Chase Fisher the Founder @ Blenders Eyewear is here today sharing his secrets to 1 million sales a year. In this session we share the first 10 minutes to an outstanding interview in which Chase doesn't hold back with his tips and tricks to how he went from 10 sales to now over 1 million sales a year.
Chase is a very successful Shopify merchant and he attributes a large part to influencers and social media. Even the ads run by Blenders Eyewear are now created by their influencers.
Chase Fisher the Founder @ Blenders Eyewear is here today sharing his secrets to 1 million sales a year. In this session we share the first 10 minutes to an outstanding interview in which Chase doesn't hold back with his tips and tricks to how he went from 10 sales to now over 1 million sales a year.
Chase is a very successful Shopify merchant and he attributes a large part to influencers and social media. Even the ads run by Blenders Eyewear are now created by their influencers.
Welcome to the winning with shopify podcast, the podcast that will teach you to take your shopify store and turn it into an automated sales machine with the latest marketing emails, sales and social media advice, strategies, and tips from experts without the fluff. Your host, Caroline Balinski, the founder of just asked Parker Dot com, the only small marketing task agency for shopify owners with over 10 years experience in marketing, manufacturing, design, and ecommerce. She shares her knowledge and interviews the experts to help you in your journey to success. Now, here's your host, Caroline Berlinski.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone. Welcome back to the show. I have an amazing show for you today. I'm very, very excited to be bringing this today. I have, if you're not aware, I have just put together the first ever social media influencer marketing summit for shopify merchants. If you're not aware of what this is, then you need to jump on and check it out. It's a 100 percent free. You sign up, you get three days access to everything for free. I've done it 20 videos. These are interviews. This slides show presentations with amazing, amazing guests. Like I said, this is completely free for three days, so you just sign up@winningwithshopify.com, head over there and you'll find access to the summit there. This is something that I've created only for shopify merchants because what I found was that the same questions kept coming up time and time again from merchants and the questions all revolved around how do I do influencer marketing? How do I get influencers to promote my products? How can I get more sales without having to pay large amounts of money with facebook ads? How can I actually get traffic to my website? These questions kept coming up time and time again, and I've been in this industry. If you've been following me, I've been in ecommerce for over 12 years. I have been in marketing for 18 years and I have been doing this for a very, very long time and what I found is that the whole influence of marketing space is really opening up and it's been around for a while now, but it's been around long enough that if your not on it, you are missing out on such a huge potential of sales. Now, this summit I put together, I purposely have reached out to an amazing array of people, people that are from every single aspect of influencer marketing. I've got influences. I've got merchants, other shopify merchants on the summit. I have, um, different APPS, different, um, different tools that you need to know about and all of these come together. So you log on, you get access to all the videos. It's called a summit if you're not aware because it's just a lot of information in a very small space of time. And really what I did was I wanted to create this free access that for any merchant, once you've been on there and you've had a look at what's there, you can walk away from all the information and say, Hey, I totally understand influence and marketing now and I know how to take this forward for my business. I have a video in there at the start. I have a video in there at the start explaining more about influence in marketing so I won't get into that now, but I also have another video in there which is the step by step process of how to put everything together that you've learned throughout the summit. So jump on is winning with shopify.com and you'll find access their complete free access. If you want more than three days. Then I do have a vip package that you can sign up for, but you're welcome to watch everything for free over that three days. Now, in today's show, I am bringing you the first 10 minutes of an amazing interview that I did with one of the shopify store owners who is selling currently oval, 1 million pairs of sunglasses a year. Now this guy started off in in a way that you wouldn't believe when you hear 1 million pairs of sunglasses, you think, wow, you know, he's done something truly special, but no, he's just been working very, very hard and he's got a really good strategy of how to make that happen and overall his strategy comes down to a large part of using influences. So that's why I wanted to get him on it. This summit, and I wanted to share the first 10 minutes here on this podcast because it's truly amazing and it makes you see that anyone has the potential of making this happen. This is not a shopify merchant that started off with a large amount of money when he started out. It's not like he had$50,000 in his bank account that he just splashed around to make this happen. He really started, as most people do with a small budget to begin with, and he's grown his business over the last six years. I want to chase on here because I've been following him for quite a few years now and when I decided to put this summit together, he was one person that I thought, I don't know this guy, but I'm going to reach out and see if I can get him on here because I knew that he was going to be an amazing, amazing source of information and I have to tell you that this interview is. I knew it was going to be amazing, but it's even better than I expected it to be. It really has given all the information that any person, any person out there who has a shopify store needs to listen to because it will help you understand exactly what you need to do, what you need to do to take action, to get influencers, to help you in your business. So I wanted to share this first 10 minutes with you have this interview. Like I said, it is amazing. The full interview is@winningwithshopify.com. Head over there and you will get access to the full interview. Like I said, three days free access to all of the interviews. It's all recorded. You don't have to go anywhere. It's all at home. You can watch everything from the comfort of your home. If you get vip access, you get the audio version, she get transcripts, you get lots of bonuses. There's heaps of bonuses as well that you can get, but if you just want to get on and get as much information as you can in that three days, you're more than welcome to. It's more than enough time to get through all of the actual interviews and today's interview chase chase's interviews. Just when one of the ones that look, all of them are amazing. I have can't say that any interview that I did was better than the other, but as from the aspect of being a shopify store owner, I have three people talking about being store owners and all three of them are brilliant and for you being a store owner, you need to listen to these merchants and what they talk about because it's going to help you get more sales, help you understand what to do and how you can take action. So let's get straight into it. Here we go. Take a listen to chase's story and what chase is doing and how he's managing to sell 1 million pairs of sunglasses. Yeah. Enjoy this interview.
Speaker 3:Welcome everyone. I am here with a very special guest today. We are talking to a shopify merchant who, uh, you'll find out has done a lot over the last six years since he started his brand. And this is a great interview because if you are a shop five match and this is what you want to hear, you want to hear it from the horse's mouth, the person that's been through it, the person that can tell you exactly what you want, marketing's all about from the perspective of being the owner. I'm very passionate about hearing the side from the actual owner because we can hear all these different stories from people who don't know what they're talking about from a experience, but chase definitely has the experience to tell us more about what influencer marketing means in his business and what he's seen over the years. So if you don't know about blenders eyewear, then you've been living under a rock because this company's been around and has made huge, huge movements through the industry. Everyone's spoken about them for years. So to get chase on today was fantastic. I was so happy to have this happen because this is definitely a brand who has done a lot in the social media space. So that's why it's really exciting for me. And they'd been around, like I said, for about six years. They've worked a lot with music festivals, Djs and athletic athletes, so that's fantastic. We're going to hear a bit more about that and they've actually been um, spoken about by MTV and red bull, which is also in that whole space around that social media aspect. So, you know, we're talking about influences, we're talking about how other people talk about you. So I think all of comes into play when it comes to how chases, I'm sorry, how blend this has actually done what they have done and had the had so much success. So without wasting any more time, let's talk to chase and ask him exactly what he's been doing, how he started and more about blenders eyewear. So Hi Chase. How actually. Fantastic. I, like I said, I'm so happy to have you here. It's fantastic. It took a little bit of a maneuvering. Your such a busy guy, so I know you've got so much going on. So thank you so much. It really means a lot and I know everyone really appreciate it. So tell us more about blenders and what you've actually. How you created it, where it came from and what's going on now
Speaker 4:for sure. So yeah, so I started back in 2012 and I got a really big background in surfing and action sports and I grew up, I can, you know, competing as a, as a pretty, um, pretty good athlete at a young age. And so I was just around a lot of brands, um, when I was, when I was a teenager. And so just kind of growing up around a lot of brands. I fell in love with a lot of brands really quickly. Um, and so moving from Santa Barbara to San Diego, um, I was on the surf team and college and just loved the whole aspect of like brand athlete relationships. So I guess it was kind of destined for me to kind of be own one or be affiliated with some somehow some way. Um, so after I actually finished college at San Diego State, I was going to see one of my favorite djs and the nightclub and I wanted something to kind of add them outfit. So, um, for some reason I went to target and the first thing I saw was a pair of$5, geography sunglasses and I bought him, I wore him out to the club and everyone in the club was coming up to me asking about it. I'm like, well, there's a cool like where'd you get them? Let me try them on. And there was all this buzz around my$5 shades. And so it kind of like the whole idea kind of happened on the dance floor, believe it or not. So it was just one of those things as a night out with friends. And so I'm the kind of guy that when I get into something I really, really get into it. And so, uh, you know, that's kind of that kind of transpired and then I would just sit on the boardwalk and I'm here in San Diego and watch people walk by and just notice the glasses that they were wearing and just saw a huge gap, you know, between your$200 oakleys your ray bans or Gucci's. And then the ones I was wearing, there was no brand that was in between, um, you know, that was new, that was new, that was millennial focused Gen z focused, that have vibrant color ways that really kind of like personified our California lifestyle. And so I was like, well, if I can't sell sunglasses in San Diego, I can't do this anymore. So this is my best shot. So it's just kind of started from there. And then I just dove right in.
Speaker 3:Fantastic. So before we get into the marketing and what you're actually here for, just let everyone know because you have got such an amazing brand that you've built over these years. Has it been easy or hard for you along the way?
Speaker 4:Oh No, nothing's easy. You think it's easy at the beginning, you think it's going to be a slam dunk and it is a very, very, very difficult. Um, I mean the first day in business we launched it my San Diego at San Diego State, it's entrepreneur fair. I brought 300 pairs of sunglasses thinking I was going to sell all 300 on the first day. I sold 10 pairs and so just very humbling, very like, you know, grounded just like realization that I'm like, okay, this is going to be very, very difficult. Um, and even in a place like San Diego, it gives you a great opportunity to really thrive, but at the same time, like this is, you know, you're building something from nothing. So it's going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 3:Say to put it into perspective, you sold 10 that very first time. What are you selling a year now? What's, what's sort of an average?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So we're selling over a million pairs a year now. Um, so we, we've come a long way. Um, but at the same time it's like, you know, there's a lot of, a lot that goes into that and like a lot of trial and error and a lot of kind of like, you know, experimenting with different, different types of marketing. And then finally when you kind of see what works, you Kinda just start pouring gas on that. But obviously other really, you know, when you're bootstrapping our company, we've bootstrapped this from literally$2,000 from, from my roommate that I borrowed. Um, you know, you gotta you gotTa build it up. It's just, you can't just, you can't just come out the gates firing, you've got to slowly build it up and you've got to reinvest and you got to continue to just kind of experiment and try new things. So, uh, so yeah, it definitely took a while, but six, six years as is, you know, it seems like a long time, but it's really not that long.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, it definitely isn't. So tell us a little bit about just your general marketing strategy and your influencer marketing strategy just inside of that. So I'm just so we sort of get an idea of just your general marketing is all, we don't want to go too much into depth with that, but I just want to get an idea of that in general of what you're doing now with your marketing.
Speaker 4:So now, I mean now, I mean the majority of our marketing is all basic social media. I mean, it's all facebook ads, instagram ads, um, it's different relationships with content creators, with different influencers that we work with. Um, and so we use influencers and content creators for, for, for various purposes. Um, you know, the majority of our spend, the majority of our paid advertising goes through facebook and instagram ads themselves and we use the influencers and the photographers and the, you know, the taste makers to kind of help build that content and build that brand and then be able to kind of personalize with them and the brand so that way we can connect with our audience more. Um, so depending on what type of person we're working with, we use them for different purposes.
Speaker 3:And so you've been working with influences from the start of your business or has it been something that you've just started doing yet from the very beginning?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we started from the very, very beginning and, and, and how we started using it was like when, when the algorithms of facebook switch, we moved to instagram and instagram just be, just opened this whole new door of just like opportunity. I mean, really it was just this new channel that was heavily visually focus as facebook is text focus. So like a brand like ours, the sunglasses in San Diego, we just like it was, it was peanut butter and jelly, you know, um, we were able to just fully, fully showcase the brand. We were able to network with the width more so photographers at that point just to kind of help build content. And so I would just literally so instagram for hours and you know, message message photographers and comment on their photos and then soon enough they started coming to our office and picking up sunglasses and um, you know, we didn't have any money to pay them. We just. So we just paid them with sunglasses and so we started shipping out a bunch of free product and photographers will come by and picks them up and shoot photos and then they would send us the photos and soon enough we started getting really like creative engaging content. And so that's how we started using them from the beginning. And then we've also used them for giveaway purposes just for like follower reaches and stuff like that. Um, but at the beginning you're more star struck by all the numbers. You're just like, you're going for like, oh my God, this person has$500 dollars. Like let's get them to post about us. You don't really think about the connection between the brand and that person. You just look at the numbers when you start to kind of build your brand and you start to kind of kind of understand the space a little bit more. Then you start to learn about the value of partnering with the right influencers verse, partnering with People that just have large followings. Um, and so just going through a lot of trial and error with that, seeing what's working and what's gonna work and kind of getting your expectations in place of, of, of what do you expect from, from working with somebody or having somebody posts for you. Like what are you going for? Is important to kind of identify at the beginning. Say you don't say you can actually measure it. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:No, that's great. Advisors definitely talking about the numbers not being the most important thing of the followers is so important and I'm glad that you brought that up. That's fantastic advice. So you, I mentioned in your intro that you work with um, Djs and other sort of like music festivals and things like that and sports people. How did that come about? That comes from just people that you knew through contacts and then also red bull and TV had it, all of that come about for you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I mean definitely like a handful of contacts of people that I've met over the last five, five, 10 years. Um, but also just living in San Diego, you know what I mean? San Diego is the Mecca of southern California culture and in the summertime there's these huge lifestyle party is that all the djs flying for. And so I know a lot of like, I know a lot of the guys that, you know, put on the events and I know a lot of photographers that actually cover the event. So I'm at the beginning, when we first launched our brand is when all these, all these events would, would go on and it was extremely, extremely popular and so Djs, world class Dj's, we would fly to San Diego and play these in play these pool parties. And so I would be able to link up with the photographers and load them up on we're shades and they would be on the stage with the, with the Djs and they'd be like, hey, check these out. And they put them on and we'd get cool photos and then they started just kind of wearing them after that, you know, and it kind of just became this natural thing and they kind of really loved the story and the fact that I started with like, you know, going out to see one of my favorite Djs, Djs at a nightclub. And um, I mean I'm a big. I'm big and music and I just love it because I'm so passionate about it. So I think that authenticity kind of kind of came off of them at a good time. And um, and yeah, so we just kind of built it locally and then it kind of became bigger from there.
Speaker 3:Fantastic. So I love what you just mentioned then that you, it wasn't that you were going straight up to the Djs to give them, give them. There's sunglasses, you're giving them to the photographers. So I just want people to get that point because I think a lot of people, we look at you, you look like a cool guy, you look like someone that knows all the Djs but you don't even need to know them all. You can get there another way. It might not be through the photographer, but there might be another way through to getting in front of those people.
Speaker 4:Totally. I think it's all about the way that you approach it. I think if it comes off forced, if it comes off like, hey, you have to wear these, like put these on right now. Like no one's gonna want to wear that. But if it's like, hey, check these classes out. It's like a local company, you know, the founders started it by going to music shows like that's a different story and that's a story that people can connect with. So I think it's about your approach and how you tailor that and how that's reciprocated on the other end. Um, and so I think that's also very important. This is when you partner with people or do you explore new opportunities you want to, you want to have the right approach going into it.
Speaker 3:I love that you used the word story and I think that's important. Having a story behind what you're doing.
Speaker 2:So I hope you enjoyed that first 10 minutes. It's about 11 minutes. I want, didn't want to stop it and cut it halfway through a sentence, but I hope you really enjoyed that. Chase her was amazing. There's another 30 or 40 minutes available of this interview over@winningwithshopify.com. Sign up over there and you get free access for three days and you can see the rest of this interview. It gets better and better as it goes on. The first 10 minutes was brilliant. There was no part of it that wasn't brilliant, but the rest of it just gets better and better and more and more informative, so go and watch the rest of this interview. Like I said, I can't say enough how amazing it was. There's more. There's two other merchants that I do interview as well. They give really great advice about being shopify merchants and how they work with influencers, but there's other interviews there that you muscles into as well. Really, there's not one of them that you can miss. I purposely put together this summit to help merchants understand how to work with influences and understand all the different aspects. Every single interview brings something completely different to your understanding of influencer marketing. It's really what we're signing up for and seeing all the different interviews to understand exactly what influencer marketing is. If it doesn't sound like something that you need, at least jump on and watch the first couple so then you can understand if it's something that you should be doing because there's not many merchants out there that shouldn't be doing influencer marketing. It's pretty much amazing for all types of businesses and really we're at that sort of almost about to hit that peak with influencer marketing is what I think and a lot of people in the industry think is that we are coming to that point where we're hitting that peak. Things will change over the next 12 months and we don't know where things are going, but if you want free traffic and if you want warm traffic because running a facebook ad, as much as I'd never say don't do it, but there's different reasons why you do it. A facebook ad means you're running an ad to cold traffic. People that haven't heard of you. The difference is with influences that you're in a position where you are letting people know about your product via people who already have built a great relationship with that person. You know what it's like. You're at a party and you meet someone for the first time and they asked you what car are you driving? And you say, I just bought the Blah Blah Blah car, and they go, oh, that's nice, but if your best friend says to you, what car did you just buy? And say, I just bought this car, they're more likely to take notice that you're telling them because they have a better connection with you, whether it be advice on child rearing, whether it be advice on a new hairstyle, whatever it might be, we always take advice from friends as being more legitimate, more important than when it comes from someone you don't know, and that's what influences have done. They've built a rapport with people that you could now get in front of that audience. They'll do it for you, promote your credit to that audience that is already respectful of this influence so they already people class and influencers their friend, so they're willing to take notice and listen to that influencer. So jump onto the summit. Sign up. It's 100 percent free. Watch it all from the comfort of your home. What should in your pajamas if you want to. It has been amazing to create, but also the feedback I've been getting from it has just been amazing. Every single person has been reaching out to me, just telling me, wow, that is amazing. You've really opened my eyes to what I can actually achieve using influences, so I hope you get just as much value out of it. I'm so happy that I've created this because I know that it's going to make a difference and I know it is. Making a difference in a lot of shopify store room is lives and in their businesses. So enjoy. And until next time, have a great day and keep smiling.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the winning with shopify podcast. Join the facebook group facebook.com forward slash groups forward slash winning with shopify and get our show notes at[inaudible] dot com forward slash podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode as a listener. Get 20 percent off, but just asked Parker.com by using the code podcast.