFi and how people are getting hedge fund style returns.

If you know nothing about cryptocurrency, this episode is for you - Nat has some simple ways you can start earning money today.

Episode Highlights:

• 5:04 Nat's shift from SEO to DeFi
• 6:28 What is DeFi and why is it important
• 9:22 How DeFi levels the playing field and gives individuals with small capital access to high returns
• 12:34 Examples of high returns
• 14:49 What a stablecoin is
• 16:05 The risks with stablecoins
• 20:14 Metamask and seed phrase: what are they and how do they provide security
• 25:02 How long you have to "park" your stablecoins to see returns
• 27:36 The range of interest returns historically seen
• 29:48 Ways to profit that haven't traditionally been available to average people
• 31:48 The difference between a fiat-collateralized coin and a crypto-collateralized coin
• 34:48 Wrapped Bitcoin: what is it
• 38:08 Minimum collateralization ratios
• 40:26 How debt protocols work in DeFi & what happens in a market crash
• 46:26 Yield farming: what is it
• 50:26 How network security works
• 52:24 "Staking your Eth" - how and what that means
• 55:57 What is impermanent loss and why do you want to avoid it?
• 1:02:01 Biggest hurdles to DeFi being widely adopted right now
• 1:05:03 As an eCommerce owner - what should you be thinking about
• 1:09.50 What Nat's excited about right now

Resources:

• Nat's Course: DeFi Orientation
• @nateliason on Twitter
• Podcast 129: Content Marketing – What You Need To Know With Nat Eliason
• Podcast 284: How To Build A Business That Runs Itself With Nat Eliason
• Yearn
• Oasis
• Badger.finance
• Alchemix
• Convex
• Tokamak
• Klima DAO
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

You might be surprised how lessons learned from over a decade on a SWAT team apply to building a highly successful lifestyle brand.

Todd Lamb, CEO of PureLife Organics, was a police officer for 17 years, as a SWAT team leader and then canine officer. When his wife started having health issues he turned to natural remedies and found an incredibly successful protocol that helped her heal. He wanted to share this protocol with others and thus, Pure Life Organics was born.

Today, the business Todd built from the ground up is well on it's way to 9-figures. In this episode - Todd shares his wisdom about paid traffic and expertise in creating offers. He talks about how his team systematically worked to make native ads work and how they're testing at a budget of $10k to $15k a week to get results.

There are some great nuggets here about native ads, copywriting, and creative strategizing. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:29 Lessons from working as a canine officer
• 7:31 The idea behind Pure Life Organics
• 12:47 Todd's protocol and ingredients
• 14:40 Looking at growth in the business
• 16:28 Developing a sales funnel
• 17:37 Selling the first million dollars of product with native ads and cross-promotions
• 19:34 Testing with big spend
• 21:12 Finding success with Native Ads and the difference from Facebook ads
• 26:09 Long-form copy & writing offers that convert
• 29:07 Impacts from current eCommerce challenges like iOS 14 & supply chain
• 34:54 Exploring NFTs with a tree-planting program
• 37:27 Enhancing the experience and getting people excited
• 40:20 Prioritizing the routine & how Todd does it all

Resources:

• Purelifeorganics.com
• @purelife.organics on Instagram
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Would you quit your day job and move to Miami to sell your new product while playing on the beach? Sounds like a dream and this founder made it a reality, with a lot of hard work, motivation and talent.

This episode's guest is Chris Meade, the founder of Crossnet, one of the fastest-growing games in the US.

Chris has been on an incredible journey from quitting his job at Uber to moving to Miami to sell his dream game on the beaches. Crossnet has grown incredibly fast due to an organic viral video and word-of-mouth marketing with live events and influencers. In just a few years they've gone from selling 2-5 nets a month to an 8-figure business.

Crossnet started as DTC and has expanded into big-box retail and Chris shares some of the opportunities and challenges that came with that shift.

This is a great founder's story and an inspiration if you have a product idea. I hope you enjoy it!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:21 What exactly is Crossnet
• 5:09 How the idea of Crossnet was born
• 7:36 Getting people to care about a brand at the start
• 10:09 The catalyst & viral video that started the growth
• 13:02 Being frugal and why Crossnet has been successful
• 13:50 Initial marketing wins
• 15:17 Talking to customers and adjusting marketing to speak to them
• 16:50 The role of founder and changes from 2 sales a day to 8-figures
• 18:11 Going from eCommerce DTC to big box retail
• 20:54 iOS 14: its impact and how Crossnet is measuring metrics now
• 23:43 Tips for success with influencers
• 25:47 Structuring retainer deals with influencers
• 27:24 Supply chain issues and manufacturing in China
• 32:03 Advertising: agencies or in-house?
• 33:55 Lessons from running a seasonal business
• 36:21 Chris's favorite marketing resources
• 37:47 Content marketing on LinkedIn
• 39:40 Keeping a team engaged and excited about the product

Resources:

• Crossnetgame.com
• @Cjmeade on LinkedIn
• @chrismeadej on Twitter
• Book: Double Your Profits by Bob Fifer
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

How is your pop-up game? Email capture strategies to increase conversion are one of the single most important things you can do to grow your eCommerce business and if you're using the same old "discount for email" strategy you're missing out on potential customers.

This is a tactical episode with how-to steps you can use to improve your email capture strategies to increase conversion right now.

John Ozuysal is the Head of Growth at Optimonk, a platform where you can create unique, interesting pop-ups and overlays to drive more sales and capture more emails. As we all have holiday marketing top of mind, I thought it would be a great time to bring John in to share what they're seeing success with right now and provide some inspiration as you determine how to integrate pop-ups and overlays into your Q4 strategy.

One of the things that they've been experimenting with is conversational pop-ups and John shares how they tripled signups and boosted revenue by 25% using this method. We also cover customer value optimization and opportunities to learn more about buying behavior with qualitative pop-ups.

If you're interested in quick, easy tweaks to your website that will make you more money… this episode is for you.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:14 Why most eCommerce stores are using pop-ups and overlays the wrong way
• 5:14 How to 3X your email sign up rate with conversational pop-ups
• 8:02 What a conversational pop-up is and how to implement email capture strategies to increase conversion
• 9:40 Optimizing engagement for brands with a lot of product categories
• 11:27 Collecting emails and phone numbers effectively and without drop off
• 12:02 Using curiosity and mystery instead of discount to drive sign up
• 13:35 John's favorite non-monetary incentives to test
• 16:52 Best tips on how to increase your cart value and AOV
• 18:19 Using content to convert
• 19:30 Strategies from B2B that DTC brands should learn from including qualitative feedback
• 22:31 The benefits of qualitative feedback when your inventory is low
• 24:31 How qualitative feedback can decrease abandonment rates
• 26:05 What is customer value optimization and how you should be using it
• 28:29 Step by step guide for using conversational pop-ups in your Black Friday marketing

Resources:

• Optimonk: Free Templates To Use (and get 50% off the first 3 month for any paid plan)
• Optimonk: Black Friday Webinar
• Book: They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

If you hate what you're doing - can you stop doing it? How can you stay engaged and keep your business ventures fun? Plus, using video sales letters for viral launches.

Andrew Drish is a good friend and we have spent countless hours talking about business, life, and relationships. So - I'm excited to bring him on the show and share one of these conversations with you.

Andrew was behind The Foundation, which was a very successful accelerator for developers building software companies. In this episode he shares the story of how he pulled off its 7-figure launch, completely automated, with a video sales letter that went viral.

From there - Andrew shares the story of how he completely burnt out and then came back to entrepreneurship with a whole new approach.

Over the years, Andrew has extensively studied top-performing video ads (Purple Mattress, Squatty Potty, etc) and he shares his winning formula that you can apply directly to your own video creative (hint: it's more about the script than the visuals).

This is a great interview - Andrew has a ton of insight on life and business and I'm always inspired after talking to him. I hope you are too.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:34 The impact The Artist's Way has had on running a business
• 5:47 Learnings to make life and running a business more fun and playful
• 8:44 Why heartbreak is the best medicine
• 10:29 The power of the question "what would I do differently?"
• 13:11 The wild story of launching The Foundation while at Burning Man
• 15:26 Why Andy is now dark online and how his entrepreneurial journey has changed after burning out
• 20:16 The key priciples of Andy's new venture
• 21:48 The nature of entrepreneurs and what a good operator is
• 22:44 How to hire and build a team based on people's nature
• 23:35 Going from determining principles to starting a business
• 26:00 The art and science of compelling video sales letters
• 31:07 Using humor to get a sale
• 34:42 Why text should be your priority over imagery when creating a video sales letter
• 38:08 Working with a team to create viral videos
• 43:47 Crypto currency and it's potential impact on societal challenges
• 48:48 Resources that have helped Andy on his "DeFi" journey

Resources:

• Andy's Website
• TheArtOfLove.com
• @andydrish on Twitter
• Book: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
• Book: Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin
• Book: Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
• klima.com
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes