Brian Tate, founder and CEO of Oats Overnight, talks about the challenges of running a breakfast business and how his 12 years experience as a professional poker player helped him to grow Oats Overnight to $5M in revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [02:00] How Brian went from poker into the breakfast business and seeing the market opportunity for overnight oats [03:45] The learning it took to manufacture their product and the struggles they had in the process [05:00] What going to market was like [07:28] Their strategies to get more customers [08:12] Deciding to work with Facebook in marketing their product [12:32] Adding Amazon as another channel [13:50] Figuring out the right audience to go after [18:04] Launching in Amazon and driving sales [21:38] The reasons behind their success and what inspires their flavors [23:40] Hiring poker players and the first roles that Brian brought into the team [26:08] The issue with space as the company grows [28:04] What contributed to their growth in 2019 [29:19] The time when Brian thought the business would fail [29:46] The one thing Brian did that had the biggest impact on the company’s growth [30:14] Where Brian personally had to evolve to grow the business [30:57] Learning leadership and management skills Key Takeaways: The biggest difference between Oats Overnight and the homemade overnight oats recipes that you can find online and make for yourself is the protein content and the different ingredients. The problem that Brian was solving for was mostly the convenience side without sacrificing nutrition or taste. The category of overnight oats has a small number of offerings relative to how much traffic there is, so it’s an interesting place to be. According to Brian, the mindset of poker players really fits with an entrepreneurial-type vision. They are very rational. They know that money isn’t made 9 to 5 but that it’s really an around-the-clock thing and that competition is always there so you’ve got to do better. There are a lot of variables that contribute to success in business, and it’s important to be able to approach those individually and understand what contributes to those wins or losses. Action Steps: Have everyone in the company start in customer service. You can learn a lot about the company by answering emails. Be mindful of what you’re signing when it comes to commercial leases. Make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew and that you’re not paying extra money for off-site storage and extra shipping costs when you can’t take deliveries in certain timelines because you’re out of space. Listen to your customers. Learn leadership and management skills from mentors and other people who have done it. When starting a business or running a company, it’s definitely important to get advice and talk things through. When you hire somebody, make sure you do it because you trust them, you trust their thought process, and you trust their ability to make decisions, and give them the freedom to feel comfortable and operate in the way they see fit. Be confident in yourself and know that if you’re making the right decision, it’s going to work out. Brian said: “There’s a lot of variables that contribute to success in business. Some things happen that are in your control like product development, customer service... and some things happen that are out of your control like recession or change in customer preferences…” “For good and bad, people pin wins to things that were sheer luck and they dwell on losses that were totally out of their control. It’s just really important to understand that as you operate.” More from Brian Tate and Oats Overnight: Oats Overnight Oats.com Brian’s LinkedIn Brian’s Facebook Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Pete Caputa, CEO of Databox, talks about their strategy of creating an ecosystem for agencies to learn about Databox, and how building out a partner program helped Databox grow to $1.5M in annual revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:48] Pete’s experience at HubSpot [05:07] How Pete got involved with Databox [07:45] How Databox started [10:32] Building out the partner program at Databox [12:41] Pricing for Databox [13:16] What they do to attract more agencies to Databox [15:25] How they define top partners [16:02] How they went about finding agencies [17:37] Their strategy of creating an ecosystem for agencies to learn about Databox through article contributions [21:21] Creating surveys and getting input from different agencies [22:00] Why they outsource the writing of articles [24:36] The Databox free program and why they decided to keep it [28:28] How they got more users to use their software [30:00] How they come up with ideas to help improve adoption [32:27] When Pete felt that Databox was going to fail [34:42] The one thing they did that had the biggest impact on their growth [35:38] The area that Pete was personally involved in growing at Databox Key Takeaways: Agencies are being bombarded by software companies right now, and so the product really needs to work for them. The first thing that software companies get wrong is they start a partner program and they don’t even think about how the agencies are going to do their work. Most agencies hesitate to spend even a few bucks a month and so it’s good to set up the price so that it’s a very minimal amount of money per client, and it’s very easily justified by any time savings they would get from automating. The nice thing about agencies is they kind of pay attention to each other and they learn from each other, so once you get a few partners on board, it becomes a lot easier to be more credible with the rest. Action Steps: Invite agencies to contribute to articles that you’re writing as a way for you to get in front of them without being promotional about what you do. Consider offering a freemium product by looking at its benefits to sales and marketing. Pete said: “I realized there was a real pain point for agencies, specifically, in that they were manually producing their reports at the end of the month for every client by logging in to multiple tools… and realized that we could automate a lot of that process for them.” “I look at marketing combined with a freemium product and to me, it just feels like a cash register because, especially with organic content marketing, once you figure something out, it produces returns for you for a long time with very little care and feeding.” More from Pete Caputa: Pete’s LinkedIn Pete’s Twitter (@pc4media) Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: Databox Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Christina Stembel entered the $3B online flower industry with no experience and very little money. With a dream to innovate on how business was done, she came up with a unique model that eventually led to Farmgirl Flowers’ $23.4M in revenue last year. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:48] What gave Christina the idea of going into the flower business [03:37] Some of the things that Christina saw with the major players in the online flower market that made her think she could come in and stand out [05:56] How Christina came up with Farmgirl Flowers’ unique business model [06:49] How they tackled the problem of “waste” in the flower industry [09:27] What they did to make their bouquet pieces different from the competition [10:47] How Christina started Farmgirl Flowers with her personal savings and how she got it launched off the ground [12:49] What their first year in business looked like [14:24] How they started marketing in their first year [16:25] How they built their customer base by utilizing customer feedback [19:42] The different ways they get customer feedback [20:57] How they started doing advertising in years three and four and their strategy of pushing it through Yelp [23:30] Christina’s first hire and what she brought them in to do [26:47] Farmgirl Flowers’ supply chain, how they decided to get their sourcing, and how it evolved over time [30:39] The challenge of supporting American growers and why they eventually decided to get international sourcing [35:06] How much people cared about the idea of supporting American growers [36:38] The one thing that Christina did that had the biggest impact on Farmgirl Flowers’ growth [38:24] How Christina made sure she hired the right person. [39:05] The area that Christina personally had to grow in as a business owner to get to where she is today Key Takeaways: In previous generations, people would hide behind the fact that it’s the thought that counts, but it’s not the thought that counts with younger people. If they’re going to spend $80 to $100 of their hard-earned money on a bouquet of flowers, it better be worth that much. Flowers have a very rough perishability time period, even more so than food. If you’re in the flower business, you can’t make a mistake. You have about three days to use those flowers before you have to dump them. 79% of the people that buy flowers are women buying for women. It’s the actual marketing spend that’s going to drive your growth. If you are spending on people managing that spend, that’s money you could be actually spending on the spend. You need as much money to get in front of people as you can. Parenting books are wonderful for managing people. Action Steps: Get customer feedback and use it to make the necessary changes to create the best product offering that would allow you to meet your business goals. Find the platform that everybody else is using for advertising and put your money there. Become a good leader and manage your people well. Put a lot of emphasis on team culture early into your business. Christina said: “The industry is very old school. It’s ancient. Most of the American farmers are second or third generation and they’ve been doing things in certain ways. And getting them to break that, the system that they’ve been set up for and doing things for multiple generations is not easy.” “Every dollar that I can spend, putting it back into marketing, is what’s going to help keep fueling our growth.” More from Christina Stembel: Farmgirl Flowers’ Website Farmgirl Flowers’ Facebook Farmgirl Flowers’ Instagram (@farmgirlflowers) Christina’s LinkedIn Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle Books written by Brene Brown How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Heidi Jannenga, President and Co-Founder of WebPT, talks about how their cloud-based idea grew into the leading physical therapy software on the market. WebPT did over $80M in revenue last year with a 99% customer retention rate. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:38] How Heidi first came up with the idea for WebPT [06:03] How they saved a tremendous amount of money in building their platform by finding a technical co-founder [07:03] Launching their product, deciding on pricing, and getting customers [09:59] How much money they were saving versus how much money they were spending for transcription [10:41] WebPT’s secret sauce and how they started getting leads [13:13] Building WebPT’s marketing strategy [14:49] How much traffic they’re getting from their content and SEO [16:06] Creating brand awareness among university students [17:08] Doing trade shows and building their reputation [18:10] Going after the SMB space and engaging with their customers to improve their platform [20:53] WebPT’s retention rate in the past and now [21:52] The challenge of getting customers on board [23:54] WebPT’s workflow [25:42] WebPT’s Idea Portal and other ways of getting customer feedback [28:51] Bringing on a CEO and scaling the company [32:19] What made them decide to raise funds and how they did it successfully [38:17] Taking risks to grow the business [40:32] Growing through acquisitions [41:21] Why Heidi thought the business would fail and what she did about it [42:41] What had the biggest impact on WebPT’s growth [43:17] The area that Heidi had to personally grow in to grow the business Key Takeaways: Having a technical co-founder and a subject matter expert is a very good fusion to launching a successful product. What’s tremendously important during the early stage of a business is staying niche. The number one reason acquisitions fail is because there’s not a culture fit between the two companies. It’s okay to be vulnerable even as a leader. You don’t have to have all the answers, and it’s okay to say you don’t know. That vulnerability component in a leader can lead to loyalty. Action Steps: Know the impact that your business is having on customers. Bring people that are smarter than you into your business but still own that you’re the leader they’re looking up to. Heidi said: “You can’t discount the actual product. The product has to work… If it’s a shitty product, you’re going to have a problem with people leaving.” “As a leader, it’s okay to be vulnerable. I think too often we have our work selves and we have our out-of-work selves, and the authenticity is what people really migrate to.” More from Heidi Jannenga: WebPT’s Website Heidi’s LinkedIn Heidi’s Twitter (@HeidiJannenga) Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Brian Scudamore, Founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? tells the importance of figuring out your values and setting a painted picture for your business. Now, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has grown to over $309M in revenue with over 250 franchise owners around the world. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:45] How Brian started his business [03:23] How he got his first customers and leveraged the power of free press [04:50] What it was like to fire all his people and rebuild the business from scratch [06:17] Brian’s lesson learned on partnership and mentorship [07:43] The process of defining the business culture and values, and figuring out the right people to hire [09:39] What they do to make sure that they’re incentivizing those core values [12:02] The value of mentorship and what it was like to join the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization (now Entrepreneurs’ Organization) [16:06] Why Brian decided to go down the franchise route versus expanding the business himself [17:28] How Brian attracted people who had that ownership mentality [18:51] Hiring a COO and building the executive team [24:28] The Painted Picture and the impact that had on the business [24:28] Some of the marketing channels they used to grow the business [29:01] Setting up a PR department and building the business by getting their story out there [30:23] Getting a major acquisition offer and turning it down [32:55] Having to change some of their talents when the business hit different sizes [37:17] What Brian did when he thought 1-800-GOT-JUNK? would fail [38:21] What Brian did that had the biggest impact on their growth Key Takeaways: How do you know who the right people are to hire? You need to figure out your values and find the right people based on those values. For a company to grow in scale, you need to have values that everyone in the company aligns by. And it’s more important that you’ve got values and that they’re yours and you own them versus what those values are. Storytelling is important to make sure your teams are alive with the values that are important to you. Everyone has the responsibility to make the world a better place, whether it’s with us or taking and learning from us and doing it on the outside. Entrepreneurs break rules. Sometimes it’s better to beg for forgiveness versus ask for permission. You don’t want anyone to get hurt, you don’t want to do anything dangerous, but you get out there sometimes and you push boundaries. We’re in the storytelling age more than ever. It’s about finding new and different ways to tell stories and tell the world about the interesting and unique things that you as a leader or an entrepreneur are doing. Action Steps: Figure out the values that you stand on. What words describe who you already are? Not who you want to be or try to be but who you are today. Give your people feedback immediately. If some of them are not living the company values, tell them why, tell them which value they’re not living, and give them some feedback. If they’re living the values and demonstrating them, you also want to give them feedback and give them the kudos as to how they’re doing such a great job, and celebrate those values. As a leader, you must live and demonstrate the values of your company. Be careful when you set a “painted picture”. Just think big. Don’t let anything else get in your way. Then recruit the right people to help you make that picture a reality. Build your business out ready to scale by having the right systems in place to recruit the right people, train the right people, and so on. Brian said: “It’s important to take a team and, even if they’re not experienced, to trust the team, to work with them to create values. You decide, what words are important? Does it resonate? And then stick to those.” “Failure is temporary. But also, let’s not forget, success is temporary… Success and failure go hand in hand. Never get too cocky that you believe that you’re always going to succeed. Be willing to endure the storms that you face in life.” More from Brian Scudamore: Brian’s LinkedIn Brian’s Twitter (@BrianScudamore) Brian’s Instagram (@brianscudamore) O2E Brands’ Website Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Johnson Spencer WTF?! (Willing to Fail): How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success by Brian Scudamore Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less by Cameron Herold The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Patrick Campbell, Co-founder and CEO of ProfitWell, talks about how they grew to over $10M in revenue by taking on the role of pricing experts for their clients and revolutionizing how businesses price their products and services through their technology. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:40] How they got the idea for Price Intelligently and what it does [02:46] The pricing problem and how they went about trying to solve it [07:14] How they took their idea to their first customers [09:12] How they got potential customers interested in their content [11:26] What it looks like for someone who wants to improve their pricing [13:25] Tactical things that you can do to improve your pricing [14:39] How they work with their customers [15:45] How they handled things in the early days of Price Intelligently [17:58] The strategies they used to grow their business [19:44] Outsourcing their sales and finding the right person that could do it [21:03] Having systems in place with following up with the inbound and creating outbound leads [21:58] How they did their inbound content strategy [25:08] How they got to over $10M [28:18] Developing the tool ProfitWell and what it does [32:10] How long it took them to build ProfitWell and how much it cost [36:45] How they found the best people to work on ProfitWell [38:49] How they’re able to gain their customers’ trust [40:56] What they did that had the biggest impact on their growth Key Takeaways: The biggest problem is getting people to realize that your price is the exchange rate on the value that you’re providing. And that value is crucial to measure for the customer that you’re trying to sell to. If you get your value metric correct, what ends up happening is you basically align yourself to your customer and how they want to see and pay for your product. As you grow, you have to be comfortable with failing. Getting to $10M takes work but it’s not difficult if you are willing to give up some constraints. Action Steps: Get some data to help you with your pricing decisions. Don’t be afraid to talk to people about your price and about your value. Ask people traditional, non-leading questions like: At what price is this way too expensive that you’d never consider purchasing it? At what price is this a really good deal that you would purchase it right away? Get your value metric correct. Patrick said: “It doesn’t really matter what business you’re in... the thing that’s amazing about the world of technology and the world of online is that a lot of us will produce something of value... and then all of a sudden, when it comes time to price that product, we just lose our minds.” “A lot of people, they’re very scared to go talk to people about their price, they’re scared to go talk to people about their value. But you have to realize that everyone understands that things cost money… You have to talk to them about value.” More from Patrick Campbell and ProfitWell: ProfitWell’s Website Patrick’s LinkedIn Patrick’s Twitter (@patticus) Patrick’s Email Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

David Darmanin, founder and CEO of Hotjar, talks about how they successfully got people to use their product in its beta phase and eventually monetized it. Find out how they have grown to $16.5M ARR and 21K paying customers in just 4 years. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:30] The origin stories of how they got started with Hotjar [03:50] What Hotjar does and how they marketed it [05:11] What they did to drive customers’ interest in their product [07:00] Hotjar’s many different features and how they were developed and launched [08:58] How they started monetizing their product by creating a public roadmap [11:51] The types of incentives they put in place to get referrals [15:17] How they got traffic and got people to find out about their product outside of the referral program [18:40] How they covered the costs during the beta period stage of their product [21:58] How they figured out how much they were willing to pay for a beta user [26:45] What their timeline looked like until they got to $1M million annual recurring revenue [27:33] The key two things that they did to get people to start using their product in the beta phase and get their feedback [31:02] What it was like for them to transition from free to paid [35:23] Having a remote workforce and how they are able to make that work [48:08] How they communicate with their workforce Key Takeaways: If you want to displace existing players and existing solutions, there is a certain threshold of improvement you need to reach in order to get attention. If you communicate very openly with your users and your customers, it’s incredibly effective because you’re bringing them on board with you on the journey. If you’re thinking of doing a referral program, it’s really important that it’s simple. When it comes to incentivizing, there are two types of people --those who are competitive and those prefer just kind of a fixed reward. Email is incredibly effective to drive traffic, especially if you are launching something new. Action Steps: Before building your product, ask yourself: Do people actually need this? Is there real value being delivered here? Build trust with your users/customers with transparency. Do a referral program. David said: “We pretty much allow teams to understand how their site is being used. And that knowledge empowers them to make the right changes, to grow, to improve the experience.” “We need to keep one thing in mind, which is we have a limited amount of time… If you really believe in an idea and if you feel like there is an opportunity, because timing is important, it’s really important that you drop everything to do that.” More from David Darmanin: David’s Twitter (@daviddarmanin) David’s LinkedIn Hotjar’s Website Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Squatty Potty’s CEO and co-creator, Bobby Edwards, talks about how Squatty Potty became the talk of the town when it got picked up by Howard Stern, and how their success on Shark Tank and their viral “unicorn video” ultimately led to $28M in revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:38] How they came up with the idea for Squatty Potty [05:12] How they first started manufacturing their product [07:15] How they went on the influencer route [09:43] How they began to scale their business and crafted the message to get people to respond to their product [12:42] How getting on Dr. Oz and being talked about by Howard Stern impacted their sales [14:24] How they scaled up in terms of manufacturing [16:32] How they went about the process of selecting their manufacture [17:36] How they did their PR and marketing [22:48] How they got into Shark Tank and ultimately got an investment from Lori Greiner [24:54] How they approach taking on a partner and giving away equity [27:40] Some of their strategies of getting into retail stores [31:21] How they created a video that went viral and raised their sales [36:28] How they launched and promoted their video [38:50] The one thing they did that had the biggest impact on their growth Key Takeaways: Necessity is the mother of all invention. You need to get your message and nail your message before you could scale your product. It’s very valuable to get face to face with people and talk to them about your product because then you can see in their face what is connecting and what is not. People look for information when you’re trying to sell them something. They look for validation. Sometimes your own instinct works better than anyone else’s advice. Action Steps: Reach out to writers and bloggers and get the right people to write about your product. Talk about your product to people face to face. Craft the message that you need to make people respond to your product. When it comes to taking on equity partners, choose wisely the people you’re going to partner with. Get slow and steady retailers to sell your product. Bobby said: “There’s no silver bullet, there’s no magic, there’s no one out there that will solve your problems for you. There’s no consultant that’s going to help you create this. It comes from you.” “Nobody will take care of your baby like you will. There’s not one solution out there that will solve everything. You’ve got to just be resourceful.” More from Bobby Edwards and Squatty Potty: Squatty Potty’s Website Bobby’s LinkedIn Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Smart Nora is the revolutionary contact-free snoring solution that earned a spot on Oprah’s Favorite Things in 2017. Its CEO and co-founder, Behrouz Hariri, talks about how they raised over $1M in Kickstarter and eventually grew to $8.5M in annual sales. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:32] How Smart Nora came to be [03:17] Smart Nora as a product solution and the product design process [08:04] Some of the feedback that they got that led to changes in their product design [10:58] How much they invested in testing and designing their product [12:55] What they did to prepare for the $1M in pre-orders that they got [14:21] The Kickstarter process and their next steps after creating their Kickstarter video [17:54] Behrouz’s tips on what to do on the PR side [19:24] How they sold their pre-orders on their Shopify store [23:33] How they got their product manufactured and how long it took [26:38] How they managed the quality of their product and what they did about IP protection [29:17] How they shipped their products and how they made their next million in sales after the pre-orders [31:49] Switching their focus to marketing and making more sales [34:09] How Smart Nora landed on Oprah’s Favorite Things [35:09] Getting into corporate wellness programs as a next step [37:09] The one thing they did that had the biggest impact on their growth [38:08] The areas where Behrouz personally had to evolve and grown in to grow their business Key Takeaways: When you’re a user of your own product, it really accelerates the feedback process. The great thing about Kickstarter as a format is there are so many examples you can follow. There’s a nice formula that people have perfected over time and it’s such a good place to get inspired. In any Kickstart pre-order campaign, your delivery date becomes the last thing that people remember. The freshness of the pre-order fades after a few months and it can get very contentious between the funders and the campaigners. When your Kickstarter campaign is ending, there is a lot of momentum toward the end, coming from both social media word of mouth and press coverage. Good decisions move you forward, but a lot of conversations that don’t end with a clear strategy leave a lot of people stranded. Action Steps: When you’re a startup, look at your options and the real feedback that you get from people and let that pull you into the next step. When you start a Kickstarter campaign, make sure you have a great video that will serve as your centerpiece. When you do a pre-order campaign, have realistic updates for people and set good expectations. What to do on the PR side: Draft your press release and select outlets that you know are interested in a product like yours. Send them the press release on the condition that they will not publish it until the day of your campaign. Pick a goal that you can actually deliver your product with. Brandon said: “The biggest lesson that I think we learned around our paid digital marketing is that if you’re testing with really small budgets, it’s not representative of the CPA or CPC that you will get with bigger budgets.” “There’s always this conflict of how much meaningful time to invest into a decision or a conversation, where it’s not more than the priority it has for the business but it’s also not so little that we make a lot of nonsensical decisions or a lot of non-decisions.” More from Behrouz Hariri and Smart Nora: Smart Nora’s Website Behrouz’s LinkedIn Behrouz’s Twitter (@_Behrouz) Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Brandon Bruce co-founded Cirrus Insight, an all-in-one productivity sales platform that connects Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. Find out how they grew to having over 150,000 paying users across 5,000 companies and gained up to $12.8M in revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:36] How they came up with the idea for Cirrus Insight [04:56] How Brandon knew that his friend was going to be a good business partner [07:28] How they managed the transition period before they launched their business and getting their first customers [10:53] How they got feedback from beta users [14:15] How they got people to start as free users to becoming their first customers [19:21] How they decided to launch their product and move forward with their business [22:40] What the early months looked like for Cirrus Insight in terms of revenue [24:47] How their first hires helped them grow the business [25:53] How they developed the traffic and their email list and put their sales model together [32:35] How their pricing has evolved from the time they first launched [35:52] How they compensate their sales people for their demos [39:09] How they prioritized feedback and what to build on the development side and the operations side [44:48] What Brandon did that had the biggest impact on his growth [46:23] What they look for in the people that they hire Key Takeaways: There’s an emotionally stabilizing effect of having another person you can share the roller coaster of building a business with. The biggest thing that causes early stage companies to fail is that the founders break up. It is a threat to building a company. It’s helpful to have smart people on deck to help with the million things that have to get done. Community involvement whether online or in person is key to growing a business. The opportunities to hire software developers primarily comes through referrals. Action Steps: If you’re in the software or app business, find the marketplace online where people are likely to search and/or gather for product offerings like yours. Be active in the Salesforce community and be active in all the boards, trying to answer as many questions are possible. Build a customer success team just as you would build a sales team. Brandon said: “We’ve always known that there’s a risk in the market that a very large competitor could come in and stomp on everybody. So you’re kind of always aware of that and yet you get very used to living with that risk.” “Dig in earlier to something like this, building something that looks like a snowball and pushing it downhill… Get started early and often.” More from Brandon Bruce and Cirrus Insight: Cirrus Insight’s Website Brandon’s Email Brandon’s LinkedIn Resources mentioned in this episode: The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Jonathan Buford co-founded Arizona Wilderness Brewery without a brewing background and turned it into the #1 rated new brewery in the world in 2013. Listen to this episode to learn how they did it and last year generated $5.5M in revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:24] How Jonathan transitioned from a window cleaning business into the brewery business [06:02] How he learned how to brew beer and got things started [10:07] How they marketed the business and raised the money they needed in a short amount of time [11:50] How they signed a lease and started construction for the brewery [15:31] Why they had to delay their opening for quite some time [18:54] How they developed this incredible quality product [23:07] How they leveraged getting awarded Best New Brewery in the World to create a buzz [25:09] Jonathan’s marketing strategy advice [29:04] What worked and what didn’t work for them when it came to hiring people [39:00] What had the biggest impact on their growth Key Takeaways: You risk so much by not knowing what construction timelines are and the true cost of things. If you have a ‘hype person’, you should also match them with a ‘logic person’. If you put all your money in the quality of your product, one thing that’s going to have to become cheaper is either labor or marketing. As long as you’re doing business ethically and you’re including everybody in the community and you’re not discriminating against anything and you have a story that’s exciting, you can save a lot of money in marketing because you’ll have people telling your story for you at high rates. When you sign a contract with somebody, there is no law that can get you out of that contract until a judge gets you out of that contract, and you don’t want to go to a judge or an arbitrator. So what happens is that contract that you have with that person is just a negotiation point. There is a soul to a business and there does need to be an ownership team and an executive team that all really love each other. Action Steps: Keep your day job when you’re building a company unless you know what you’re doing. And you’ll know you know what you’re doing when you have money in your bank account. Be exciting enough to have other people tell your story for you. Jonathan said: “Always set yourself up that other people do the marketing for you, so be exciting, be bold, tread it heavily. Don’t tread lightly. Be loud about what you’re doing and tell the story…” “Sometimes the only way to win a battle is if you both win. And that’s a complicated topic but just know that when you’re going into business, you have to have a partner…” More from Jonathan Buford and Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.: Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.’s Instagram (@azwilderness) Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.’s Twitter (@AZWildernessCo) Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.’s Facebook Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.'s Website Jonathan’s Instagram (@thewildernesshumans) Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Melissa DiGianfilippo and Alexis Krisay founded marketing agency, Serendipit Consulting, which services clients like Orangetheory Fitness, Dry Bar, and Modern Acupuncture. Learn how they’ve grown it to $3M in sales last year with 28 employees. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:24] How Melissa and Alexis first started Serendipit [03:25] How they knew that they would be good business partners [05:42] How they divided their roles and what it has been like for them to work together [09:18] The challenge of staying in their lanes in regards to managing their team [10:46] How they picked the right clients [14:00] How they productized their service and came up with a pricing plan or retainer [16:52] How they improved their client retention and work with their ideal clients [20:05] How they make sure that they’re getting enough leads of their ideal clients by doing PR for themselves [25:39] Who are some of their franchise clients and how they got them [26:52] Some of the struggles that they ran into [32:53] How they built the company culture that’s working for them today [36:31] How they hire people based on their core values Key Takeaways: When you’re running a company with a business partner, it’s important to really respect each other’s knowledge in each of your fields. Marketing is ever-changing, and the same with PR. If a client is paying it out of their own pocket, it’s a problem. Positioning yourself as an expert and sharing case studies that showcase the results you’ve gotten for similar companies is a very effective way to attract your ideal clients. Hiring someone that isn’t culture fit is detrimental to your business. Action Steps: When working with a business partner: Be open communicators. Be honest with each other and give each other feedback without taking it personally. Respect each other’s opinions. Rely on each other’s expertise and respect each other’s lanes. Be more adaptable to each other’s strengths. Do a lot of PR for your company that is aimed to attract your ideal client. Survey your employees regularly and find out your employee net promoter score (eNPS). Consider doing daily huddles as a leadership team and as a company. Hire and fire based on your core values, and give internal recognition based on your core values as well. Melissa said: “You can’t possibly do everything really well and you can’t possibly know every industry. And you definitely need to be picky about the kind of people you work with, not just the kind of clients you work with.” Alexis said: “This is probably something that we do to a flaw is we get so involved with our clients that we really feel like we’re operating their business. And if we’re not getting results for them, we personally feel that pain, so we work really hard to get results…” More from Melissa DiGianfilippo: Serendipit Consulting Melissa’s Twitter (@MelissaPR) More from Alexis Krisay: Serendipit Consulting Alexis’ Twitter (@alexiskrisay) Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: Workamajig (Project Management Software for Marketing Teams) Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Clay Collins built LeadPages to over $30M in annual revenue with over 40k paying customers. In this interview he shares the 5 laws of building a 7 figure SaaS business from scratch based on the lessons he learned. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:56] How Clay would start Leadpages if he were to do it all over again [06:32] Why creating a content community first is important [09:52] When you should start creating a product and how to solicit feedback from your community [11:14] The Rule of Five Ones [16:36] The Five Laws of Setting Up a Seven-Figure SaaS Business from Scratch [23:51] Hiring the technical co-founder [26:15] Doing top-down hiring [32:02] Having upfront communication with your hires and how to manage them [36:07] What Clay did that had the biggest impact on his growth Key Takeaways: If you can’t get someone to opt-in to be a member of your community, the chances of them actually giving you money is far, far less. Building a community first allows you to get intimately acquainted with important players in the space. When you feel like you have a dedicated audience, a devoted audience, and that they are consistently growing and not plateauing, and people are sending thank you notes with emotion, then and only then should you start creating a product. Once you have an audience built to a certain size, it really behooves you to stay ultra-focused. Most people, when they’re trying to make growth work, they do everything under the sun and they end up kind of drowning and in this very complex scenario. Following the Rule of Five Ones helps you to avoid that. A CEO really only has three jobs: making sure there’s always money in the bank, communicating the vision, and hiring people. Anything other than that is not something a CEO should be doing at any point. There are three determinants of success: what you’re working on, who you’re working on it with, and how hard you work. At all times, the company needs to know what the employee needs to stay in their role, the employee needs to know what they need to do to keep their role, and the employee needs to know where they need to get to in order to get a promotion. Action Steps: Build a community around your product through content creation. It doesn’t have to be a blog. It could be a podcast. It could be a weekly webinar or Hangout with a group of people. If you have a SaaS product, launch each feature no matter how small. Find the minimal marketable event and market that. Find out what kind of persona your content attracts. Solicit feedback from your community about what they want before you create a product. Follow the Rule of Five Ones: Have ONE product. Market it to ONE persona. Focus on ONE traffic source. Send that traffic source to ONE conversion mechanism. Focus on this combination for ONE year until you have a consistent month over month growth. If yours is a SaaS business, architect your business to allow for unlimited account expansion. Have your technical co-founder be vetted and interviewed by other technical people that you trust. Do top-down hiring. Hire a director of marketing or someone who, potentially down the road, can build a team under them. Know what excellence and world class really looks like in a given role and figure out if you can hire world-class for those roles. Clay said: “People are fooling themselves if they think they can get folks to pull out their credit card and pay for a product if they can’t even get folks to enter their email address.” “The biggest problem that most people encounter when they go to hire for the very first time is they just don’t know what excellence looks like in a given position.” More from Clay Collins and Nomics: Nomics Website Clay’s Twitter (@ClayCollins) Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Scott Harkey has built OH Partners to $35M in annual revenues. Find out the hiring strategies they used to grow to 120 employees, the pruning process to focus on their best clients, and how they close deals like a $50M contract with the Arizona Lottery. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:30] How Scott and his business partner got started with OH Partners and their vision for the company [03:28] How they went about getting their first clients and learning from failure [06:24] How they started closing deals and picking big clients like Arizona State University [09:34] Working with sports franchises and understanding the business metrics better than their competitors [11:47] Strategies in building relationships with key decision makers of organizations [14:24] How they succeeded in getting their first big client, the Arizona Lottery, and what they were able to do for them [18:21] The research that they did that impacted their creative decisions, that ultimately led to the execution of their strategy into an effective campaign [25:20] What it was like going through different employee stages and the things they had to change to make things work [26:44] How they hired the best people to run their business [31:11] How they know if someone is a good fit for their company [32:15] Why they decided to focus on their big clients [35:12] How they went about trimming the number of their clients [39:24] The one thing they did that had the biggest impact on their growth [41:20] The area that Scott had to personally evolve and grow in to grow their business Key Takeaways: Higher win rates in new business pitching results from being smart about who you can help, who you want to work with, and what you’re passionate about. For a business like OH Partners, it’s about relationships. You have to have great connections in the marketplace and grow not only your agency’s brand but your personal brand. In a professional service business, what brands you’re aligned with speaks a lot about what kind of work you do. Clients can feel when you’re passionate about their business and they understand that you know the business metrics of their industry. You need 7 to 10 touch points within an organization with their key decision makers before you’re even on their radar. And it has to happen organically, it can’t look forced. The strategy of having a spokesperson to give a brand life is not a new strategy. It’s an old strategy that continues to work. In the ad agency business, you need to be very clear on what your weaknesses are and how you improve those weaknesses. Otherwise, you’re vulnerable to not only losing current accounts but vulnerable to winning new accounts. The 80/20 rule is that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients. There are benefits to focusing on fewer clients who are big and letting go of your smaller clients. Action Steps: Be strategic about what you’re good at, what type of people you want to align yourself with, what industries you deeply understand, and the consumer. Build relationships with the key decision makers of the companies and organizations that you want to work with. You don’t need to create new strategies. Utilize old strategies that work. Know your strengths and weakness. Any area that you feel you have a major weakness, go and recruit a talent that would make up for that weakness. Create a great culture and a great place to work. This will help you hire the right people. Hire the person that you need two years from now, not the person you need today. Focus on your big clients and not letting them go away. Scott said: “Strategy is not what you’re going to do, but strategy, more importantly, is deciding what you’re not going to do.” “The hardest lessons we’ve learned and the biggest failures that we’ve had have catapulted us to where we are today… Good entrepreneurs are stupid because they don’t know how hard things are going to be to succeed, and they just do it and they jump in.” More from Scott Harkey and OH Partners: Scott’s LinkedIn OH Partners’ Website OH Partners’ Instagram (@ohadvertising) OH Partners’ Facebook OH Partners’ LinkedIn Resources mentioned in this episode: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Learn how Brad Martineau grew his agency, SixthDivision, by focusing on a single marketing channel, how he productized his services and the innovative delivery method that allowed him to charge premium pricing, resulting in $3M in annual revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:20] What led Brad to start SixthDivision [05:10] How they first started getting clients [09:35] What it was like for them to sponsor the Infusionsoft User Conference for the first time [16:25] How they serviced their clients and deliver results [21:42] How they did custom work for clients [24:04] How they grew their team and their journey to their first million [27:15] How they trained their employees and trusting them to deliver to clients [28:58] How they built recurring revenue [30:26] How they figured out what to do in order to keep clients for a long time [33:04] What are their marketing and sales strategies [37:00] How they grew their business while reducing their pace in half [38:38] Why it’s important to establish systems Key Takeaways: When you start a business, you have to scramble and you have to hustle. Underneath anything that’s custom is a whole bunch of things that have been done a million times before. It’s just how you piece them together. You have to define what your return is before you worry about your clients. And that’s going to be monetary, but you also have to consider the time and what your role is. Be okay with the fact that your revenue might not be growing but you reduce your pace in half. Grow your business but not at the expense of your life and not at the expense of your family. When your business is systematized, you are able to reduce the cost while delivering the exact same thing to your clients. And when you can reduce the cost through systems and tools and processes, everybody has a little bit more room to breathe and be creative. When you hit a plateau, the answer is not to shy away or to shrink from the work. The answer is to open your eyes, recognize what’s going on around you, and learn what you need to learn so that you can take the company to whatever the next plateau is. Action Steps: Get really clear on what kind of company and what kind of culture you want from the very beginning. Make sure your clients are all scheduled out. Have systems in place. Brad said: “There’s just something really powerful about being able to demonstrate what you know how to do live in front of people. You can build relationships super fast with stages...” “How you see yourself and how confident you are in your ability to go figure things out in your business dictates whether or not you can actually go figure it out.” More from Brad Martineau: SixthDivision Brad’s Instagram (@bradmartineau) Brad’s Facebook Brad’s Email Resources mentioned in this episode: Strategic Coach Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) by Verne Harnish The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Learn how 25-year-old Josh Elizetxe developed a revolutionary teeth whitening product, branded it by partnering with celebrities like Floyd Mayweather and Rob Gronkowski and how he has grown it to seven figures, on track for $25M this year. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:43] How Josh got interested and involved in the teeth whitening space [04:09] How they got started with their product and finding the right consultants and advisory team [08:31] What the manufacturing process was like [11:24] How to avoid getting screwed over by bad manufacturing hires [15:31] How they started selling their product [19:06] How they’re promoting their product and their influencer marketing strategy [23:57] What it means to lose money well [29:04] How they choose the influencers to work with [33:10] How they are funding the business [36:41] What had the biggest impact on the growth of Snow Teeth Whitening Key Takeaways: If your product matches with a celebrity, and them endorsing it on social media is honest and authentic, then your product really takes off. You have to understand who your target customer is and go after the buying crowd as opposed to the crowd that’s only looking at products but are not interested in buying. The art of losing money is figuring out how to play the long game better than your competitors. The irony of capitalism is that you have to be willing to be broke in order to build something of value. Don’t focus so much on the competition because you can just become obsessed with looking at the competitors in your space. Action Steps: When you’re in the consumer products industry, break down what the manufacturing suppliers give you to make sure that you have the best quality product as a result. Educate yourself as much as you can about the pain points that you need to address with your product. Reach out to micro influencers, tell them about your product and offer to send it to them. And if they liked it, maybe they would share it on their social media. And if it works for the micro influencers, it should work for the big influencers. Josh said: “I’ve become a master at losing money. And I think that is what is going to propel us into the biggest brand in our space is because I’ve figured out how to lose money really well… That means thinking long-term.” “Treat your money with respect. And I think the best way to respect your money is to know when you’re losing it and to know when it’s okay to lose it because it’s going to elevate your brand.” More from Josh Elizetxe and Snow Teeth Whitening: Snow Teeth Whitening Kit Snow Teeth Whitening Kit’s Instagram (@snowteethwhitening) Resources mentioned in this episode: Clarity.fm Journey to 7 Figures Episode with Anthony Sarandrea: How Pocket Your Dollars Grew to $500k a Month in One Year Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

DigitalMarketer has over 15,000 paying members and half a million subscribers that trust them to learn about digital marketing. Learn how they grew past the $1M and $5M ARR plateaus and how Ryan Deiss’ business model had to change. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:35] How Ryan got into the traffic conversion space and what it was like back then when he were just starting [07:33] How Ryan was able to build an email list and the pivotal moment that eventually launched DigitalMarketer [12:16] When DigitalMarketer became an actual company and how they built the business [16:23] What they did to change DigitalMarketer from a personality-driven brand into a company-driven brand and some of the big shifts that they made in the company [25:15] What it was like when DigitalMarketer went almost bankrupt [27:57] What they did to improve their customer churn and create the stickiness that made customers keep coming back [35:10] The shifts they had to make to get to $10M in ARR [39:45] Tips on what not to do when it comes to product expansion [41:52] How hiring the right people made the biggest impact on DigitalMarketer’s growth Key Takeaways: Just going out there and selling something for $2,000, the market would only bear that price point for so long, especially when everybody else started doing it. Because at that point, if everybody is doing it and a lot of them suck, it doesn’t matter that yours are good. People aren’t going to know the difference from the outside looking in. When everybody in the marketplace looks exactly the same, the only advantage that you can have is to have a better brand. If you want your business to be a sellable brand, it can’t be about you. Selling a subscription is much harder than selling one-offs, but as long as you have something new to talk to people about, they would sign up. People will join for content, but they stay for the community. If you really want to make subscription work, what you have to incorporate into it is some type of pain of disconnect. Action Steps: Turn your business into a company-driven brand. Take the “genius” and turn it into a transferable document. Consider shifting from an ala-carte model into a subscription model. Do something new that would entice customers to sign up for a membership or a subscription. Invest in creating a community for your brand and then leverage that. Hire people who care, who are excited, and who want to learn, and invest in them. Focus on efficiency rather than productivity. Set aside money for taxes. Ryan said: “If you’re in the guru business, you want to tell your origin story, you want to talk about how all these amazing things happened to you. If you want to make a pivot away from the guru business and into this true sellable brand… you’ve got to set your ego aside.” “Productivity is a myth. It’s garbage. The more productive you get, the more capacity that you create within yourself, which means the more work you do. We don’t get more productive and then do less. We get more productive and then do more.” More from Ryan Deiss: DigitalMarketer Website Ryan’s Twitter (@ryandeiss) Ryan’s LinkedIn Resources mentioned in this episode: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Learn how in just three short years, Jessica Stellwagen grew CoolSculpting provider, Bodify, to $2.2M in sales with 40% net profit and just three employees. Even if you don’t have a clinic, there’s lots to learn from their marketing and growth strategies. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for complete show notes of every podcast episode Topics Discussed in this Episode: [03:58] What is CoolSculpting? [04:33] How did they raise the funds to start a CoolSculpting practice? [07:10] How did they know where to go with the business and find the perfect space? [09:21] What were some of the big advantages of specializing their services? [12:34] How did they start getting clients? [14:37] How did they get people to opt-in in their website? [17:40] How do they position themselves as the best? [20:17] How do they get the leads from their website to actually come for a consultation? [24:43] What kind of training do they put in place for their team to do a good job in getting clients? [27:04] What was their PR strategy? [29:57] How did they figure out their ideal client or ideal CoolSculpting candidate? [30:40] How did their business change from year one to year two to year three? [32:18] How helpful were the review sites to their business? [36:00] How did they figure out the small details that make things work? [37:53] What’s the one thing they did that had the biggest impact on their growth? Key Takeaways: If you don’t have passion and you don’t have heart, then you are not going to be able to put the time, energy, and effort into growing your business. Good, bad, right, or wrong, how we feel in our bodies actually really impacts how we operate in the world on a daily basis. You can’t do good business with bad people. Do what you do best and delegate the rest. Niches lead to riches. You cannot be both the best and the cheapest. You’re a hundred times more likely to engage with a lead if you get in touch with them within the first ie minutes versus 30 minutes of them actually having an interest in what you’re providing. Actually asking people what they want to drink outside of water, coffee or tea, for example, is probably one the biggest ways to minimize your no-show. People just feel obligated to show up because you’ve been nice. The fortune is in the follow-up. Action Steps: Hire someone to write a business plan. Be smart with your dollars. Make sure to have a great website. Hire a marketing team. Keep trusting the process. Be clear upfront about having a training manual or processes and procedures that you want the people in your team to follow. Take off the business owner hat and put on the prospect hat and consider: What would you want to hear? What could you see that would move you to action? Think about getting a business coach. Jessica said: “Guess what? Life happens. Sometimes people need a little nidge or they need a little push. And if you just kind of write them off, they might go down the street and do business elsewhere. “Most salespeople are willing to follow-up with someone once, when the truth is most people need about five follow-up attempts after a consultation or appointment to decide to buy.” More from Jessica Stellwagen: Bodify Website Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Learn how Raj Jana created JavaPresse, a side hustle selling coffee grinders on Amazon from a business that had 90% refunds in the first two months, to selling 150k products and $2.3M in sales. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:28] What made Raj decide to get into entrepreneurship [07:56] Some of the first steps Raj took to figure out what kind of product he wanted to create [16:00] Raj’s financial situation at the time when he started the company [19:08] How they got to $23,000 in sales that first year [22:15] The strategies they used to get reviews for the product [24:15] What happened when they started having problems with their product [30:57] How they scaled the business even higher and built a brand that people wanted to be around Key Takeaways: You shouldn’t just follow your passions when it comes to picking niches. There needs to be a marriage between what you want to do and who needs the help. Having a full-time job is really underrated when you’re starting a company. Not only does it give you the cash flow but it allows you to be bold and gives you the ability to take risks without being scared of survival. The mistake that people make when they’re scaling physical products is diversifying too early. When you’re scaling physical products especially from five figures to six figures and from six figures to seven, it’s a lot easier to streamline one product’s life cycle than it is for you to launch 50 new products. One of the reasons why Kickstarter works so well is that you’re building a product with somebody, and they feel connected to it and they want to be the first to give their feedback. In this way, you’re like creating the perfect customer who is amped and excited to be a part of your story from the get-go. “Focus on the customer and doing right by the customer and not what’s right by you” gave JavaPresse a competitive edge and allowed them to scale Amazon from six figures a month to seven figures. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they’re starting out a company is running out of stock. The second you run out of stock is the second that you lose the opportunity to capitalize on immediate, impromptu, hot purchases that now happen in the digital age. Action Steps: Invest in taking courses to learn what you can and to grow your business. Use tools like Google Trends, Google AdWords or Google Keyword Planner to verify the niches that continuously grow. Do a market research to find out which product is a winner and invest in more inventory and more marketing for that one product, and take that product to the highest level possible in that one market space. Have a good follow-up sequence that nurtures sales and adds value to the product. Leverage your friends and family and networks especially when you’re just starting out. Bring them on board and ask for help. Build an audience, through a list or a community, around your niche or product launch. Invest in content and build a solid lead magnet. Raj said: “When you’re a new entrepreneur, not having funding is a blessing because it forces you to get very resourceful.” “When you have only one product and you do everything right, you create this super highway to scaling and growth because you’re essentially pouring more money on a machine that’s churning out faster than you can run.” More from Raj Jana: JavaPresse Raj’s Email: chiefbrewer@javapresse.com Raj’s Twitter: @rajer_thatt Resources mentioned: Maverick Entrepreneurs Evolved Enterprise by Yanik Silver Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller Purple Cow by Seth Godin Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

In just five years, Garrett Moon has built CoSchedule from 0 to 7 figures in revenue, 9,000 customers, 1.5M monthly page views, and over 350k email subscribers. Listen to this episode to learn exactly how he did it. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:31] How Garrett started with his first agency and how far they got before moving forward with CoSchedule [04:37] The idea for CoSchedule and how they decided it was the product to move forward with [10:36] How they focused on getting customer feedback and understanding customers’ problems [14:17] What was their method of getting customer feedback? [15:28] What were their original SEO strategies? [17:12] What was their promotion strategy? [20:04] Launching the Actionable Marketing Podcast and how it has impacted their growth [23:22] What is their email list growth strategy and what were its drivers? [26:18] What were the 10X projects they released? [30:56] How they dealt with product changes and client base changes Key Takeaways: When you’re an agency and you have serviced customers, it’s really easy to leverage that relationship to get feedback on your software or to get them to buy it, and you kind of get this false sense of validation. When it comes to SaaS, you’re constantly adding more product. And as you make your product more complex and add more features, it becomes a better solution for larger customers. Development is never done. Your customers always need to see new features and they expect the software to get better and more powerful over time, not stay the same. The blog posts that drive traffic aren’t always the most valuable ones. And traffic isn’t always the best signifier of access to some customer segments. If you’re focused on two things, you’re not focused on anything. You can’t focus 100% on two things. Action Steps: Base your business decisions on growth velocity long-term versus just short-term happiness for certain customers. Be constantly focused on growth and moving upward. Learn to delegate and how to manage and trust people. Coach your talent to be good. Garrett said: “You have to learn to really understand the problem and then the emotional reasons that that user might buy a product versus ask them would they buy. It’s not even a real question because there’s so much emotion wrapped into buying, it’s just not a good place to start.” “The reality is that as your product changes and as your customer base changes, you have to make decisions or release features that you know are only going to help a certain set of users.” More from Garrett Moon: CoSchedule 10x Marketing Formula: Your Blueprint for Creating 'Competition-Free Content' That Stands Out and Gets Results by Garrett Moon Garrett’s Twitter: @garrett_moon Resources mentioned: Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights by Steve Portigal Actionable Marketing Podcast The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!