Live Workshop: Turning Early Traction into a $100K/Month Brand

Schedule a Call here to build and Scale your Ecommerce Brand → https://www.ecomcapital.com/demo/schedule

In this exclusive workshop, Sasha and Hamen sit down with two community members — Craig (a former truck driver who launched a first-to-market cleaning product and hit $10K in his first month) and Susan (a corporate professional who built a pet product brand to $20K in her first month while still working full time).

We break down their journeys, expose the blockers holding them back, and reveal the exact growth levers they need to pull to hit $50K and $1M respectively.

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.

Connect with Sasha
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LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sashakarabut

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Workshop Introduction: Two Founders, Two Stories
2:00 - Craig's Background: From Truck Driver to Ecommerce
5:00 - The Catalyst: Why Craig Finally Made the Jump
9:00 - First 4 Sales From Social Media (Before the Website Was Live)
11:00 - Susan's Story: Corporate Career to First-Time Founder
14:00 - The Mass Restructure That Changed Everything
19:00 - The Dog Product Idea: Solving Her Own Problem
21:00 - Validating With Data (Not Just People Saying It's Great)
25:00 - First Sale at 11AM. Didn't Stop All Day.
27:00 - Susan's Month One: $20K in Sales
29:00 - Craig's Month One: $10K, Tracking $15K
31:00 - Goals: $50K/Month vs $1 Million in Year One
35:00 - Why Unique Products Make Marketing Easier
39:00 - Speed is the Moat (Why You Must Move Fast)
41:00 - The Complexity Trap: More Products = Slower Growth
43:00 - The Sequencing Game: What to Focus on From $0-$100K
47:00 - The Hook Obsession: What Actually Scales Ad Accounts
49:00 - The Lucent Globe Example: One Hook, Biggest Sales Week Ever
51:00 - Hamen's Take: Scale the Ad Account, Exit the Job
55:00 - Building the Supplier Relationship (The Smart Way)
57:00 - The Input Math: How Craig Gets to $50K
59:00 - Final Advice & Closing Thoughts

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We've got uh another strategic kind of workshop here with two clients from the community. We're gonna walk through their stories and their experience of how they've built their businesses and then some of the results that have happened over the last 90 days. Craig, I'd love to hear from you first.

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Before this, I was a line haul truck driver, so running around the country working with the hours by the end of last month. We've done 10k and we're on track to do 15 this month.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Susan, let's hear it from you.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Before that, I've just been dedicated to my career. Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, head down, bum up. Yeah, my first month was 20k sales. Yeah, just insane.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

What would you say the most challenging thing was to learn for you?

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Everything that I learned throughout the course was way out of my comfort zone. Like it was just pushing the boundary day after day after day.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

When you're the company and you're paying the money for stock and you're paying the price if there's delays, or you know, you muck up an ad or something falls flat.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Good starting point. That's a good milestone very achievable. Susan, what about yourself? What are you optimising for this year?

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Uh one million in sales. I'm calling that for the end of my first year.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Yeah, 50k a month would get me off the road.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Craig, I'd love to hear from you first, mate, if you could kick us off and start with uh where were you when you started initially your business and then some of the results that have happened over the last 90 days, first things first.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Okay, sure. Um, so before this, I was a line haul truck driver, so running around the country working ridiculous hours, and you know, at the time I thought it was the right thing to do to get the or to give my then partner and my kids a good life. Um, we had a relationship breakdown, um, had to sell the family home, you know, all that sort of stuff that comes along with that. Um yeah, and then a few months later, a good friend of mine was involved in a uh truck accident that he did not survive. Um that was really the catalyst for me. I I'd always had in the back of my mind that, you know, working for the man type thing is not not the way to go. You know, you're trading hours for dollars. Um but yeah, those two events were were sort of the catalyst to um step out on my own and start doing something serious for myself, um, which is when we came across Econ Capital. Um just to give you a little bit of a background of our product, um we had w we lent out a caravan to some people that fallen on hard times and um they parked it under a mango tree. Um, you know, good on them, great, yeah. So we we get it back, it's covered in muck and all that sort of stuff. Um so basically ended up in the back shed putting prototypes together, that sort of thing, to try and work out how we can, you know, how we can clean this. Um we got yeah, we we got it pretty good. And um the people around me were like, oh my god, you know, this is this is great. This is yeah, this is a game changer type type thing. Um which happened about the same time that we joined econ capital. So I knew, well, I thought it wasn't a good thing. Um certainly the people around me thought it was a good thing. I had no idea how to bring it to market, I had no idea how to get it manufactured. Um so yeah, we joined Econ Capital, um started going through the steps and everything, and and that's where we've ended up. We've ended up with a product that you can use to clean the roof of just about anything. Um it's yeah, it's um it's pretty cool. It's first to market, it's um got quite a few unique features. Um and that, yeah, back in I'm gonna say early January, January the second, something like that, we put some stuff on social media. We didn't have the website finished by that time, but we put some we put some stuff on social media. Um and we actually went down for a drive down to the Gold Coast one day and we drove back and I hadn't even looked at my phone or had it on uh had it on silent, I'm pretty sure, and got home and I said, babe, have a look at this. We had four sales just from that social media stuff. And I'm like, oh my god, you know, this is this is nuts. Um as I yeah, we just I just put up a um a pre-sale page as best I could. Um and yeah, basically we've gone from strength to strength from then. Um we started ads uh towards the end of January um with Steve's help. Um and yeah, basically just what I'd learned through the course, um, you know, turning up for calls, that sort of thing. I sort of yeah, winged it a fair bit. Um and yeah, by the end of last month we'd done 10k and we're on track to do 15 this month. So that's basically how uh how how we ended up where where we are now. So yeah, it's it's my big comeback, you know. That that's that's the way I'm looking at it. Um, you know, I didn't I didn't do too well out of the uh separation and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

So I want to get back into the housing market and that that's I love this because um both of you guys kind of have um unique products. I I think Susan, quite similarly, you know, more uniqueness in terms of it. And I I I really think that um when you do that, and I I talk about this often where it's like the more time that you spend, whether it's like completely knowingly or unknowingly on creating that that uniqueness that someone hasn't done before, the marketing is a lot easier, you know, because the product itself goes like, oh wow, that's the same thing that I've actually experienced. I'd love to solve that problem, you know, as opposed to like manipulating and coercing marketing messages to make an ordinary product that doesn't really do anything different to the rest of the stuff seem like it does, you know, and so you spend so much more time and energy and effort trying to like, I call it like put lipstick on a pig, you know, you're like it's it's ugly. And I'm trying to make it look good and it's not good. But like you guys have both got, you know, this uniqueness, especially it's it's fantastic, Craig, that you've kind of solved your own problem and then by extension created something for the market and very similar for yourself, Susan, in terms of um that situation. What were some of the were there any like um uh learnings and lessons, Craig, uh, through that process? Any perhaps like definitive moments where you were like, oh wow, like this this is a this is a business year. You know what I mean? Was there a moment there where it went from like just a concept and an idea and like, oh yeah, this is kind of cool. I think maybe it's okay. Was it that moment where you were driving to the Gold Coast and had the sales come through where you were okay, wow, this is interesting.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah, 100%. That that was certainly the um that that was certainly the start of it. Um, but I uh using data to uh validate the product was was a massive thing for me. Um, you know, which I had no thought about before. I thought, you know, yeah, you got people buying it and that sort of thing, and people think it's great. But I guess the data actually um, you know, which we did through phase one and and and a little bit in phase two, um the data was what uh I I guess made me realize we're onto something because it was you know it was tangible. It wasn't just people saying, Oh, that's great, I'll buy one or buy two or whatever. Um you know, the data are the size of the audience and all that sort of stuff. That that was definitely a pivotal moment. Um in the the yeah, the the numbers stacked up uh and and at that point I knew that yeah, now was it was oh, sorry, you haven't yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So just one thing, actually, I don't think that's the most like the biggest moment. I think actually the the moment you mentioned, like you had a bad, let's say, event happening. I actually believe that every person that I've seen in terms of their journey, they have this bad moment. And that bad moment, they think it's bad, but when we zoom out, it's actually they do massive things in their life, and most of the time it's a very positive kind of outcome. And I've seen this many times. So launching a business, doing things that you don't think they're right initially. So, like, I don't think I was gonna do this, but then this thing happened again, it's a bad thing, but it just changed things and it's kind of like balancing the universe, you're kind of balancing things in the end because you're doing something that's extremely positive that you're not even aware of, and most of the time, those low moments they actually like that's when you pivot. That's when like I'm done with this, I want to do something else. I think that's something that I've seen with like a lot of entrepreneurs. They they have this weird thing that happened to them. It can be like a bad event, it can be something that they've seen, it can be a separation, whatever it is, losing their job, and then they do this thing that's gonna change everything. And that's I think in your business. And by the way, for both of you, congratulations, you picked one of the most scalable businesses. And I know earlier in the call, I was like, hey, or earlier before we record, actually, I was like, Hey, this is not a big level. I do believe you guys can scale, but you picked a very scalable business. So if you're gonna do the same work and we can scale to 100k, why not just get there, right? So that's my view on it.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Believe that um wholeheartedly, Heyman. Like, I if if the things hadn't uh happened in my life that did happen, I mean I'd still be out, I'd be driving today, you know, be out in the middle of somewhere. And really not, I mean, we made a good living, but you know, not not I was always thinking of the next thing, and and this is definitely yeah, uh how is it um how has it changed?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Because one thing that um for me, Craig, uh, if I think back to, and I'm I'm gonna ask you the same question, Susan. So if I think back to when I first made uh my first$120 on the internet before uh that I was like every job that I had was like in-person trading time for money, going to a particular work site, going to uh a kind of car dealership, repairing a whole bunch of cars. And then when I went online, it was like the first$120 I was sleeping, woke up, and I was like, I was like, I can see it now. And I was like, and it really changed like what I thought about like money, how I saw um the my the value of the work that I did, if that makes sense. And I it was like, I don't want to do that anymore because if this is possible here, even at$120, if I multiply that out, like this could be so much bigger. So I'm just curious, Craig, specifically, um, has it changed your view of uh what you want for the future? Has it changed like how big you want to grow your business? Has it changed like any of your kind of like paradigms around money specifically and been like how much is possible and available to me? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_03 11:08

Yeah, oh no, look, absolutely. Um I typically I dream pretty big anyway. Um, but yes, this oh I do. I've got some we got some really big goals in mind and you know um just one thing, I've got three kids or they're they're adults now, but um, you know, it it's hard for them at the moment to get into the housing market, and I can see that if we can scale this, I can help them, you know, whereas before before working, you know, working for the man, um that that wouldn't have been possible. So that that's one very big driver that I have. Um, and certainly I can see that this this can be scaled to that point. Um it it is possible, you know what I mean? Like it I can only work so many hours in a week and only earn so much, whereas this is this is completely different. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

I love that. Um what what one kind of one or two last questions here. What would you say the the most challenging thing was to learn for you? Because this is quite a big transition, right? Going from out on the roads, you know, driving trucks, and then you're over here kind of like uh you got your steering wheel, which is now like the ads manager, or it's like you know, it's it's a very different, very different environment.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

So very scalable, very scalable though. You can put in like a thousand dollar campaign, right? And just go to sleep and you're gonna bring more volume, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah, absolutely. It's it's it's the the scalability of it is amazing, really. Um I I think Fasha, I think everything was everything that I learned throughout the course was way out of my comfort zone and yeah, like it was just pushing the boundaries day after day after day. But I knew that, you know, um what's that saying, you know, if it's gonna be, it's up to me. So I had to, you know, I had to learn everything. Everything in the course. I guess probably the biggest um hurdle we faced was finding a supplier that understood what what we were on about and and you know the the um communication and that sort of thing. That that was probably the biggest um hurdle, but we certainly we found one that's just absolutely brilliant and they know exactly what we're talking about and they're good good to deal with. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Is there is there maybe one thing that you might say, for example, now Craig version of you today, um tell the Craig version of you when you started? Like, I don't know, do it do this a little bit differently, don't worry about that. You know what I mean? Is are there any things that you're like, ooh, like I could have saved some serious time by doing this?

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Um I I I don't think so because I see it as a as a learning curve. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna fall off back a little bit here and there and you know, probably not quite do things the way they the way I could have done them. Um certainly, I mean, just as far as confidence and that sort of thing, it's just I'm a completely different person now because we've seen the results and that sort of thing. Um yeah, that that's been a big um yeah, big, big turning point, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

But um, yeah, I I just see it as a as a well hey, I I'm super excited and and massive congrats on what you've done. I think it's uh it's super impressive. And I think the reason uh for you winning in terms of like being able to look after or potentially help kids with you know their property endeavors, like things like that. I think we saw it at the event. The people that came and you know spoke on stage and shared their story. Um, the reasons that they had for winning were much bigger than just, yeah, I'd like to uh make some money, please. You know what I mean? Like really like really meaningful things that people are like, I like this is uh an absolute must for me to get this thing. Like it is non-negotiable. I'm gonna go through whatever walls I need to go through to get that outcome. And when you have that level of drive, like I think you you you solve problems and you take risks that most people just won't take because you're much more motivated and driven by some different fuel source. And and it's very evident with your story and the things that are driving you. So, mate, massive congratulations. Um, yeah, super excited to see what happens next in terms of the business. Susan, let's hear it from you. Tell me a little bit about the story, where it started, the idea, how you kind of came into this wild and wacky community, and how the whole uh launch of the business came about.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah, wild. Um, thanks, Dasha, for having me. And Heyman, it was so lovely to hear Craig's story as well. Um yeah, e-comcapital, what a journey. I um I think I joined with you guys last July at the time. Um, what prompted me to join? Um, I had one of those moments in my life. There was a mass restructure at work. Um before that, I'd just been dedicated to my career. Monday to Friday, nine to five, head down, bum up, financial plan, just you know, chip away, pay off the mortgage, do all the normal things, um, follow the normal life plan. And um, that happened. And um, even in a high-ranking job, too, it basically hundreds of people just got a letter saying they could be potentially made redundant. Um, even thousands, I think it was it was major. And um, it just made me kind of put my head up. I think I just had my head down for so long and just it was so busy and I was so busy, and I hadn't thought about if I even wanted to be doing that anymore. And that was kind of just like a you know, a bit of a jerk for the eyes open. And I was like, I feel like I put my head above the clouds for the first time. Like I've never been working and not considering other possibilities. And this happened, and I was like, wow, after everything I've given, after everything I've done, in in a second, they could just give me a letter saying thanks, but no thanks. Like after every, you know, there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Uh, you a lot of late nights, a lot of weekends, and all the things. And I just thought, wow, okay, really not valued. Um look, it all worked out for the best. I actually got a promotion out of it, so it didn't impact me. But it was that moment where, okay, I could lose my job and I don't want to be dependent on someone else's for a job. And I've been told for many years I should start my own business because I have I have that drive. And I like, you know, Craig was talking to as well, like those bigger dreams and wanting to achieve those things and wanting to um pay off my mum's, you know, house or make my family's life better as well. There's um more important drivers behind it. So it was that moment, it was that critical moment for me where it was like after everything I've given to a company, they could just turn around um and give you a letter. So I thought, okay, what am I going to do here? Um, while they're considering their options, I'm gonna consider mine. So I started doing research. I started looking into other options, even if it's a side hustle. I need another source of income stream to retire early because I'm not doing this till I'm 65. I'm just not, and I don't feel like my way to get ahead is a nine to five anymore. Um so I started researching and yeah, started looking. There was heaps of drop shipping options. There was heaps of these. I'll build your website for$20 and load it with 10 products and you can, you know, just have this income stream on the side. And I looked at them all and I was like, that's just not me. It's just not me. Um, I wanted to build a brand. I wanted to actually build something um real. And I wasn't gonna rely on someone else for the quality of my product or I'm not gonna sell junk. I live in a throwaway society as it is. I'm not gonna sell more junk to people and more crap they don't need. Um, I really wanted to to build, genuinely build a business and brand and make a difference. Um, I've always helping people. Um, so this is um kind of a chance to look at that. Um, I joined e com capital not knowing what to do. And um I just knew I wanted to do build a brand. So went through the the steps, um, went through phase one and um just kind of identifying those key areas, I guess, um the niches. So looking at the ideation, write down five that you're passionate about. And I remember writing down dogs and then going, what else? Okay, and then my coach is like, you have to write down more. I'm like, ah, damn, okay, all right, we'll put down travel, we'll put down kind of you know, uh fitness, but I really wasn't passionate too passionate, you know, about the things other than I kept coming back and then they're like, okay, you've got to flesh out those ideas now and like we're gonna go do all the competitive analysis. And I'm like, oh, I don't want to. Anything other than dogs, I don't want to. And it really made me realize kind of, okay, that's your passion. So like let's let's look at this. And then through that process, I'm picking up my dog 20 times a day to put him on the couch on the bed, I'm helping him into the car, but I'm you know, I've modified everything in his life to fit because I couldn't find any products for him in his elderly age for purpose. And there was just a light bulb moment during that ideation process and the breaking down of ideas and the the the steps in e-com in that phase one really pull out of you and kind of force you to think about and break down um those exactly those elements. And I just had that moment when I was doing it, I was like, oh my gosh, like I have to help my dog with all these things because there's just stuff. And it just kind of hit me. I was like, I've been doing this for years, years and years with him modifying things, not able to find products for him that he needed. And um, I was like, that's that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make products for things that annoy me and that he can't use and that he needs and I can't find. And then I literally got a PACE and a little um grid book, PACE, like a little design book um off Amazon. And I just sat there and I just sketched out ideas and um just started thinking about what what was really important. And then yeah, the validating phase. So in phase one of e-com, um that validation is like um Craig mentioned as well. It's you you get validated by the data. So everything I thought was real or could be, you look at the Amazon numbers, you look at the Google numbers, you look at how many people are searching for you know your product or something similar. And you're like, oh my god, people actually want this. There is actually a data, there is actually people looking. And then I just remember everything I did was validating it. Like every single thing I was like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, okay, this can actually be a thing. If I'm having this problem, surely there's plenty of other people having this problem. And it was just doing that stage and validating that idea through data to understand that yeah, this is a real problem.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Talk to them. I I just want to I want to just double click on that for a second because um one of the biggest things that um and and you you you said it yourself. So it's like when you came in, I didn't really know, I'm not too sure. I just wrote dogs down on the piece of paper, um, and then add. As you kind of like had that light bulb moment of being like whole and creating very similarly, like I'm up here, I'm cleaning this thing. It's like, um, but the the challenge is it's like um what do they say? Uh necessity is the mother of all creation, right? And so it's like you guys by design, whether you knew it or not, and most people have this, but they're just not forced into an environment where they actually are required to figure something out. And so you just go through your merry old life and you use stuff. Um I'm just curious, like um that moment where you had that light bulb and you were like, hold on a second, like how did that feel? Because for that moment to happen, usually that's like a huge expansion that goes into you almost start to see opportunities everywhere. Commercial, oh my goodness, there's a business opportunity. Holy shit, how has someone not solved that problem yet? And it's almost like your whole mindset goes from like, I'll I I talk about it in the context of consumer versus creator. You ultimately switch into creator mode and you start seeing opportunities to create everywhere. And you're like, dude, there's a there's a there's a$10 million a year company there. So so how is that changed? Do you understand that perspective shift at all, Susan?

SPEAKER_02 23:11

I'm in there right now with content creation. Like everything I look at is content creation. So slightly different, but same, same. But yeah, totally. I mean, just having that moment where I was like, oh my god, this could be a thing, and then just like we're doing this, like I'm doing this, we we're going all in on this and we're going. And then having it validated through those different steps. And then probably the next was similar to Greg as well, where you just like I launched at 9 a.m. on a Friday and I got my first sale at 11 a.m. and it just didn't stop. Um, I just kept getting sales and I'd wake up every morning for the last six weeks. I've woken up two sales. I'm like, I was asleep. And like it was like it's real, really. And then I'm like, oh, okay, um, I'm I'm I have a lot of dreams and I have a lot of passion. Nothing's ever gonna be done for me, right? I love iterating, I love improving, I love, I'm very driven to get there's no top level for me. I I will never stop. I'm a bit different to normal people. But so for me, I'm like, okay, cool, that's a good start. That's one sale, but that's exciting. I'm gonna screenshot it and send it to my mum or send it to my friends and be like, oh my god, we've got one sale. And then by the end of the day, I was like, holy crap, we've got like four sales. And then the next day, next I remember texting them, like, oh my god, I just made a thousand dollars, and then oh my god, I just made five thousand. And then in three weeks, I had hit the 10K in sales, and I was like, okay, this is a business. Like the other people are having the same problem that I'm having. Clearly, I've touched on something here that that is a gap, and people do want and need, and um, yeah, they had 10k. And then 15, I remember being at the conference with the e-com capital, and I was like looking, we're in conference, and it's like didding, didding, and then I'm like to my coach, we just hit 12,000, we just hit 13,000 and Sienna's like running out and hugging me. I was just like, oh my god, okay. So the 500k came in the next couple of days, and then next thing, uh yeah, my first month was 20k in sales, and here we are two weeks later. I've made the same in two weeks that I did my first month, and yeah, just insane.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

And think about the daily level if you if you get like to 100k per day, think about that. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about. I'm actually thinking already about it. That's not a when it's when we need to make sure that we align the numbers in terms of making sure we have the marketing spend, but you're gonna hit that hundredk. And you I want you to always uh think about like the thing we need to do is just align the things to get that outcome the same way you launch your business.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah, I mean, I think the thing is just I I started this business to help people and dogs and I haven't changed. I uh it's it's always been the same for me. And um doing making money honestly was a byproduct. It's not my focus. It's something that's gonna happen, but it's by no means what gives me goosebumps or gets me up in the morning. It's the email that I got from the sausage dog that's just been diagnosed with a sard, there's like a sudden on-tip blindness and needs upstairs. It's goosebumps from people who are sending me reviews saying this changed my life. Um changed my dog's life. Like it's those things that give me goosebumps right now. Like it's just that's what gets me out of bed in the morning. It's the helping people and helping dogs and trying to avoid them going through the pain that I did for years, not having what I needed. And I wish I had come up with this earlier to help my own dog. Um, but now I have the opportunity to help other people, and and that's the driver.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

I was I was literally sitting here like the same exact thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

We're feeling exactly the same thing, but with you guys, I'm like this is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

I got goosebumps right now.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yeah, we're literally having the same thing. So the reason why we all goosebumps 2020, I actually helped the business get to 10 million and we lost like half a million because of one mistake I did. And since then, I'm looking at how can I make sure that businesses don't do that mistake? So you're actually seeing that in a kind of like I'm seeing the same thing, but with another kind of dimension.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

It's amazing. What do you think you've learned, Susan, in terms of going through the process? Are there any particular standout things for yourself that really you were like, whoa, like that's different to what I expect? Because it sounds like you were like arguably successful in the corporate or whatever the role was before, and like not like you were out there, you know, struggling, but you're just driven in the perhaps wrong vehicle. And it's like you've taken that skill set and maybe the application to drive and work ethic, et cetera, and then just applied it into something that's yours and has much more kind of potential for growth. So, were there any things that you were like, huh, like I thought that I was better at this skill, and then maybe in my own business it's different, or uh geez, I didn't even expect this. Like, were there any kind of like mismatches or expectations versus reality that were different in the transition?

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Well, yeah, it's very different being on the other side of things. Like when you're the company and you're paying the money for stock and and you're paying the price if there's delays, or you know, you mark up an ad or something falls flat. Um, I created this amazing ad, what I thought was this amazing ad. And it did really well for the first week. We had a row out of eight and it was insane. And then all of a sudden it just dropped off. And I was like so hurt. I was like, this is this is an amazing ad. What are you guys doing? Why aren't you loving this? It was so good to start. So yeah, that version, and I think you've talked to before, like what you like or what you love or what you think is good, like not having that reflected back by the public and being like, okay, so now I have to look at the data of what you guys did like and make more of that rather than making the data that I thought I liked. So that was a learning. Um, but yeah, there was no reason for me um to change careers or to do something different. It's just one side of my brain, that that kind of analytical day-to-day. And I wanted a creative outlet um and to have yeah, those multiple streams of income to do something very different to what I always had. I've spent my life being pulled into businesses that were struggling to um help make them successful. And I've um turned around many businesses, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna apply that superpower to myself now. I'm gonna make my own business and make that successful, and just really being able to rely on yourself um for your own income stream is is fantastic rather than a job. But I'm still doing my full-time job, by the way, and I'm a massive nerd, so um, I do my nine to five. I make sure I do this outside of that. So this is we have a meeting, you're like, look, look at it, it feels like I'm wondering just in case, just in case. But it hits different when it's your own, right? Like I I'm so excited to get to five o'clock because I can pick up my laptop and I can start work, and then you just get it, it's an addiction. You get addicted to like, okay, what can I do next and what can I improve on? And um, yeah, getting into all of the AI stuff to help you just with that um thinking and um planning. I've already planned out my road to one million, I've already planned out my new designs, I've planned out my range, like just helping with that side of things. But um, yeah, it was just important to me for the brand to be very real um and to relate to people. And it's it's a very emotional business because you're dealing with people with sick, injured, and elderly pets. These people are exhausted, they are probably spent a ton of money on products that haven't worked or haven't helped them. They're going to vets, they're going, you know, all the vet bills, all of the things. Um, so this is a very engaged and emotional group of people that I think I can identify with them because having been through it. So yeah, it's it's wonderful to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Which, which, which, like in if you look at it from a um a marketing or kind of like uh attraction attention perspective, it's like that's that's what you want. If you can solve a problem for somebody that they have a very painful problem that they know about really well and they've been experiencing it for a while, like they're in a great position to have the problem solved and then also become like lifelong fans, you know, because if the product's fantastic, which is what you've obsessed about, it's like it's an amazing value exchange, you know. And I think that's that's that's amazing. I really like that. Very good. Um, I'm curious, plans for the future. I just want to hear from both of you guys at Craig, what is the the target for yourself for the rest of this year in terms of monthly that you'd like to build the business to? And then we'll switch over to Susan and she can tell us the AI extraction projection for the for the back end of the year that she has organized.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Yeah, okay. Um, to be honest, I haven't put it down in figures yet. Um, because we're still scaling, I'm still getting my head around um what the potential is. I know that's probably a little bit defeatist or something. Um, but look, I mean, if um you know 50 50k a month would get me off the road. I'm only just driving a school bus these days, but it's it's a lot easier than what I have been doing. But um yeah, 50k a month would easily get me off off the road. It would get myself and my new partner in a nice home and all that sort of stuff. So that's that that's our first our first protocol um for for the year, and then obviously building on that next year to try and help the kids um yeah get their stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Good. I like it. I like it. Good starting point. That's a good milestone, very achievable. Susan, what about yourself? What are you optimizing for this year?

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Uh one million in sales. Um I'm I'm calling that for the end of my first year. Um December's gonna be tight to get that because it's only gonna be nine months. So we're the goal is for one million the first year in sales. Um so planned out, I've already hit my goal for month one and um I'm about to hit it for month two. So um we'll keep going. Um I've got um activations or booths at Dog Lovers Festivals. So there's three of those for the year that we'll be at, which will just help with exposure, building the brand. Um just building what I've already started, I guess. Um it's it's I'm six weeks in. It's been a huge ride so far. A steep learning curve, just maintaining that momentum, maintaining the level of quality and service. Um working out how just to get that consistent kind of stock um levels and trying to predict it because it's just been more insane than I thought. Um, trying to get stock in um to match is the tricky part. Working out that stream, moving to a 3PL service just to help take a bit of that load off um with the picking and adding and stuff that I'm doing. So I can that will help me scale. And um, yeah, we're bringing out some winter colours, working on some spring colours already, um, already thinking about Christmas and um, yeah, obviously Mother's Day first and then um Black Friday and Christmas, but already kind of trying to think out and plan ahead if things are on special now or um yeah, lots. Um expanding the range is also on the cards. Um, I've got two other products that I really, really want to get out there. It's just um quite a rigorous progress process to even get one um product to market, let alone three. But yeah, the goal is to have you know half an island pet bun or something that's dedicated to my products for elderly or disabled pets.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

That's I look at the so the opportunity that both of you guys have at the moment in terms of um um first type of product to market, interesting, unique. The product in and of itself, um even done with great marketing or maybe ordinary marketing, would still sell. You know what I mean? Because you've created that product that really solves a very specific problem. Um, and so I think that the one of the biggest advantages that both of you guys uh have, and I think Susan, you you you do this pretty well with your bags under your eyes, in your own words, um, is speed. Um, speed is going to be one of the things that puts you just leagues ahead of other people by the time they start to kind of like catch on and realize that this is an opportunity or this is a product or this is actually selling a lot more uh than maybe what I thought. Um, because by the time that people start copying you, um they're copying an older version, a more outdated version, your brand sentiment and all the goodwill that you've built with your customers, the recurring nature of your business is already there. And so I really want to, without putting the fear of God into you, put a little bit of the fear of God into you in terms of like you must move swiftly towards like realizing the opportunity that you have because most people, when they start, they it's I was speaking to a company and they do$90 million a year. And he said the first 12 months they made like$30,000. And then the next year they made like 30 million, right? And so the traditional pathway is usually a lot more figuring and figuring and message to market and trying to organize that customer avatar and figure out the platform and all the credibility and the additional social proof to get cut-through and penetration. Um, and so it's very, it's very um reflective of the work. Like I said, you guys have both done on the product development problem solving and also the problem solving, but then also matching it to the particular avatar. Both of you have done that very well, whether you intentionally did it or you kind of did it based on yourself personally and then found those people in the market that also just match, well, this is me, Craig. Well, there's Craig in the market. He uh, pal, do you want to pay me 300 bucks for the brush, essentially? And that may have happened. Um, and so speed really wants to be something that both of you double down a lot on. I believe that businesses that execute quickly, they run rings around uh businesses that try and get things perfect and right, right? Because the iterative process and the just let's just move quick and figure it out, um, you get so much more data and feedback through your business to be able to determine what's right and what's wrong. The only caveat to that that I always see, and both of you guys need to be extremely focused on this, um, is the sequencing game, right? And so from zero to 100k a month, the main focus that both of you want to be just full blown on is how can I get the offer that I have to sharpen up, tighten up, get as crisp and clear with the content, maybe three to five strong winning ads, and that is it, right? I I I the thing that is going to slow down speed and also increase complexity. And through complexity, you have more waste accumulation. And then you as a founder go, I've got that product skew, I've got that uh chick over there that's doing the retail, you start to slow down because you've got more plates spinning. Does that make sense? And then you need to maybe hire a person or you need to get an agent in there to do some stuff for you, and the complexity is what starts to slow down companies, right? And so when you're in this stage right now, optimizing for speed, optimizing for new innovative products that have maybe not been done the way that you guys have done it. You want to max out as quickly as possible, especially because both of you guys, from my understandings, have pretty strong ROAS, pretty strong performance on acquisition. It's like, let's capitalize as much as physically possible on that without um intentionally putting things into the business that can slow me down. Because anything extra that you need to think about is something that's taken away from what is making great cash returns right now. And that's just the truth, right? So from 10K or 20K a month up to 100k, it's especially because both of you have um higher average order values. I know um Susan, yours is really quite strong. Craig, I believe yours is 150, 200 average order value. Is that correct? 100, 100.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

No, we're we're only about 100 at the moment, mate. We're okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

I see. So I mean, even at that level, like you're not$50,$60, you're still above 100 or thereabouts. So as part of this initial blitz for you in terms of refining your offer and your content, very much the same principle applies in terms of you won't really start to experience um the impacts of fast growth and scale until you reach that 50, 60k a month, and you might start seeing some maybe margins erode a little bit as your ads get more expensive. And you will need to look to extend that average order value up to 200, whether it's a two-pack, whether it's a bundle, whether it's some back end, you know, that you can add on as an upsell, but that will become a problem there. But the overarching thing that both of you guys, there's no like crazy, like to add new strategy to what is already working well right now is distraction for both of you. There's no need to be like, you know what, you guys both need to get onto TikTok or you need to get this email sequence set up. All of that stuff will happen because of the way that you guys implement and execute. You wouldn't be on this meeting and you wouldn't be getting the results that you've got so far if you were slow, sloppy operators that just kind of will come what may, right? But the enemy will be the speed of execution and the belief, ambition that you have that you can take on more than your business can actually handle. More businesses die from uh indigestion versus hunger, right? You guys have a lot of hunger and you're out there just ravenously, let's freaking go. And so it's being selective with what am I eating, right? Am I gonna eat the wagyu steak or am I gonna eat the freaking McDonald's burger? And so right now we want to focus on that wagyu steak and feed the beast as much as you can as possible to get to that 100k and then start to selectively identify the opportunities that have the highest probability of return. Whether you AI model the hell out of this stuff, I use that ICE framework, impact, confidence, and ease. What are the things that I then move into? Adjacent opportunities, adjacent products, uh, maybe it's a retail distribution. How do we continue scaling after that kind of 80 to 100k level that has the highest probability of success and also has the lowest level of complexity? Because the number one thing without fail, I've seen it over and over and over again across hundreds of companies. Maybe you have you says you said you're in a bunch of businesses turning those things around, Susan. But the thing is complexity. The moment a business gets to a certain degree of complexity, the ability for the founder to allocate really good quality strategic um thought power into the thing that makes money is reduced. It happens every time. I I was on a meeting two weeks ago, client of mine, international expansion, he's got retail, he's got multiple retail. Retail makes$10,000 to$20,000 a month. The rest of the business does about$800,000 a month. And I'm like, how much time are you spending on the retail? It's the future of the business, it's got this, it's got that, all of these great things. And I'm like, you're spending 10 to 15 hours on that when it's like 2% of your business and it's currently losing money. And as an extension, this is also starting to decline. But it feels interesting because it's new. And so that's where your hunger will start to actually cause issues for your growth because you'll go, I can do it, so I should do it. I can do that opportunity, so I should do it. And you'll start to kind of create complexity for your business, which will by extension soften your returns. And the I was having this conversation with my wife last night, the night before. Um, every single time, without fail, without fail, I've seen companies go from 100K in ad spend per month to 500K in ad spend per month to a million dollars in ad spend per month. And I'm like, okay, so what happened? And it's two things. Okay, we did more creatives and we started to become really obsessive about the hooks on the creatives. What else did you do? Uh we increased average order value slash lifetime value. How'd you do that? Well, we just were more aggressive with emails, back end sales, upsells, all of that stuff. Is that it? Oh, yeah. And then we just had more balls and we increased our ad spend. It's it there's no like wait, you wait until you hear this thing that we did. Or it was just the most genius. It's like, what'd you do? Well, we just um uh yeah, we just increased spend to 10 grand a day, 20 grand a day, and um did more ads. Oh, and your business doubled. Yeah. Got it. You know what I mean? And so it's like it's always those boring things that you overlook because they are boring, and your brain goes, surely it can't be that. There's got to be something different, more complex, more kind of interesting, more, I don't know, difficult for me to solve that's gonna get that next unlock of growth. But most of the time, it's that kind of boring stuff of let's see if we can be even more obsessive about getting a better hook. I'm just gonna do that for the next three months straight. I was speaking to um the creative team at that company uh Lucent Globe. I don't know if you know that dishwashing um sheets. I was speaking to the um that the one of the individuals yesterday, yesterday on the creative team. And so three years ago, they had a situation where Joe Rogan mentioned something on a podcast about Lucent Globe, something where, oh, there's this dishwasher kind of like sheets and they're taking over, something like that, a very small mention, right? Uh and then as social media does, YouTube does, things kind of come back up into the algorithm. Okay, so three years later, um, that little video, that snippet, that thing started to kind of get some traction. Uh, this was like two weeks ago now, on YouTube naturally, organically. Their whole creative team, six people in house or five people in house, stopped everything. Nothing gets done this week. All of you find that hook, split that hook, run that hook on every single different body. Back end of the ad, and they had maximum penetration, they acquired more customers in that period of time in a day than the history of the whole entire business because of that one piece of work done. Right. And so it's like prioritization of the things that are going to disproportionately change the business. And it's like I said, the stuff that you're like, oh yeah, hooks. Yeah, adds are pretty good. They're good. And I was like, whoa. So your entire creative team just literally tools down, grab the YouTube clip and just cut it and splice it and make it interesting in a thousand different ways and just push budget behind it. And they had some of their biggest sales days in the history of the company. You know, and so it's like, it's never the stuff that is like uh seemingly sexy or seemingly attractive. Those are generally distractions, especially for both of you in the stages that you've got with the business that you've got, with the product you've got, optimizing for speed, maximum speed. And the only way you can truly be fast is when you are simple. The moment you get complex, you get slow and fat. And then you go, oh, we can't do any changes. We've got, I've got to notify that thing. I've got to get that product personal. I've got to get that supplier. We've got money over there tied up in that thing. We're gonna have to wait until next quarter. Next quarter comes and the whole opportunity is gone. You know, so I I view that uh for both of you as the biggest opportunity, the biggest focus area. Hammond, is it does that does that make sense, Craig and Susan, from what I'm saying there as well?

SPEAKER_00 45:28

So yeah, like I probably don't agree on the burger thing in this tech. I was just like, I have like a different view. So I think a burger is better. But um, in terms of structures, yes, I'm like, I'm not healthy. I'm like, I'm I'm like going with the burger. But anyway, um, beside that, um, so yes, a couple of things. Um, from a sequencing perspective, I actually look at, for example, Susan, you mentioned that you're working like on the side on this, and it's kind of like a small, like I'd say, probably revenue compared to what you're making. But the goal would be right now, instead of looking at new products, so obviously I do align with Sasha on that, but I'm gonna tell you more details. If I was in your position, I'll actually scale the ad spend very quickly and even run on pre-orders and try to find a way to get the inventory, however, like just whatever we can do to do that, and then make enough to actually make more than what you're making. Because if you shift your time from this job to this business, this business can make as much more. Like you're telling me that you're part-time and you're making these kind of returns. So, what I'm thinking about is why not take the Susan full-time, put it there, it's just gonna change his business entirely. It's gonna be almost like 100k plus per day, right? So um, that's something I was thinking about when you mentioned that. Because I was like, well, you know, the sequence for me would be instead of launching new product and it's adding more complexity, you did literally mention that like it's a complex thing. So don't do it. That's like my recommendation. I aligned with Sasha on that. Um, my view on this would be how about you just go to the ad account? It's pretty simple, right? And increase the budget, very easy, and then you're gonna get more money, and then you can actually exit your job and just put all your time in this one thing. Because what I realized working with a lot of entrepreneurs, and I'll tell you something that was almost like weird for me. I had one session with one of my clients, been working with him for years. He's a very strong, I would say, media buyer business owner doing 4 million plus a year USD. So he's really a big uh sorry, per month USD per month, not yeah. Yes, strong entrepreneur, and I remember very much a simple conversation. And he was literally like, I was like, this brand that you just launched, like doing 450k per month, like the first month, how did you do it? And this is what he told me, and it was so shocking for me. He was like, Well, I launched a campaign of 5,000 a day. I started with that. I was like, What? It's like that's the only thing I did. I just launched a new campaign, I started with 5,000 a day in ad spend. That's what I did, and I had this good relationship before in terms of supplier, so obviously he was able to fulfill. But the only thing he did that he was like kind of positioning as an input, he launched a campaign at$5,000 ad spend per day. That's the thing, and he got this outcome of half a million right away in revenue pretty easily. And when I think about it, yes, he did use the experience, yes, he did have years of kind of understanding of supply chain, but you guys are building that. So if I was to think about how can I help you, Susan, to actually get to that level, it's gonna be well, you know what? That ad account there, probably we can scale it gradually and acquire those skills and scale more, and acquire those skills and scale more. And we if you think I have good ads, try to scale, you're gonna see that the raw ads would drop. That means you don't have good ads. You actually need to improve your hooks, the way that Sasha mentioned it. Be more obsessive about that part, which feels boring, and it's I think it's the ad account. But guess what? I do feel like that's the biggest advantage that you have is scaling that one campaign and actually exiting the job and putting all your effort into that. That's my view on it. If you tell me what I do, that's my thing.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Yeah, no, I agree. I I honestly, it was like Sasha said before, what was a light bulb moment? It was getting the sales, and just I equaled my income on like what on one of the weeks, and I was just like, okay, so I could do this, like it could replace my job. This doesn't have to be a side hustle. And then I was like, okay, imagine if I did this full time. Imagine if I applied all that energy. And I wasn't working 8 a.m. to midnight doing two jobs and doing all of my own fulfillment and picking, packing, and getting them all and responding to all my own inquiries by hand through socials and email.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Like, imagine I was like had time to yes, imagine if you do all of that and then let's say you automate all of it, and then you spend all your time thinking about how can I do an amazing hook that can change his business. And just to look at the ad account and just increase the budget to the more to the point where you're spending per day what you're making per month. That should be your target.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

Totally. I would just become a meta experience.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

That's how I would navigate that. And that's my view on this item. So, my recommendation for you, just to be clear, um, Jeff Bezos, I think he mentioned this. I'm not sure, but probably I'm wrong here. But uh, he mentioned that, or essentially he positioned that um, like in terms of ideas, he was thinking about all these ideas for Amazon and that on the in the early stages. And one of his mentors um actually told him, You're gonna kill your business if you do everything you think about. Because you have a process, and Sasha mentioned this in terms of business absorbing the ideas you have versus you implementing them. And I think this is my view on it. And actually, he I think he mentioned this in his book it's expansion how army dies. So if you expand, you're actually gonna kill your business. You need to focus on one thing. In my like, like just in terms of my view of what I've seen in the last 10 years, you should scale that campaign. That's the thing. And and think about this you can sell 100k per day with that product.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Okay, that's what I did in the first month, right? I have one product in one color, but there was no other choice, no one had any choice to buy anything. I just need to sell the supply chain issue. So once I have stock, I can scale the heck out of these ads and I can leave my job. But for now, I need to get stock to sell because I can, yeah, we we've got all these festivals coming up. We have so much potential. I know I can do it. It's just yeah, I need this stock to have that supply chain.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

But but but but do you realize that do you realize that you're putting some conditions that you can solve pretty easily if you really put the effort? So think about this. Are there businesses that are sold like solve this problem you have? Yes, right, definitely. Uh, how did they solve it? Well, good relationship with suppliers, not just a regular one. They actually had suppliers that are working almost to help them get to the million. For example, if you tell your supplier, guess what? If we get to a million, you're gonna receive 300k. Right? That's that's a normal kind of path. It's 30% of your normal like price outside, probably in terms of cost of goods ratios. Your supplier, if you develop that relationship, you can actually solve this sequencing of I'm gonna find a way to get the capital to then let's say do this. It's gonna be actually, I'm gonna work to really have this good relationship with my supplier that they get it, they're gonna work for me essentially to get to this target. I don't even have to figure this out, they're gonna figure it out for me. This is what I see businesses do. So you need to think about I need to develop my relationship side with the supply, which would require time, obviously, but you need to find a way to make it happen and analyze what kind of options you have. That's how I would do this. But just keep in mind there are some things that you can get that you're not aware of in terms of they ship and then you pay, which is pretty good. Um, they actually ship in batches, which is also good at scale, and those things could solve this entire problem that you believe is a big one, which is not.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

Yeah, I worked through a number of those with them. Like um, we have we do have a good relationship and they pushed production for me in three weeks, what would normally take six for December, so to align with my launch because I wasn't genuine. Yeah, and then we're looking at the moment we're F-reading like a hundred and then keeping the other 500. I had a problem with fabric, it needed to be customized. So they went out and found found someone who could customize it, and we're going halves in the cost. So they're not asking me to pay it all, they're actually going halves to buy a thousand meters of fabric and they're gonna store it in their warehouse for me. I haven't even paid for the whole amount, I've just paid for the raw material. They're gonna store it for me and sell it for me just as I need it. So we're we're getting there in that relationship. It can always be better. Um, but that's pretty good. That's pretty damn good. And and like to for them to halve production time for me, for them to be looking at how they can save me costs. I look after them as well. I negotiate, you know, I'm happy to pay a bit more on this, but help me out with this. It is a negotiation, but um, yeah, no, we're getting there, but it can always be better. So yeah, take the note.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

Yes, and one thing I want to say for Greg, just like a quick kind of you know this as well. Same thing. You mentioned you want to get to 50k, very good target. I think it's actually pretty achievable. I think you're probably underestimating the volume that you can get. Uh, but based on that particular element, you need to also think about the sequence. How to get to 50k, you need to probably spend 20k or whatever it's a robust target you have. You need to think about that and obsess about it. Every day you look at the ad account, look at the ad spend target you have. So let's say you want to get to 50k. Let's say it's gonna require 20k, divide that by 30. That's your ad spend. If you don't have the input in the ad account, don't believe that it's very unlikely you get the other you get the 50k. Is it making sense from a input strategy as well?

SPEAKER_03 53:30

And it's just doubling down on the basics, isn't it? Really? That that that's all it's about to scale. So yeah, just more ad spend and yeah, run with it.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

But it it's um it's very Alex Romosi said something to me very directly in terms of this kind of concept we're talking about right here, where um he was like there is generally not a strategy problem when there is a business that's making money. Um, it's the fact that there is an execution problem and people just don't execute for long enough, for hard enough, um, and for deep enough at the strategy that's required. That's actually the problem. And so they go and like hire a new person because they think that the previous person didn't know what they were doing, or they go and try a different strategy because this strategy isn't maybe working enough, and maybe they haven't just done it enough. And it's like nine out of ten times, it's like once that strategy, he's like, Do you know how difficult it is to have a working strategy in a business? It's very challenging. And so it's like once you get that and it's locked in and and you're doing good economically, it's like you want to stuff as much into that working strategy as possible and eliminate anything that might prevent that from working. You know what I mean? And I I see that as a huge opportunity for both of you guys at the moment. It makes me very, very excited for the future of both of your businesses. I'm super pumped. Yeah. Well, guys, I'm um I'm super grateful to have you as clients. Um, it's it's epic to hear the stories that you've you've um both kind of shared in terms of your background, the experience that you've had in terms of what brought you into um creating or building a business like this. I think for me, that's what inspires me the most, and also seeing how much it's kind of like um developed in a reasonably short period of time to what it is now. Um, and then also further to that, like what that means for the future, assuming that we continue doing the right things over and over and over again. It makes me very, very, very excited. So hope you guys have taken a few points of value out of today's discussion. And um I'm very excited to see the future of your businesses and see how we can continue supporting you and growing the companies together. So super pumped.