eCom Capital Podcast
The Ecom Capital Podcast is the blueprint for eCommerce growth—one conversation at a time.
Hosted by Sasha Karabut, founder of Ecom Capital (8-figure company), the show uncovers how top founders and operators build, scale, and win in eCommerce.
No fluff. No theory. Just what’s working now.
New episodes every week.
eCom Capital Podcast
Live Workshop: Fixing the Biggest Scaling Problems in Two Ecommerce Brands
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Schedule a Call here to build and Scale your Ecommerce Brand → https://www.ecomcapital.com/demo/schedule
In this exclusive 90-day workshop, I sit down with three successful founders who launched and scaled to $30K/month in under 60 days. We break down their biggest wins, critical blockers, and the exact strategy to scale from $30K to $100K/month – including why quick success can be your biggest blind spot.
If you're new to this channel, my name is Sasha Karabut. I went from $137,000 in debt to building two 8-figure eCommerce brands. Through my company Ecom Capital, I've generated over $75 million in client revenue and helped 1000+ brands scale their businesses profitably.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Workshop Introduction: Three Founders, Different Journeys
1:00 - Eddie's Story: From Photographer to $500 Sale in 48 Hours
8:00 - The Three Types of Mentors (Why Experience Matters) 1
1:20 - Nick & Jess: Black Friday Launch to $30K/Month
16:00 - The Power of Celebrating Small Wins
20:00 - What Makes These Founders Different?
24:00 - The Critical Question: What Are You Building For?
30:00 - The Lifestyle vs Scale Decision (Why It Matters)
33:00 - Eddie's Biggest Blocker: Supply Chain & Lead Times
38:00 - Nick & Jess's Blocker: Time Allocation & Stock Management
42:00 - The Hidden Danger of Quick Success
48:00 - Why You MUST Scrutinize Your Wins
54:00 - The Color SKU Trap (New Products vs Optimization)
59:00 - Simple Scales, Fancy Fails
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We've got a bit of a different format today. A couple of people with different businesses. We want to kind of go through a workshop of uh backgrounds, progress of the last 90 days, and then also some strategy in the future.
SPEAKER_04We launched our business on the 21st of Jan. So it's probably about 45 odd days. That's that's still pretty new. We were able to create an ad, launch, and within less than 48 hours, generate a 500 scale.
SPEAKER_02We actually launched uh just before Black Friday, and we had a pretty good first month in December.
SPEAKER_01And now we're doing it for over a thousand because we're gonna get over 30k.
SPEAKER_03What do you think the biggest blocker is right now, currently, in terms of preventing you to continue growing and scaling at the same rate, if not faster?
SPEAKER_02We're both running full-time jobs and then trying to do creatives, I think, is a big robot.
SPEAKER_04The biggest blocker to us kind of moving and kind of focusing on that full-time is probably supplier.
SPEAKER_03What do you think you've um captured the most value from as far as like the experience working with the team?
SPEAKER_04There's three kinds of uh mentors. There's the person who heard about it in the book, there's a person who witnessed it, and then there's a person who's done it.
SPEAKER_02This is where the value It just inspires you to come along to those places and just be in a room with a whole heap of other people doing the same thing on the same journey.
SPEAKER_03Both of you have had out-of-the-gate wind, and that's like very good, but it also doesn't force you to really scrutinize and look at what it is that worked and why it worked. Eddie, give us a quick wrap of the last three months for yourself, and then if you could share a little bit about um what you were doing before you've been building uh mint and parsley.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so um we launched our business on the 21st of Jan. So it's probably about 45 odd days. Um that's so it's still pretty new. Um so before that, and still now, I'm a professional photographer. We take pictures of products and people, and that's what we've done for the past 25 years. Uh and we have taken pictures of lots of other people's products, and I've always been going, you know what, we need to create our own product and something. And one of the biggest things that our biggest stumbling block was what is it that we do? And this is where Econ Capital kind of stepped in, and you know, they gave us a roadmap to be able to work out what it was that we were going to sell. So we were asking ourselves the owner uh questions to go, okay, well, do we go this way, do we go this way? And we ended up in cooking, which is ironically enough where I started 30 something years ago. So you know, be hospitality and cooking in kitchens paid for me to become a photographer, and now 25 years later I've gone back into the kitchen.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy. I didn't know that full that full uh circle that that you that you went through. Wow, interesting. So you when you when you started you had no concept of what you wanted to sell that was full-blown, just like let's figure it out.
SPEAKER_04Look, we we've been involved in various business over the years, and there were certain things that I wanted, and there were certain like non-negotiables and so on. Um a high-ticket item is something that we kind of go, okay, this is a non-negotiable. We don't want to be fissing around with, you know, this is a$20 item and I've got to sell 50,000 of them to make a hundred bucks. You know what I mean? So we wanted a high-ticket item. We wanted something that had a recurring back end, i.e., kind of a subscription-based situation. That's probably something that we'll come up with down the track. I think for the time being, getting some runs on the board by selling something online and learning how to do all of that was the more important thing to do up front than to try and navigate that and subscriptions and all the rest of it.
SPEAKER_03What part of your previous experience do you think helped you the most in terms of all of it.
SPEAKER_04Um the thing is that we've run meta ads before, we've dealt with suppliers overseas, you know, we've dealt with stuff, we've got like 25 years in business, you you know, you you need a lot of, you know, you've got a lot of scabs on your knee. There's a lot of experience. And um we could have done this without the help of e-con capital, it just would have taken that much longer.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_04Do you know so for me it's like you know, if you're we we kind of looked at it as you know what? If I'm buying a business, I'm buying a business, and that business has systems and processes and things like that. We've sold a business before, and that's what we solved. You know what I mean? This is how you do this. If you do A, B, and C, you get okay. So we could work it out as we went along, or we could go, okay, well, let's leverage on someone who's done it before and buy ourselves some time rather than stick around for two years.
SPEAKER_00But I don't think it's just time. You're also like just just thinking about this, you would have probably also spent more money, much more. Like in the so I think it's time and money, they go together. But just thinking about it, just you probably would have invested much more just based on our own.
SPEAKER_04Tom, for me, time is more important than than money. Money comes time, you know. I can dig around for two years to get to where I am now, or I can take a shortcut and go, yeah, here's a recipe to bake a cake. No bake a fucking cake.
SPEAKER_03How did you find it going through the process, Eddie? Like with your background and the business acu that you've developed, was it kind of just like um pretty self-explanatory? Like the the pace that you moved through things, it seemed pretty quick. So, from my view of how I saw you kind of navigate through all of the steps inside of the um masterminder specifically, it seemed like you were just like, yep, got it, yep, got it, yep, got it, yep, got it. Like it wasn't as if you were kind of like having to discover what, like you said, meta ads are, and then discover cash flow and then discover it it's kind of like okay, cash flow here, cash flow here, meta ads here, meta ads here. Kind of the same process, like it seemed like it was pretty fast for you.
SPEAKER_04It it I yes, it was fast, but again, that comes from experience. And you know, I mean, um, I'd like to think I'm involved in in e-commer community, you know, a bit. And I'm on a lot of calls and whatever, and I'm seeing a lot of people have different personalities, and some people's personalities work really slow and whatever, whatever you know, my personality is like one thing's done, I want it done yesterday, and I'm just gonna do it. And there's no like there's it's not a negotiation. Um having business experience, um, look, you don't need business experience to do this, but it helps. And I mean, if you are a person who's always been a uh technician who's worked for somebody else and always kind of had a nine to five and so on, and now all of a sudden you've got to deal with a supplier. Never mind the Chinese supplier who has their own different terms and terminology and language barrier and you know all of the things that are involved in running a business.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it it it's that um it's like figuring out what like the alphabet while trying to learn to talk at the same time, and you're like, I don't even know what letter that is, and someone's speaking at you in some different like noise that you're hearing for the first time, you're like, wait, what? It can be very challenging, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So we I mean what if you try and I'm not trying to whatever, but I mean if you've run a business for any period of time, you've eaten a few shit sandwiches, you know what I mean? Like but the longer you do it and the more seasoned you get, shit sandwich is just a small low d'oeuvre, you know what I mean? Like you just gone and do it.
SPEAKER_03What do you think you've um uh like captured the most value from as far as like the experience working with the team? I think you're working with Sarah, I believe, now, but what do you think some of the standout um like pieces that have been most helpful for you um that you've really been like this has really accelerated my results?
SPEAKER_04Um genuinely, I think the time I spend with Hammon most morning like is probably the most valuable. Nice um because it is I mean, me and Hammond have developed a relationship and you know we kind of get each other and you know I'm not afraid to ask him questions or challenge his thinking, and he challenges back. And I mean, look, all of the all of the account managers that we've had have been great. Um, yesterday we changed from Sarah to Steve because we're now at a stage where we're gonna scale. Um, and Steve is Steve is great. You know what I mean? So there's a few little bits and pieces that we've picked up along the way that have really kind of cut down time and money.
SPEAKER_03The interesting thing, those um, it's funny, those um those morning huddles. I remember some two years ago, perhaps two and a half years ago, I was uh doing those meetings every morning, and I first started doing it uh because we run it across the company, right? We have all of the different departments having their morning huddles to kick off the day, accountability, drive performance. And I was like, I wonder how this would be if uh the clients had this experience. And so, like for a period of like a few months, we I started running it and I was like, okay, we've got it, we've got this rhythm happening, people are jumping on, very focused and driven around the day, unblocking any kind of constraints for the morning. And it started to get some good feedback. And then Hammond uh came in as like one of the coaches, and we started integrating him into the group calls, and then I was like, Hammond, next week you're taking the morning huddles, and he was like, Yes, what? And I just threw the guy in there and he was like, Got it, grabbed it, and he's been he's been in there and smashing it ever since. Uh it's fantastic, it's very good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but keep in mind, like I'm coming from like a background of just business doing actions rather than let's say coaching, particularly. So it's like more business management, running the ads, doing the actions. So I'm I was coming in again in the in the coaching program. I'm not coming to just like essentially teach things that I've heard before. It's with more of things that I'm doing. So I think that's probably the easiest path for us to get you guys fast success. It's actually just having exactly like we did this before, and that's I think the biggest delta in terms of that's the person you want to listen to.
SPEAKER_04So there's uh there's three what is it? There's three kinds of uh mentors. There's a person who heard about it in a book who's never actually done it, there's a person who witnessed it, and then there's a person who's done it. The person who's done it is the person you want to listen to, and this is where the value goes.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I remember you attended my call and you saw like the ad account with one million dollar, and it was like Yeah, I took a screenshot of that, and like that's I mean why wouldn't you take a screenshot of that?
SPEAKER_04How often the people an ad account with a million dollars in it that then generate a one point okay.
SPEAKER_00It's actually generated two point four million, just so that you're aware. It doesn't track everything, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03Nick and Jessica.
SPEAKER_00The owners were there in the call as well, looking at their own ad accounts.
SPEAKER_03Nice, love it. Nick, Jess, can you share a little bit about um last 90 days for you guys uh and then also a little bit of the previous experience, maybe background before you started the business that you now have as well?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no worries. Yeah, so Jess and I started this business. We're on the journey since about July. Um then we actually launched uh just before Black Friday. Um, yeah, we had a pretty good first month in December. Uh was some pretty good strong growth, especially over Christmas and things like that. Um, things sort of tapered off a little bit over January. Um, and then coming back into March, we've had some really good strong growth again. So yeah, it's really, really, really exciting for both of us at the moment.
SPEAKER_03Love it. Very good. What were um what were some of the most exciting parts over the last like three months where you've had this more explosive kind of growth that's like, whoa, this is fast? Like what are some of the standouts for both of you?
SPEAKER_01Um, well, I don't have Shopify on my phone. So Nick gets the notifications and then he sends it through to me, which I love getting text messages saying, two more, two more, two more. So that's always a highlight. Yeah. And we have been celebrating our wins as well. Like um, last month um we had a goal of 20k, which worked out to be about$750 a day-ish. And so every time we got to$750, we'd take a photo of wherever we were to just to say, like, we're doing this, but we've made this money. Yeah. Um, and now we're doing it over a thousand because we're gonna get over 30k this month. So um celebrating the little wins have been really good along the way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, love that. And so you guys have like a library of different moments where you've taken photos in different videos.
SPEAKER_01I've got a folder saved ready to I don't know what I'm gonna do with it. Maybe at the end of the year, just put it all in one video or something.
SPEAKER_03That's incredible. I love that idea. I think that I think that more people need to do that because you don't um I I I I went back through my whole library, um, my social girls, like, I need some old photos of you. I went back through my old library, like, geez, it must have been last week. And I was like, look through like 10 years of, I don't know, random moments that I just captured through like different, and I'm like, wow, I wish I did more of this. And like, you know what I mean, like froze those little moments in time. This is such a fantastic idea. I love that. It's excellent. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We we've we've always seen that you can like it's good to celebrate the wins, even if they're small, and you don't have to pay a lot of money to do it. It doesn't always have to be like, oh, we'll go out for a dinner or something like that. So, and we're obviously building the online business to be able to be anywhere and be making money. And that's why we were like, well, wherever we are, like I've taken a picture on the plane, I've been in a car driving somewhere in the middle of the bush. Like, so um yeah, it's been really good.
SPEAKER_03What's um what would you say from your view has been the most helpful as far as working with the team um over the last, particularly in this last like 90 days, like I guess the whole six-month period, you guys are July until now, so six to eight months. Um, what would you say you you found most helpful in terms of like getting the results that you guys have reached?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think sometimes it's adding up to your workshops that you have on the on the weekends. So, you know, we we came to the one before Black Friday, and I think just attending them over the last few months really sort of sinks it back in again and it really sort of makes you hold accountable. You know, you guys get up on stage and talk about a lot of different things, and you go, hang on a second, I'm not actually doing that. We need to start implementing that. I just really find it it's it's held us accountable to what we're actually doing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it fills your cup up a little bit as well.
SPEAKER_02It just inspires you to come along to those places and just be in a room with a whole heap of other people doing the same thing on the same journey. We're really learning a lot from those weekends.
SPEAKER_01And um, Hammond have to agree with Eddie. Hammond Hammond is also the one that holds me accountable. He knows when I um have stopped doing creatives for two days, he'll he he's very switched on and you know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00So Okay, we need to do creatives. That's the thing. Every time I see like, I actually just like this is I think you attended one of the calls. I was not aware that you took some days off. And and and I was like, well, what's happening? I see like like what's happening in your ad account, we don't have enough creatives. And it's like, oh right, this is the only time I took actually two days off. I'm like, okay, I was not even aware of that. So I was just looking at your ad account kind of pace, and the moment I see kind of a declining level of creatives, then I know that something is off. So that's kind of my parameter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So yeah, Hammond hold us account holds us accountable. We're in nurture, so we don't have um the other coaches. So we just literally have Hammond and the calls that we go on on the cow that are on the calendar, and I just try jump on all of them. And if I've missed them, I'll re-watch them.
SPEAKER_03I think the um the one the one similarity between both of uh like yourself, Nick and Jess, and then also Eddie is like there is uh there is not there are not many calls that I hop on that both of you guys are not on, you know, and so um Eddie's just there hanging out, and God, the dude's always just like, you know, contributing, adding value, grabbing a few things, God knows, maybe screenshotting a few things in the background. But it's like um and I think there's something to that because I find that the more that you immerse yourself in the business and the growth and the environment and kind of the opportunities, I just think of it as um uh information that you're receiving and it's kind of aligned with the goal that you have, right? And if if you don't kind of immerse yourself in information and kind of just exposure to strategy that's aligned with that goal, your attention will get placed on to different things that have no kind of correlation to your business. And then you're like, oh, I'm just not motivated, oh, I'm not really too interested. And it kind of gradually declines. So um I look at that as a huge um contributing factor to both of your success in terms of just being really focused on being like, let's be consistent, let's show up on those meetings, ask the difficult questions, process through the issues, and then just action and implement on the back end.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I've always gone by I've always gone by saying, you know, it's it's 80% commitment, 20% knowledge. You know, if you commit, things are always gonna change over a long period of time. You know, you don't that much knowledge, you just got to commit to keep doing it.
SPEAKER_01And one of our things. Oh, sorry, you go. I was just gonna say one of the things that we always say to each other is nothing changes if nothing changes. So you've got to make that change to actually be able to see something happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The one thing that I actually noticed, I just wanted to say this is that most of business owners, they have this like excitement when things are working, and then they actually not working on the business when they need to work on the business. So, for example, you have a declining performance, you're kind of like not motivated to do the actions because you're losing money. While you should be the most motivated, I would say, or actionable in that time. So every time I see a business owner that's kind of having a bad performance, they're not excited or they're not working on the things they should be working on just because the business is not performing, while they should be kind of working more. So this is kind of the delta that I try to focus on all the time. Because I know that when you don't have good results, you're not necessarily thinking about doing the creatives. It's gonna be the boring thing. It's gonna be like, I don't want to do this, I want to more observe this loss, which doesn't make sense either way. Uh, and and kind of like you're more obsessed about the bad thing rather than looking at the good thing that could solve the bad thing. So that's my view on it.
SPEAKER_03Just a question in terms of Nick and Jess, because um I'm just curious about the dynamic between the two of you. Has it been helpful to be, you know, having the relationship? Has it been challenging sometimes? You know what I mean? Like, do both of you guys like drive different departments or different areas of the business? I'd just like to know a little bit about that. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_01Uh, yeah. Uh I do the creatives um and talking to the suppliers, um, all that sort of stuff. And mixed up.
SPEAKER_02I've sort of set everything up. So we're just sort of transit transitioned into a company. So I I sort of look after all the books, all the insurance, all those types of things, and and and and put everything together, making sure we're sort of on track with our finances, uh, where how we can scale up with with what amount of money we've actually got in the background. So yeah, I sort of take care of those things on that back end.
SPEAKER_03Good, good, nice. Has that been helpful having that kind of different um skill sets in different areas?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100%. Yeah. We always bounce everything off each other. You know, Jess is always saying, hey, what about this creative? And you know, we're always both searching um on Instagram or Facebook or whatever for the sort of latest trends and sending each stuff to each other. Um, you know, we're we're constantly communicating every single day. So yeah. Good. I like that a lot.
SPEAKER_00Daddy, where's your partner? Eddie is actually like your partner also is contributing to a business. Where is she?
SPEAKER_04So for uh for us, Raz, I've doing Saturday things today, but uh and I have worked together in our businesses since 2007. So it's a it's a long time. And I mean our philosophy is divide and conquer. You know, uh and you know, not long ago, a business that we recently sold was a portrait business. And when I was trying to be in both the portrait and the commercial, it would be complicated. And when she was trying to do both, the same thing. So she was all in the portrait, I was in the commercial, and then we did well, you know what I mean. So and now you know, I'm doing a lot of the bits and pieces and showing up to meetings, but she's there in the background for all decisions and all conversations, and like running a business is hard, you know, all of a sudden you've got somebody who's on your team who is there to kind of champion each other on, just makes it a little bit easier.
SPEAKER_03Uh so that took a good like two years of convincing. Um so because so so she had her e-commerce business. We started that kind of together, and then she took off with that and ran with it. She initially wanted to um build that business to um, she's like, I wanted to build this for you so that you could not work. And I'm like, that is never gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, what? That is. Maybe she had the same um as me that you get complaints about having to drive and sit in traffic and you just don't want to hear it anymore. So let's just get it sorted so you don't have to keep working.
SPEAKER_03That that's how it's yeah, that's how it started. And then um, she she she she took off with the business within six months. She we were like in negotiations with this uh Mad Pause company to to buy the whole business. And I remember like going through that and I was like, I've had like two, three businesses now by that time, and she's started her first business, she's just running this thing, she's just having the best time, and she was like, she's always been incredibly good at term, and she still to this day is probably one of the best people that I know at this um identifying the things that uh generate the most income and just exploiting the hell out of it. Of those things and then just avoiding anything else. She's very like lazy with the things that don't need to be done. Right. And you like that pursue business, that business is actively scaling right now. She works on that business, I kid you not, like 90 minutes a week. And we're doing like 60 grand a month. We'll be back up to 100 grand a month very soon. There is almost like it runs on oxygen and maybe a little, like I'm like, it is insane. And then she'll come into the e-commerce capital company, she'll just like ruthlessly spend some time allocating into some areas, um, whether it's like content, whether it's strategy, whether it's direction, and then it'll just make explosive kind of movements. So she she's very, very good at that. But as far as like the initial kind of like start of where it all came together, is she was like, I want to help you. And then after like the Sashbeds company grew to a certain level, I'm like, look, you've exited it. This other company owns it officially now. Like you're working hard for this other company. And the things that she when she started uh working in the MadPorts business, there was a meeting that she had, right? And she's like, I have to go and report uh in front of the whole company and do like an all hands meeting, right? And present the this is what we're doing, this is how we've done things, and and and she was like, if I knew that I had to do these meetings, I would have never sold the business. She's like, I fucking hate it. I can't, I can't stand it. This is the worst thing I've and then yeah, uh a year or two later, I was like just speaking to her. I'm like, babe, look, you look what you're doing there, you're working very hard, you can do the same thing in this company, we can help people, we can build an amazing company together. And and then eventually, after much convincing, she was like, Yep, okay, let's rock and roll. And so she's been in e-comcapital for about two and a half years now. Now, the the the question I have two questions for uh for Nick and Jess and also for Eddie. So, number one is what's the goal of the company that you're building? Um, that's the first question that I'd like to kind of ask to um you guys individually and like have that thought. What is the outcome you're optimizing for in terms of what are you building the business for? And then the second question I'd like to ask um each of you before Hammond and I go into what we believe is what do you think the biggest blocker is right now, currently, in terms of preventing you to continue growing and scaling at the same rate, if not faster. So, Nick and Jess, do you guys want to go first? What is the goal? What are you building the business for? What's the outcome? Um, and then also what do you think at the moment is the biggest blocker that you have to fix in the business in order to get that growth?
SPEAKER_02Um, for us, we we just wanted to we're you know, we've always put a lot of energy into working for other people. Um a lot of the time it's not actually, you don't feel like it's appreciated. You put so much energy in, but you don't really sort of get anywhere. So that's why we decided to to do our own business so we can actually put all that good energy that we actually have into it and create our own lifestyle. Um, we love to travel and and and be in different places. So um an online business was pretty much ideal for that sort of purpose. You know, we could we can get it set up. We're not probably quite at that stage yet, but once we get everything into maybe third-party fulfillment and things like that, you know, we can have this business anywhere we want in the world. You know, we can travel around, just have that flexibility and freedom. We've got that choice to wake up in the morning, go to the beach, have a coffee, you know, it's all on our own time. Um, and that's what we're trying to develop both of us.
SPEAKER_03So, so so very much a full-blown like lifestyle um and cash flow business. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. That's fantastic. That's very good. I love that. I love that. Now, what do you think is the biggest blocker at the moment um between uh where you are right now and then getting to do you know what the number is that the business needs to do to be able to actually get that lifestyle that you guys want?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but it's probably around that one and a half to two will give us a pretty good lifestyle.
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_02One and a half to two million a year.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Got it. Okay. And so what do you think at the moment is the biggest um blocker that you need to solve that will help to get closer to that one and a half, two million?
SPEAKER_02Well, we're we're both running full-time jobs, so running full-time jobs and then trying to do creatives, I think, is is a big roadblock, but it's that's a hard thing to make that transition from from working and and stepping into the business. So um just due to a couple of commitments that we already have, that's probably the biggest roadblock I can see at this point in time.
SPEAKER_01Um staying on top of stock as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, stock, yeah. Okay, cool. So stock and the time component as far as time allocation between what you're currently doing versus um the business. Eddie, what do you think? What's the outcome you're optimizing for with the company? And then what's the unblocker?
SPEAKER_04So ideally what we're looking to achieve with getting some parsley is um something that's gonna see us into retirement. You know what I mean? Like I'm pretty close to 50, so is my wife. And you know, like I love the being a photographer. It's a great job, you know, it's been very good to me, but it's it's a hard kick. You know what I mean? Like I'm pretty I'm I'm basically a roadie. You know what I mean? There's bags and cases and it's it's it's it's physically demanding. I'm not I'm not in a mine digging holes all on site, but you know, a roadie is a pretty physically demanding job. Um and I love the idea that we can do this from home. Um you know that's that's something that I really enjoy. You know what I mean? Like I've done a lot of client facing, like my everything I've ever done, hospitality to photography, has all been client. I'm I'm I'm I'm good there. But I also like the idea of just being in front of a computer anywhere and I can just run it from wherever I need to. And you know, the fact that you know we have the skills to be able to shoot content, it's a great point. Um so yeah, that's that. And honestly, the big the the the biggest blocker to us kind of moving and kind of focusing on that full time um is probably supplier for now. If I had to answer that question right now today, you know, the supplier that we've got is good, but it could be better. You know what I mean? Other than that, and I mean it's not really that's not a big problem to solve. You know, there are other suppliers, we are in conversation with other suppliers who have sent us a sample to it, it's pretty good. So, I mean, I think that it's just going to take a little bit of time to kind of fine-tune those few bits and pieces and really just ramp up and scale up, you know, the meta ads and all the other bits and pieces that we need to. That's really the only thing that I'm you know.
SPEAKER_03Got it. Hammond, um, your view on the two businesses that we have here in terms of the the one thing uh before we get into the strategy component, the the the reason I asked the question in terms of what you're building for um is because don't forget that. If it is the purpose of building the business to maximize cash flow and create lifestyle, um, build for that design. Does that make sense? Because what happens so often, and I see this all the time, um massive, massive revenue hikes, um, costs through the roof, building a business because you want to beat last month's revenue and profit is like zero. Like there is a lot of businesses that I'm heavily involved in that I see growing month on month that I'm just like, good God, like it didn't you start this to have more cash so you could, you know, spend some more time doing some stuff, and now you're just like obsessed with the next revenue number at the cost of like everything else, you know? And so I think the the reason I cited before the situation with the Basu company and Nehru doing this, I said directly to her when she was building that company, um, this company this time around, I said, what I want you to be very aware of is there's a there's a certain like um tipping point of complexity where the business reaches more complexity and that it actually uh uses more resources to continue growing. Every business has that moment, whether it's a certain headcount, right? There's uh what's that um law that there's a certain 150 it is, but it it there's there's there's a certain number of headcount where the business complexity multiplies, skews in your business multiplies, complexity multiplies, revenues. And so what what I really want to encourage you guys to do, if that is the goal, right, you're starting with this in mind. And the thing is, it may change as the business evolves, and you might be like, I want to get more for more's sake. But I I think like along the journey, you will often like find yourself questioning what am I doing this for? What am I doing this for? What am I doing this for? And very bluntly and transparently, um, if you're paying yourself a good wage out of your business and you actually have a good solid income, it takes care of a lot of those, what am I doing it for? You know, and if you've got no income coming out of your business because you're all just folding it back in over and over and over again, you're not really achieving the lifestyle side of things and you and then you're like going through some challenging months and times, you're like, what's the point of this thing again? You know, and so I so I so I think being really painfully aware of like, okay, so I need to get to 100 grand a month or I need to get to 150 grand a month. If I find the complexity really starting to compound at 120, I'm going to look at leaning this thing out as much as I can, simplify, simplify, simplify. And this is what I said on the coaching call uh last week, where with AI at the moment, God, it is the one of the best times to be able to do this exact thing, building like a lifestyle cash flow-focused business that you guys can set up and run to be able to pay yourself$10,000,$20,000,$40,000 a month within six to eight months of launching and scaling the business. And like, that is insane. It is absolutely insane. But I think it's very important to make sure, and I'm I'm saying this feedback to you because I had this feedback given to me from Hormozy where he was like, what's the game that you're playing? Right? Because he's like, you're trying to um, you know, ride on a on a certain track with uh, I don't know, a racehorse, and then there's like greyhounds. And it's like what you're you're trying to you need to play as per the rules of that game, right? And so it's like that what that means is is keeping costs, and I've got a full training that we're gonna go through at the event. I know both of you guys are coming to the event, um, but based on this exact design. Those that want to build and sell and exit, this is the playbook, this is the plan. Those that want to cash flow, this is the playbook, this is the plan, these are the steps that you want to optimize for because they're very different kind of playbooks, and people that try and cross in between both of them, they end up somewhere in the middle, which is an ugly situation. You know, so I want to just make sure that like first things first, you guys keep that reminder close, uh, very close to you. How big does the business need to get before it starts to get overly complex and annoying and frustrating, and I'm getting pissed off, and then there's not enough cash flow? Let's hold it there and let's lean this thing out to maximize the amount of margin and then pay myself as much as I can. Invest in assets, build your wealth massively with this business. That is the game you're playing at the moment, and I think it's like play the rules of that game. So we'll go a lot more into that at the event. I've got a full-blown workshop to go into those details. Um, Hammond, what's your view on the blockers uh that both of the founders have here in terms of the businesses preventing them from growing? Perfect.
SPEAKER_00So um, yeah, starting with Eddie, I would actually say that based on your business, you have good margins. Like I've looked at your business, you have good AOV, we talked about that, and this is like from a structure perspective, you don't have any limitation. But um, after analyzing a lot of things, your biggest probably bottleneck is your lead time, which I think is something that you you're working on, you're thinking about changing a supplier and kind of fixing that part. But that's kind of the component of the business where we will always have a limitation because your product is much heavier and you need more of that. So I would say one of the things that probably I would look at are you maximizing for volume or are you maximizing for profit? And and those two things would be what we can analyze. So, for example, if you're looking to make 20k a month just in terms of profit, then you can focus on well, how can we build a structure around that without naturally maximizing volume in terms of it's a sales rather than just maximizing percentage of profit, which your business is actually aligned with pretty well. The offset or kind of the risk in your business, from what I've seen, would be first kind of looking and would just dump more capital and kind of like scale this structure with a lower margin, which I think it's not going to be the best kind of component in your business. So I would think about how can we maximize profit because you have the margin. That's the positive thing about your business. The negative thing I would say would be the logistic part and the lead time. And that's by default something in your business. So the goal wouldn't be how can we max the profit of the situation and maintain it as much as possible. So that's the outside profit. No, yeah, it's it's increasing your conversion rate, increasing other elements in the business. So there are other things you can optimize, not just uh AOV, because your AOV is actually pretty good. I would think about how we can monetize more. So more conversion rate optimization, uh, considering that we we talked about this in a previous session, literally in a like a you know, in a in a like internal like account management analysis. And there are some things that we can optimize. Obviously, it should be properly strategically positioned, but those things are what I would focus on. How can we split test properly your page? How can we extract most of the value from an audience? And how can we obviously build an automation? So I think that's the like delta in your business. The thing that's risky is actually you committing to different things, going and kind of like being distracted by let's just buy this new product and launch it, or let's let's say you launch this new thing. So that distraction, probably that's that I would say probably that's your biggest risk. I I know that you're not doing this. I'm just saying that if I was to think about it, I've seen people in your situation where they would think, well, this is easy, we're just gonna launch another product. Right.
SPEAKER_04No. So so we had a small board and a big board, and right now the big board's almost sold out. We've sold almost 50 of them in 45 days. And the small board we saw one this morning, actually, we saw one small board this morning. And they are going to move, but our focus is all on the big board. And you know, to to combat that uh lead time situation, we're going to be ordering on a smaller batches on a much more frequent um time frame so we can have that logistical kind of you know, like that that that chain operating, you know what I mean? So we're not running out of stock. Uh what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I would say that's a that's a biggest risk, just from my view on this. Um, from let's say, let's say if I was to look at Jess and Nick and Joel.
SPEAKER_03I think um, and this is for both of you guys, the the risk that I see is both of you have had out of the gate wins. Okay. And so that's fantastic and that's like very good, but it also um it doesn't force you to really scrutinize and look at what it is that worked and why it worked. Does that make sense? It's like put a product out there, threw some pieces together, shot some content, created it, looks good, and I'm like, wow, we're making some cash. You know what I mean? And and and so it's like it's come pretty quick. And not to say it makes you take it for granted, but as an example versus someone that's like triangle. Correct, it's exactly right. Like there's been no pain and like suffering of like try this offer, try this offer, try this offer, boom. You know what I mean? Both of you guys essentially have put the first product, presented it. Oh wow, it's like 10 grand, then 20 grand. Geez, that's been really quite good. It's been well received by the market. And then to the point that Hammer mentioned around um like Teddy's business as an example, so some of the fundamental metrics. We we spoke about this in terms of your frequency versus ROAS, right? You have very low frequency, one to two frequency, etc. And then people are still purchasing um impulse buys a five to six hundred dollar product. And so this naturally has you go, well, it's fine. Like, why would I focus on it? But it's like if we look at the um like strip all of the product out of the situation and just think it in in kind of like a continuum, would it be fair to say that if a product is more expensive, people need to see it more times? Yes. Okay, cool. So then if that is the case and I'm having this good performance right now with the first couple of ads that I'm using and launching, and I'm I'm I'm almost ignoring the metric because it's working well, because I didn't really need to do anything to get it, and it's just like crushing ROAS great margin, then would it be fair to say that if I increase the frequency and had more content to kind of indoctrinate those people even more, I could potentially drive my ROAS from what it is now, four or five, up to like eight or nine without too much difficulty at all. You know what I mean? And so both of you guys will have these situations whereby because of that quick moving success and that quick moving result, it'll have you potentially gloss over some items or some numbers or some metrics in your businesses that might otherwise have been scrutinized, but it's like it's come quite quick. So it's like okay. So I think um for Eddie, similar to the point that Hammer mentioned, um, focus, I think it, and this is um very much the fo very much the blocker of all businesses in 20 to 30, up to 100. It's a a dilution of focus because you get a little bit of a spring in your step, as if like, yep, cool, we're doing it, we're we're growing fast, and now we can just expand and do new SKUs and we can do new markets and all of this crazy stuff when really it should be deep over broad all the time. And it should be how can I penetrate this so damn well? Like I said, both of you guys have you know launched and had great results, but it's like, what was it specifically that generated the result? Was it the offer? Was it the pricing? Was it the comparison in the pricing? Was it the ads? Which ads? Was it the offer? Which offer? Like, why did we generate this result that is categorically quite unique in most businesses launching, right? Because what happens as you multiply and continue scaling, this is for both of you, right? Um, it will continue to demand more reasoning as to why. You'll get to 100 grand, you'll get to 150 grand, and you'll have some issues. And you want to have a playbook to revert back to to go when this happens, then that. When this pricing, then drop that. When this offer, then drop this offer, right? And so, like I said, because it's come quick, there hasn't been a need for that real strong drilling into each of those knowledge points. So, like with Eddie, for example, like I said, that frequency component, I immediately go to the point, it's like, well, it's good, so why really focus on it? But it's like, well, it's good with first-time impulse buyers. What happens is you scale budgets, you scale budgets into more and more colder audiences, then what? You're probably not gonna have the same level of like impulse purchases of people who need more indoctrination. And so beginning to look at that now, okay, and then we want to increase average order value, and then we want to increase like multiple purchases, etc. We want to really think about how I could create this like um uh pockets of content that can service people first time, second time, third time, and have them be completely exposed to um every touch point, every objection, every point that they might think of. Is it a good product? Oh, I don't really know, it looks a little bit cheap, oh, I don't really know it. Does it seem like it's worth that? All of those things we can build into that funnel and target those people. And as you scale up, it's going to talk to those kind of colder audiences more and more and more and more. So I think um stock from a supply and demand perspective, demand right now, if you had, I don't know, 500 boards, you would triple your ad spend. So so I think hyper concentration on stock is a huge, huge, um, like very important, probably the most important level for you right now. And I think also um there's so much proof now that every month that you are out of stock, you are acting, and I would be consciously um thinking about it through the lens and quantifying the loss. How much are you losing? How much is your conversion rate dropping? What is it costing me to not have stock? That lens is going to be very helpful for you. And I like this idea of like the just-in-time almost manufacturing process, nice short short cycles. But what happens every time you run out of stock and go on pre-sale, conversion rate drops, all of these things start to happen, you'll notice it, right? So I would be actively not punishing, but kind of thinking through that lens. I just lost 15 grand this month. Oh, I just lost another seven grand this week because my stock arrived late. And start to think through that lens because it'll actively drive yourself forward to be like shorten this production time, shorten the lead time, keep the stock on hand, keep my conversion rate healthy, like all of those things are gonna need to be very much fronted mind. The main issue at the moment, like I said, stock rotation. And then I think obsessing on the metrics that, like I said, if you think about any higher ticket product, are people gonna need to see it more or less? In your case, uniquely, they're seeing it two times and they're buying. That's fantastic. But would it be fair to say that there's probably a bunch of those people that probably see it and don't buy that if there was more content to absorb and speak to all of the concerns and objections additional and they'd make a decision and make a purchase? Correct 100%. Precisely, precisely. That's exactly that's exactly. And so I think as you scale ad spend and scale budget, you're gonna, like I said, more cold audience. Going to see your product, they're going to be less kind of uh impulsive in their purchasing behavior, and then you will run into that why is my ROAS declining? Why is my performance declining? And it's it's going to be working up in that funnel and speaking to all of those objections through the content you create in your ad account. And it's similar to what we discussed in that uh personality-based uh content session on Thursday night with respect to all of the different types of people, what they need to see, how they need to see content from a thinking, decision-making, emotional perspective to be able to help that buying archetype overcome their fears and actually make the purchase. So that's my view of like current situation. I think hyper concentration on stock rotation to the point where you can full throttle, you know, full throttle to the point where you realize the complexity is challenging and you also start to meet some of your cash flow uh targets as far as what you want to get out of the business. I think that's very important. And then the last thing that I think is very crucial is as you reach those levels, say, for example, you reach 100 grand a month and you're pulling out 25 as an example, it takes discipline to hold the line. Like it is it it is a very disciplined decision, active conscious decision to say, I do not want to continue growing. In fact, I'm gonna hold my business at 120, at 130, whatever that number might be. And we are going to fix this right here, right? And I'm gonna lean this out so much so that it literally has me working four hours a week on the company. And if that's your target and that's your goal and you set this thing up to be a complete machine that ticks around by itself and you can gouge out$30,000 a month in extra cash flow, man, that is a sweet position to be in, you know, but it's a it's a decision to be made like at that moment, and then it's like um not falling, like I said, victim to this. What's next? What's next? What's next? I have one friend in Bali and he has a company that does about three or four million dollars a year, and he has held his company at that level, and the guy works, I think it's like three or four hours a week at that level to produce himself uh geez, it must be about$1.5 million in profit per year. And I'm like, I have so much respect for the fact of not falling victim to small hamster wheel, bigger hamster wheel, bigger hamster wheel, and you're just chasing the next line. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04Just chosen over chasing a dream, yeah. Precisely because if we don't change that goal, like you just keep pushing it forward and forward and forward, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I get it, yeah. Yeah, yes. That's a new hamster wheel.
SPEAKER_00Yes, but but I would say that like as I mentioned, you guys can get hit, you can get 100k pretty fast. Like from what I've seen, all of you are getting into that level. So 100k, I don't think it's a big challenge for the business. I might be here a little bit going against um what we just mentioned, but I think you guys can hit more volumes. I think probably we can extract much more. And I've seen business owners, you know, if you're planning on a year and then you make it on a month, just feels fantastic. That's my view on it. So I'm still gonna be more aggressive on that. Let's scale. So that's my view on it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, I'm a sicko for if you can, you must. Like that's that's kind of my philosophy. That's why I that's why I personally have like when I see someone actively holding their business at a certain level, I'm like, like this triggers the hell out of me. But I also respect it, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yes, because I was thinking this is like you're the person, like out of all people I worked with, you're the person that I've seen take a lot of risk and kind of look at almost always the situation that we're missing on, right? Just like that next level. How can we get there? So I think that yes, it's very challenging and you need to be very disciplined to maintain your business, but I do believe that sometimes that risk is worth taking to get to that next level because you might not be aware of what's out there. And I think that's something I've seen.
SPEAKER_04I agree. I think it's also though how you why. You know what I mean? Like your why it's a like it's it's I love running a business, whether I'm selling like tissue boxes or the whatever. I like the idea of that hustle. You know what I mean? And you can't just turn that shit off. Like that's how you why. So, you know, like I get it, you gotta optimize for life. So I think just on that, I think it just also comes down to where you are in life, what age you are, if you're in your 30s, like hustle like if you're 50, 60, then slow the fuck down. Like, you know, work it out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, precisely. Hammond, what's your thoughts on um Jess, Nick, the situation uh as far as blockers? What do you think um the advice around them should be?
SPEAKER_00Oh, right. So actually I would say that I've noticed that this is just from a business perspective. You guys don't seem to have a lot of issues with supply chain. It seems like you're coordinating that properly. Uh, from a strategy perspective, I feel like the thing that we should focus on are the things that actually are working rather than distraction. So I know it's very similar to what we just mentioned, but I think that expansion on products, and I think you talked about that a little bit in the past, would be something that I would be a little bit cautious about because your structure right now is producing results. I would focus on how can we extract more of the current rather than chase, let's say, another one. That's one element. I've also seen your business, it's not optimized. Like there are some things that you started working on right now, like optimization of the AOV, which I know it's not that high. But the goal would be do two things in my opinion. Focus on what's working, we keep doing that, which we're doing already, and I'm keeping you in trouble. Like, we need to keep doing the creatives, we need to keep building that, because the thing that you're doing like at this level is the same thing that's gonna get you to the million, it's the same thing that's gonna scale to massive numbers. It's gonna be focusing on it and just ignoring the sales a little bit and just keeping that continuum kind of focus around that element. The second thing would be, as Sasha mentioned, optimizing the business. We're in the early stages, we're getting data. So we need to we should optimize the AOV. We should do the email marketing. Those are things that you never did before, like from what I've seen in the past, those are areas that we did not navigate. If you do email marketing, AOV optimization, and you do creative optimization, let's say, as kind of the main thing, you're gonna get to the million. But if you do product research, analysis, and we're kind of putting the challenge back of let's launch and get the market to react to our product many times, that's gonna drain capital, in my opinion, distraction, and essentially it can kill a business. And this is something I mentioned to Sasha as well. Um, I look at what are the outcomes, what are we chasing? Well, what is the thing that we're looking for? In your case, I would say I would look at it from that you need to hold the line and just focus on your business and grow it without taking a lot of new bets. You already did that. So that's kind of my feeling.
SPEAKER_01That's um something that we've already kind of started this month from when we had the discussion last week in like the AOV, for example. We've added like a post-purchase on, and we've seen a massive difference already in a week just from doing that to be able to bring that IOV up. So that's been really good. Um Yeah. And I'm just always gonna chase sales because I've had a background of sales for 20 years. So it's always gonna be in the background.
SPEAKER_00More sales and get to I think 100k, we we're already doing about 12k per week, I think it would take. Um, so I think your business is already kind of doing 50k. So that's kind of like we're very close to that. So I would say that 100k is pretty much programmed in the next 60 days if you keep doing what you're doing. So the thing would be it's almost like guaranteed outcome. How about we secure it just to make sure we spend the money? Because you need to remember something you talked about, which was, to be honest, it was a little bit surprising to me that you mentioned this in a in a coaching session. But it was like, are we like, do we need to spend the money? Like, I think I feel like I'm capped at 1.5k or something, 1.4k. I think it was in a session where you mentioned that. That's logic. Like we're running paid ads. If you don't spend the money, we're not gonna get the sales. So your question was essentially if I don't spend the money, can I still get it? Which is a good idea.
SPEAKER_02It's quite funny because that after that conversation, the next day we had Amigus diaries and well, we couldn't get past 800 and and it starrocketed over$2,000 on the next i.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So yeah, we need to spend the money. So to think about it, like you have an element that's working and it's like driving people, that machine to just drive more people. That's how we should think about it. If you want to guarantee the outcome, you need to guarantee the input. The input is we need to spend that amount. So I think in your business, if you tell me, Hey, man, you're kind of the boss, you do the decisions, I'll look at well, we need to maintain the ads and kind of growing in that target, and then just fixing the like element that I just mentioned. If you do this, you're gonna get to the million. It's programmed. So that's my promise to you, but just focus on the element.
SPEAKER_01Question it would you say that the a new product is new colors, though, or is introducing new colors better because it gives more options for people to buy?
SPEAKER_00All right. So if you look at, let's say, Amazon, most of the time they add more variation and it works super well. E-com, it sometimes creates friction, in my opinion, if you add a lot of colors. Um, I don't think it's a bad thing to have more colors. It's still an option like you should push. We have this with Pissue, by the way. Actually, Sasha worked on this a lot in terms of and Nera as well, like in terms of introducing new things in the brand. And like it did help us to have more variation of colors. And actually, sometimes we have spike in sales when we launch a new color. So more colors is not necessarily bad. The thing that I'm saying is like you need to control the elements that you have right now because it's working, like the one-channel thing. For example, I would not go and launch something completely new and put a lot of money in that category to then re-optimize from scratch and kind of figure out things. That's gonna be a tough kind of challenge, in my opinion, versus maybe a new color. Yes, I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily. But it's gonna be more around can we fix like like things in this business rather than create new complexity? And I think Sasha did this amazingly in a previous podcast. You can probably watch it, where he mentioned, well, you have this spend that goes like into like like a ROAS that we know, which is essentially coming back every time. So you spend like a dollar, you get back two or three. It's really amazing. Think about if we spend it, just disappear. Like we don't know when it's gonna come back. And I think this element is what I'm afraid of most of the time. Like we spend, we don't know when it's gonna come back.
SPEAKER_01The um there was a podcast that you guys did that um you were talking about the guy who sells motorbike parts and he just kept going and that's just had the one thing, and that always like I we haven't we've have in the back of our mind of other things that we want to do, but I will just want to extract as much as I can from towers to start with, and go from there.
SPEAKER_03Like, I don't want to if I reference the basu example. So um last I would say six months, nine months, Nehra. Um, she I think there was about six colours that she tested, right? A whole bunch of different colours in the exact kind of like idea that you guys are having in terms of this may stimulate, this may be a new thing, maybe they'll like this color versus that color. Um, mainly focused towards like the list versus new in terms of reactivating and having new people purchase. Now, um, when we launched those new products and those new colors rather, for the month, around one to two weeks when those emails went live, all the email campaigns, could strong spike in sales, and then it would just kind of taper back to BAU and new traffic coming in would just continue to buy the same SKU, right? And so if I look at the two changes that happened over the last, like I would say, nine months in that business that made the most material change, um, if I look at all of the color SKUs changes on this side versus offer and creators, this thing has two to three X the business. This thing has made little incremental month to month lift and drop. But nothing like if I was to reference this and say, okay, did it change the business? Did it increase month-on-month consistent profitability? No, absolutely not. This, on the other hand, offer strengthening that thing, making it incredibly strong and it cuts through, um, and then creatives to wrap that whole thing, like the performance solely has changed on a continued month-to-month basis, and scalability is so much higher. And we have an average order value of$57. So we've increased profit, right? Increase the average order value, but you guys have an$80 or that's somewhere around$80 to$90 average order value. So what the point I'm trying to make is you have really strong, much higher margin in terms of dollar value on that average order value. So the focus should be certainly around the exact same thing. How can we strengthen the offer? How can we increase that kind of creative flywheel to wrap that offer in such a strong way so that the penetration just continues to cut through? Because that's your that's your constant scalability engine versus we've it's exactly what Hammond said, where you you have two types of problems in your business. One problem is uh a deficit, that if you repair the deficit, you'll go back up to not losing money. And it's a sure thing. On the other side, you've got the possibility, which is a this is business as usual, and this is the bet that you might take. This is the new product, new platform, uh, new partnership, these types of things. You don't know, and you have no track record and no history of these things ever working, right? Um, these things here, more often than not, will kill your business more times than they will win and pay off, right? And the most challenging from a focus and concentration perspective for founders is most of the time these things feel really good to do because they're so fun and they're so exciting, and your dopamine and your ADHD brain goes, Oh my god, I'm gonna launch that color, everything's gonna change, this is it. And it reminds you of what it felt like when you started initially in the first place, and you hit that freaking 100 miles an hour only to get two and a half weeks in and realize that business as usual is tanking, and this thing over here, fuck that, forget about it for now. I gotta go and fix the burning fires. You know what I mean? And so fundamentally, it's always looking at it through that lens. Is this a repairing of a deficit? Like as an example right now, have you squeezed the lifeline dry out of creative and offer maximization and your average order value through this back end situation before we look at net new ideas, products, concepts, offer all of those types of things. And that's always the philosophy. It's like, um, why are we doing new when what I'm currently doing is still a damn mess? So if I introduce new and then it does work into the messy system, I'm gonna have more mess, more chaos, more complexity, and then more stuff that's like done at 15%, done at 25%, done at 10%, done at 30%. All of it's done like shit, and my resources are spread. I had a conversation with um one of my one of my one of my bigger clients, and he is um in multiple different markets. We had a discussion like two weeks ago. Um, multiple markets all over the place in terms of what he's doing. He's got new products launching, and I'm like, how's your profitability? He's like, it's probably the worst it's ever been. Why are we doing all this new shit? Please explain.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would actually say something. This is like based like I was talking to you about this literally before this session is that business owners would have like this is like something that Jeff Bezos, he literally said that he was kind of learning as he was growing Amazon, is that he every single week he had potentially 20 or 30 ideas. And he had a mentor who was telling him essentially, you're gonna kill your business with every single idea you have. So your business can't absorb this. So I think that element that you just mentioned with the client you have is that expansion level, those new ideas, it's just they're gonna kill the business.
SPEAKER_03That's exactly right. So I I think I mean for both of you guys, that's the very real challenge uh that mainly comes with like success that came quite quick without having to scrutinize um uh over certain metrics in terms of conversion or creative or offer. Um and so fortunately or unfortunately, it's very similar to what Hammond said. When people are up, um they generally don't measure very much. When people are down and things are absolute mess, they tend to scrutinize and try and find a way to make things work, right? And so, fortunately or unfortunately, both of you guys have had um you know good success. So naturally, you aren't going to rip into every metric of your whole business and rip it to pieces. You just won't because there's been there's been no need to. There's been no need to actually do that. And so it takes a lot of like discipline and almost like very trained attention to be like, look, things are good, but let me understand why. And things are good, but let me see if I could triple that number simply by putting some attention on it because I've just had it fall into my lap and I'm accepting that it's good because of why. I it just happened. Oh, yeah, let's just move on to the next thing. It's like, let me rip that thing to pieces, find out exactly why it's so good, scrutinize that thing, and see if I can take it from uh a 4x to an 8x without even trying, you know? And I think all of you guys have that.
SPEAKER_01I don't know about not even trying because I'm though that's you guys have set up a framework, and if you follow it, it works. Like it's not like it's not falling into your lap because we have other ideas, and like we got on a call with Hammond, and he was like, No, you can't do that because it's not gonna work because of this, this, and this. So the framework that e comm has has put together, and if you actually follow it and just do what's being said to do, then you're gonna have that success because you know you are. Like it do you know what I mean? Like you've set up this framework, if you do it step by step, it's and you you work through it and you're putting all that work on the back end when you go to launch, you're gonna have a product that's actually gonna work.
SPEAKER_04I agree, but I think that the majority of people who launch will launch, spend money on ads, and then they're sitting there and all they hear is cricket. So the fact that you know we were able to create an ad, launch, and within less than 48 hours generate a$500 sale. Like, let's not gloss over that. Like, yes, it's great, but still scrutinizing, find out why. Because you know, one thing that we want to do is everyone who's taught we're gonna pick up the phone and ring it. Like, why did you buy it? Why did you almost stop it? Because understanding that, like Seth said, is going to help you get to the next stage where if you are gonna scale, well, you need to know why you got to where you are.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And this is where, like at a more strategic macro level that you guys want to begin to build out further, you look at what's called like your um uh there's a book, and I I'll I'll I'll bring some special copies along to the event and I'll give you guys a copy of this book. Vern Harnish, he has this um uh framework and he and he calls them the the company's like core competencies, right? And so it's like these are the things that our company does, and it's our products or our services, the things that we deliver um that we do the best, right? And we want to defend those things and we want to back those things and we want to double down on those things, and we want to drive them so hard into the market so that everybody knows, oh my goodness, mint and part, they are the only company you go to if you want that. Because like that's what you want to get to, right? And so it's like this concept of calling customers and speaking to them, finding out what it is, like what are those drivers, those two or three, usually three to five max things that you're like, these are our sh like strategic, and then you start to defend them and you build your moat around them, and all your content is built around them, all your products is built around those things. You speak about those things in ads, like that becomes like the overarching message of like this is what we are, and this is what we are not, and it very, very, very strong, and you get that through exactly what Eddie said, you know, speaking to the customers, knowing all the particulars of why is this actually working so well, and then what can we do to amplify, double, triple, quadruple the results we're already seeing. I'm not trying to say like it came and fell in your lap and you guys didn't work for it. I'm just saying, like um statistically speaking, the results that you've had as far as quick kind of success at this level is quite good, right? And so it's like I just know in every single moment when um I've had success happen to me in any of my businesses, it makes me fat and lazy, and I don't scrutinize and understand the specifics. And there's a blessing as much as it is a curse when you're down in the dumps and you're at the bottom of despair and you're figuring out what it needs to happen, what what you need to do to win. You know what I mean? Uh, and that that's the point I'm trying to make. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, quick quick quick success makes me nervous. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Because quick dump thing here.
SPEAKER_04Quick success is great, but you have to go, okay, what did we do here? Because otherwise it's a flu. Unless you can repeat it, it's a flu. The only way you're gonna work out how to repeat it is to analyze the shit out of it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that's why we like when we launched it, Black Friday, we were like, oh, everyone's just buying it for gifts. All Christmas and Black Friday, it's all gifts. And then we were like, is this gonna continue next year?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I remember your your sales going down January, and you were like, hey, I'm stressed, my sales are going down, I don't know what to do. Like, you know, we're we're we're we're we're not essentially doing creatives, right? So I think knowing those things would be the thing to focus on. Now you know that you need you you can do creatives. Now that's the way you learn more about fixing your business and kind of improving it. And at every level, you're gonna have a different challenge. Zero to 100k, that's there's that there are like some specific challenges. Most of the time, profitability, creatives, limitation, structure, and avatar. When you get to 100 to 500k, we have new problems. They're coming in and we need to fix those. So every single level, there are new things that I've seen with business owners kind of facing. And I know you're in the coaching and you're getting support, and we're kind of helping you navigate those things, but that's the thing you should focus on. Every time there will be a new challenge, and you need to learn about how to unlock that level. That's kind of my view on this particular.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean it's uh it's been 90 days, right? And we're just gathering all the intel right now so we can see what the changes have been made and what changes that we do do over the time. So we can take note of that and then be on the very good.
SPEAKER_03Nonetheless, guys, you've you you've done a fantastic job, and I think um you're you're exemplars in terms of like clients um in the community, and I think like we discussed and touched on at the start, in terms of your constant commitment to showing up, learning, um, grabbing all of the information you can and implementing it, I look at that as the biggest like precursor to why your business is doing what you are doing. Follow the process, show up as much as you physically can, implement rapidly, urgently yesterday, um, as per Eddie's description earlier. Um, get frustrated if it's not done yesterday, uh, and just continue that over and over and over again. And um, and and and I think the other thing that is um is interesting is like in this 30k to 100k a month, there's often uh, and I'd encourage you guys just to be really aware of it, there's often like a false sense of like ego that can be developed with like, oh, I'm pretty good. Oh yeah, I've got this. You know what I mean? And just checking that and like like and then you really learn, no, just shut the fuck up.
SPEAKER_04You it's yeah, it's commitment, like it's just showing up, like 90% of this is just showing up, you know. Like it's uh somebody told me this, it's a bacon and egg conversation. You know, the chicken bowl, but the pigs commit it.
SPEAKER_03That's fantastic. I'm gonna borrow that completely. That is so good. I love it. That's excellent. That's excellent. Be the bacon. Uh on that note, I think that's fantastic, guys. I've enjoyed this conversation. I hope you you you've also taken um two or three key points that you can um capture, implement, and use in your businesses, as well as just like the way you think about the future. I think the overarching thing that is very important just to drive home is what you're building the business for and continue with that in mind. You know, and when things come up in the journey, does that align with me having more time and having more cash flow? You know, does this decision align with that? It's always a very helpful filter to kind of uh put all of your decisions through before you go ahead and do that thing, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. And I would say something that I'm actually gonna be, I think it's from Alex Ramosi, but it's like simple scale fancy fails. That's my view on it.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Avoid the bells and whistles.
SPEAKER_03Appreciate you guys heaps. All right, let's continue crushing and uh I look forward to seeing you at the event and um continuing to drive forward.
SPEAKER_04Right, thanks, guys.