Take Any Product from Zero to Millions | Greg Rollett | The BIG Brand Show

What does it actually take to go from unknown inventor to thriving brand?

In this episode of The BIG Brand Show, Kevin Harrington and Brandon T. Adams sit down with Greg Rollett, Head of Brand Growth at Grommet, to break down exactly how early-stage founders can cut through the noise to build real momentum.

Greg shares:
- Why "shiny object syndrome" is killing early-stage brands
- How to craft an irresistible offer that makes shoppers say yes
- Why visual magical transformation is the secret behind product success
- How owning your own media is the fastest path to building trust with customers

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Big Brand Show. I'm Kevin Harrington, original Shark from Shark Tank, and co-founder of Big Brand Ventures.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

And I'm Brennan C. Adams, co-CEO of Big Brand Ventures. On this show, we sit down with high-level CEOs, founders, and investors who are building and scaling real businesses.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

In each episode, we will uncover the real stories, strategies, and mindset behind success. What worked, what didn't, and the lessons that actually moved the needle.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

If you're building, scaling, or investing in the next big brand, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Brand Show. Today on the Big Brand Show, we're joined by Greg Roulette, head of brand growth of Gromit. Gromet is a platform dedicated to helping makers, inventors, and e-commerce founders go from undiscovered to unstoppable. Greg works closely with early stage and growing brands to help them break through the noise, connect with customers, and build momentum. Greg is also a brother from another mother. 10 years now. TV shows, products, everything. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Man, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Hey, Greg, awesome for you to be here, man. Thanks, Greg. We met 10 years ago, and you've been building brands and products that many years. You have anything that you want to share with our folks today, some of the things you've learned about building brands.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I'm going to start by saying that it's easier and harder than we think that it is, right? Like it's always harder, right? There's always more to do than we think when you know you guys talk with inventors all the time and they just they had this great idea and now they got a bunch of product and then they go, oh crap, now I have to sell the product. I have to market the product. I have to get inventory for the product. But it's also easier because it is just about sometimes just doing the work, right? Like we have to create content, we have to create marketing materials, we have to distribute it, and then we have to sell it, right? Like there is a formula. So it's harder because it's always not just about the thing that we wanted to make, but it's also easier because you just have to show up and do the work and do the work every day. And you know, we've all had those successes where when the founder comes in and they show up and they do the work, they can have a whole lot of success.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Before you got to Gromit, that's when I knew you, we did a TV show called Ambitious Adventures. And the interesting thing was it was a show nobody knew of. We created a brand from nothing. We did crowdfunding and we got sponsors, we did a deal with Entrepreneur Network. And this is back when we're filming with people like Jake Paul, who's now the fighter. We filmed with Kevin, we had Caleb Maddox, we had other entrepreneurs. What did you learn from that TV show kind of branding experience with celebrities? And how do you apply that in today's world?

SPEAKER_02 2:40

So I think there's there's a couple pieces there. One is that there are so many different types of entrepreneurs. I think we get sucked into our phones and we only see the people who are shouting the loudest that you have to be an expert, that you have to be, you know, just so ya, yeah, rah-rah, right? But there are so many entrepreneurs who are trying to do good things, and there's not one route to success. What made Jake Paul successful isn't the same thing that made Keenasol successful or the same thing that made Men's Style Lab successful, but it all comes from a place where the entrepreneur, the person behind the business, the founder, they wanted to do something to make the world just a little bit better. And I think when you have that as the backbone of what you want to do, you can find success. You can create success. You can find people that want to, you know, shout about you from the mountaintop, or you could be that person, like you are. Like, you know, you're you're very loud, you're vocal, you're on social media, you're pumping stuff out, but someone maybe never shows their face ever. They can also be successful. And that's what's really cool about entrepreneurship and business owners is there's no one route, there's no one path, there's no right way to do it. You just have to find your way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Greg, you get thousands of people coming to you with their ideas, their products. Most of these are early stage people, right? How do you what's the biggest challenge early stage folks have getting beyond early stage, going from early stage to, you know, kind of like an unknown to a known brand? What's what's the biggest challenge?

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Yeah, I think it's shiny object syndrome, is they don't know where to go and there's no focus. They're trying to get TikTok shop to work, they're trying to do meta ads, they're trying to go into retail, they're trying to do, and then they're trying to find a new manufacturer, they're trying to do 72 things at once instead of, you know, I learned this from Michael Masterson, Mark Ford from the early Agora days is like zero to a million. I gotta find one sales channel that can sell my product every single day. And I think they have these this idea of like, well, I saw Brandon did a video and said I need to be on TikTok shop. And Kevin said that I need to do this and this. And you can't do all of those things. Right. Uh when you're especially when you're early stage, because you don't have a team, you don't have employees, you typically don't have resources. So finding a focus of like, all right, I need to find one sales channel that can bring in as many sales as possible. Now let's go to two, now let's go to three, and not bite off more than you can than you can chew in those early days.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Great advice. So one of the early stage products we brought a while back to Grommet, one of the first ones we brought, was Peeps, eyeglass cleaner, which wasn't it kind of went like this and went like this and flatlined. What do you think was the reason for its success on Gromit and Gide Up? Because it's done millions on that platform alone.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Yeah, I think today more than ever is finding products that solve problems and then making it very apparent that you can solve that problem. Because we live in a world where people are going like this and you need to get their attention really, really quickly. And with peeps, it's like dirty eyeglasses, clean eyeglasses. That fast, though, like instantly. Like this is dirty, now it's clean. Yeah. And to be able to show that. And then the second piece of it's a magical transformation. Magical transformation that is visual that I can see and I go, oh, you know what? I'm literally wearing glasses right now and I could use peeps, right? And you're just like, oh, instant. But then the second piece of it is the irresistible offer. I think so many times early stage brands, they just think like, I'm selling this notebook of paper and it's 20 bucks. Yeah. That's their offer. That's not an offer. That's a retail price. Right. Right. And so coming up with an offer of how many do I get? Do I get more than one? Are there different colors? Uh, can I bundle them into a package? Do I get buy one, get one free? Is there a money back guarantee? Like, what takes the risk and the fear away for me as a shopper? Right? Are there testimonials? Are there stories? Are there people out there that are using this that now as a shopper, I'm like, oh, well, I can get three peeps for the same price as one. And I can give some to my friends and they got a bunch of tests. Now that's an offer. That's and that makes it so easy for the shopper to say yes. So I think it's that showing the visual magical transformation and then having an offer that makes the shopper feel like I'm getting the best deal of a lifetime. And I don't think many people spend time thinking about that. They just they slap a price up, they have their Shopify store, whatever, it's$19.99 and that's it. Right. And that's really hard to get a shopper to buy that, especially cold.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yeah. The so you Gromit's created a weekly deal newsletter, right? And this is I I love where you guys are going because you're not just launching a product and letting it go. You really focus on the the follow-through and the execution. But this newsletter, how does this help the other brands that you've got on Gromit and the the company in general?

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yeah, I the we're all from the media world, right? Media still has trusts with consumers, especially if you find the right media that works for you. And I think the cool thing about Gromit is it's been around since 2008. And there are millions and millions of people that have bought something off of a recommendation from a newsletter. So when I put this new product into the newsletter, so every Thursday, as you said, we put five new, five to ten new products every Thursday. And when we put it in there, there's trust that our shoppers are gonna be like, you know what? Maybe I should check that out because I trust Gromit's recommendations. And so when you can find these channels, influencers, brands, media, whoever that it is, that the audience already has trust with, it's like a shortcut, right? To like skip to the front of the line because you know, when people come to you every day, they want you to endorse their product. Why? Because consumers trust you, other brands trust you. And so, same thing is true with this newsletter is if we say, Hey, we believe in this watch, our shoppers are gonna go, well, then that must be the watch because there's trust with the media and the brand behind it. Kind of like HSN and QVC.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

100%. They've got show host to people that they've been following for years, they trust in them and they follow. And you guys have created your own kind of scenario. 100%. Just like that, it's just N and QVC.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

And it comes through your inbox, right? So people are checking it on their phone, they're seeing it. And then the second piece of it is from the newsletter, we go to the platform that we built so that they can see all the products, they can see the videos, the pictures, they get to meet the founder, who is the person that built this product. So then there's even more trust from there. But also, we just know that you know, shoppers aren't gonna buy immediately. We know this, right? We're marketers. We know that, you know, so we built a platform where someone could just say, you know what? I like this product, I'm gonna upvote it. One, then we're gonna give them a discount so that that gives them an incentive to purchase now. But hey, they might not want it now. They want to save it for Mother's Day or for Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas is coming up. So we save all those products for them and then we remind them, hey, Kev, here's five products that you liked over the last 30 days. Yeah. And give them that gentle nudge and say, hey, why don't you go buy one of these? But yeah, there's there's so many pieces of it. But I think at the end of the day, no one would buy from us if they didn't trust our recommendations and our vetting process and that this is the one. If we're this is the phone charger, this is the phone charger, right? There's not 30 phone, this is the one that we really think that you guys should get behind.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

So, my next question is if somebody's watching this right now, they're feeling stuck, what should they do? One thing they could take action beyond going and grommet, because that's definitely what they should do. What's one thing they can do to get traction with their product today?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Create your own media. I think this is the other side of it. Is we always we want to get on TV, we want, you know, what whatever it is, we want that. But the cool thing is there's this thing called social media where you can own and control your own narrative. Yeah. And you don't have to wait for Kevin to endorse your product. I can just go on and say, you know what? I made this piece of paper. And this is why I made this piece of paper. This is what it means to me, and this is how it can change your life. If you do that every day, someone's gonna find it, they're gonna click, they're gonna like, and they're going to buy. And you control it. You don't have to wait for anyone's permission. You don't have to wait for anyone to, you know, a TV producer to say this is good. You get to control your own.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

You control it because you you also get the price test. You get to see what, you know, make the mistakes early when you're just talking to a few people before you start talking to millions.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, let's say, let's say you do a video every day about, you know, you opened a burrito shop here in in St. Pete, Florida. Well, every day you you show the burritos. Well, guess what? Over 30 days, you're gonna, which burritos got the most likes? What what camera angle? Was it a certain staff member that got it? You're gonna get all this data. So now when you go to the local TV station, you go, you know what? We're gonna we want Brandon to be on it and we want it, we want the beans and the cheese to be oozing out of there because it gets the most views. That's how he likes it. I'm sure that's how he likes it. But you have all this data to come to them and be like, this is what works. We've already we've already got the formula. But again, you control that that entire process.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

I love it. I I'm looking forward. We're gonna get to hang out the next few days for the Sharker Tree. But before we wrap here, where can people find you personally and where can they get their product on the Gromit? How do they contact you?

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah, I'm just at Greg Roulette on all the socials, very active, doing what we just talked about, right? Sharing cool products, shooting a lot of videos, doing a lot of fun stuff, talking about this stuff, and then at the Gromit uh on socials if you want to see some of the coolest products. More than 2,500 unique products from makers, inventors, small business owners, not the big, big companies, but the small guy who needs an opportunity to win to go from, I think you said in the intro, undiscovered to unstoppable. And uh you can find them all there.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Check it out, guys. Kevin and I brought multiple products to you guys over the years, some doing hundreds of literally hundreds of thousands and some tens of millions. So check out the grommet. Thank you, Greg, for coming on the show. Thanks for being here, buddy. Thanks for having me guys.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Appreciate it. Yeah, until next time. See you on the next episode.