From Zero To $300k Per Month In Two Years w/ Kevin and Jeremy

Hey, fastlaners. Ryan here and today I'm going to be introducing you to a couple of guys that I think just get it right. You're going to be meeting Kevin Pascoe and Jeremy Shirk. They're two of our backroom members who started their online business 2/ish years ago with really no idea what they were in for or what they were going to do. But I think built the business right and they didn't have crazy success out of the gate. Their first product was maple syrup, which is kind of funny and ironic because they're Canadian. I like to tease them for that one. But the maple syrup product wasn't a huge success. It was, it sold, but the profit margins were super low and was certainly not enough for them to build a business around. So they had to pivot, make some changes. But they were all in and they're still all in. And I just think that they're building the business up in the right way. They surrounded themselves with people who motivated them, who stretched their normal. They're now building a team, they've locked down an office, they're expanding and they're just doing things in a calculated way that is not just dependent on Amazon is serving a big market, solving a big need. And I just wanted to highlight the things that took them from the $1 million point to now between the three and the $5 million point and growing and what's allowing them to have enough capital to hire and what's giving them the confidence that they're going to have staying power. And I wanted to highlight what those pieces were that have allowed them to reach this point beyond. So if you sell online or you're thinking about selling online, you're going to love this chat with these guys. And we can also show you how to build a business to that million dollar point if you go over to freedomfastlane.com million we have a free training series that will show you the same strategies that Kevin and Jeremy so followed in order to build up a million dollar business. And we are always looking to inspire new capitalists and new entrepreneurs and would love to add your name to our list of success stories. Until then, enjoy this chat with Kevin and Jeremy. Jeremy and Kevin, welcome to Freedom Fastlane. I'm so stoked to hang out with you guys today.

Thanks for having us, dude. Good to be here.

So, you know, we've known each other for years. Jeremy, I like to tell the story that you and I met in the Bangkok airport, which is a true story. And then one, two, skip a Few, three years later, you run a multimillion dollar company. Fill in the gaps for me. I know, Jeremy, you and I, from what I remember, exchanged a few Skype messages or WhatsApp messages when you were living in Thailand. You bring on your partner, Kevin, and then I know you guys are selling through the roof. I know there's more details in there, but would you guys tell a little bit about the evolution story, how you grew this business?

Yeah, I'll kind of give a condensed version. We met in Thailand in 2013 and at that point I was kind of in between things. I was. I've been doing E commerce stuff for over a decade, different businesses here and there, and I was kind of feeling unsatisfied with what I was doing and.

Really looking ping pong balls or something, weren't you?

Yeah, there was. I was selling ping pong balls in Thailand. That was a good little operation. But yeah, we spoke about it a bit in Thailand. Actually. I was dissatisfied, kind of feeling a bit empty. I was living the dream, so to speak, like the four hour work week, living in Thailand, living in paradise. But there was still a feeling of emptiness. And, you know, you really had an impact on me for that short time we spent together. We kept in touch and then I kind of was peeking over your shoulder and you were having some success with what you were starting with your one.

Supplement brand. And I really just started thinking about what I could do. I've had a long passion and history with health and wellness myself. So the ideas just started flowing and we had a few more talks on Skype after that. And the one thing, the one objective I set for myself, and I realize it's an error I made for way too long, is not having a partner with the businesses that I was taking on. And I realize how important that is to have. And when I made the decision to do this, I wanted to have a partner. I sought out Kevin. Him and I knew each other through a mutual business partner. He was living in Calgary, I was living in Vancouver, and I'd heard lots of good things about him. We were kind of acquaintances and we helped each other out with a few things here and there. But I knew he was a really sharp guy. He had the E commerce background as well, and I sought him out. You know, we bounced ideas back and forth and as they say, the rest is history. It's amazing how much, you know, things can grow and progress within a few years.

Man, I just got a weird question that came to mind. Do you two ever fight? Because you seem like the happiest, you're Canadian, so you're happy all the time. But do you guys ever fight?

You know what, that's really interesting that you say that. It's gonna sound crazy, but actually, no, you both, it's, you know, it's kind of crazy because we initially, when we got together, I think we got together because we're so similar. And through working together, we found that in a lot of ways we're actually polar opposites, which totally balances each other out. So, for example, Jeremy's super detail, and I'm not. So I think that balance has really helped us to see the things that the other person doesn't, believe it or not, that doesn't lead to a fight. I mean, as time goes on, things get hard, right? There's stuff that we gotta deal with. But to be honest, there's nothing like, oh, man, I really wish this guy would, like, get on my side. Like, there's nothing like that.

I got it. So that answers my question, because my business partners that I talk about, Matt Davis and I are really similar, personality wise. But when it comes to the way we get things done, completely polar opposite. And when we fight, it's the most respectful fighting ever. It's like bathed in bromance love for one another. So I think the fact that we are different helps. And Sean, my other partner, he and I never fight because we're personality wise and the way we get things done is completely different. So that's interesting that you say that, but I want to ask you guys a question because your first product was a total major dud. From what I remember, you're like, we're Canadian. Let's sell maple syrup. And you went over to the trees and harvested the maple syrup and tried to sell it on Amazon and it didn't go so well. You're wearing parkas and your igloo.

What happened there? I know you sold some. I don't think you even sell it anymore. It didn't do that well. Tell us about Dud.

Yeah, to be honest, I mean, okay, it's a dud compared to some of the other products we've had and with what we know is possible in a marketplace like Amazon. But to be honest, it's a wild success in its own little world. So we, based on the information that we knew at the time, the research we were doing, we're like, oh, this seems like a great market opportunity. Let's do a product here. Plus, we're Canadian. We get it. We have the best supply in the world. That we can just truck over the border to you guys. So to us, it was a win win. We actually learned a lot about Amazon through marketing that product because there was very little competition.

The competition we were going up against was actually major brands that were either sold by Amazon or had been on the marketplace since 2008. So we kind of had an uphill battle, and we just kind of learned all of our skills through marketing on Amazon, almost essentially through that product. We actually do sell it today still. It runs on basically autopilot in terms of sales volume. We do quite well in the marketplace. Even though it's not a wild best seller, it's not a garcinia, it's not a, you know, crazy product that sells a lot of volume for what it is. It actually turned out okay. So we kind of keep it going on the side. It's a funny thing that whenever we go down to the States, we get made a fun of. We get made fun of for, like, no tomorrow because the two Canadian boys are selling maple syrup. But to be honest, I mean, it was a good learning curve to kind of get us doing exactly what we should be doing, but just on a larger scale with our products now.

So that's interesting, because.

I didn't realize that you guys consider that a success. I guess I had chalked it up as not that great of a product because it's hard to build a brand around maple syrup unless you're just selling gobs and gobs of it. So you didn't build a line of syrups. You went in another direction and built completely other products. But what I hear you say is that still is a source of cash flow for the overall business.

Yes, correct.

So why the change? Because you went in the direction of supplements after having the maple syrup product. Tell us about the pivot to something different.

Well, our vision at the beginning, Ryan, was just overall health and wellness. We were actually considering supplements simultaneously while doing the maple syrup. We were kind of moving those things forward both at the same time. Our vision was to actually do a lot of health food on the side, though, like chia seeds, hemp.

And different things like that. But what we realized quite quickly is the margins on food products are quite difficult to deal with.

We did the maple syrup. It was exciting, but we did then, yes, pivot, and then go all in on the supplement side because the margins just weren't working for us when we were talking with suppliers and looking at different options there.

And remember when you guys joined our mastermind, the back room, you had hit Just that million dollar point. Like you were just, you were like two months into having 80 some thousand dollars a month, but then you hockey sticked like six months later. You doubled and tripled and you really saw a lot of growth there in that next year. What were, what, what gave you that leverage? What was it that moved you from $80,000 a month to $250,000 a month and up? What were the changes that happened there?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think it's a compilation of probably 100 things, but there's probably some major ones that affected it a bit more than the small ones. So one, you know, I think getting the info first from you in the back room, that was pretty key. I've always kind of seen it as what's working now comes up in these backroom meetings with you. And I'm sure there's other guys that have similar stuff out there where that what is working now is shared there first and then it trickles down to webinars, it trickles down to podcasts, and then finally to everybody else. So I feel like we had an edge by kind of quote unquote having the insider on info. Then from there, I mean, I think that we were smart to go after the higher end of the market because we're able to price products more expensively than our so called competitors.

We have unique formulations. We're not doing, for the most part, products that are very similar. I know, Ryan, you sent out an email just the other day talking about that.

God, what else? I mean, the list goes on and on. Do you have anything, Jeremy?

Why are we hockey stick? Obviously being aggressive, just releasing more products as fast as possible, reinvesting all profits back into the company, living on very modest salaries. We still do. We don't draw much from the company. People say, oh, you have a million dollar company. You're living so minimally. Like that's kind of, that's our strategy, like we're going all in on this. And so that's a big factor and obviously getting very clear on our brand and our vision and our why all these things coming together that I think.

Really separated you guys. You did that well from day one. You decided who you were gonna be. And a lot of people just want to sell things online because that's their source of cash. You said, let's decide who we're gonna be, what's the entity that we're building. And I think that's why you're able to charge higher prices than most people. It's why you have customer loyalty. It's why people buy many different of your products. You built a brand rather than strive to sell things. Would you talk a little bit about that branding process? Because I really think from an outside perspective, that's when you really started to solidify and really start to hockey stick up. So what. What did your branding process look like? How did you go from, hey, we're selling a sleep aid and maple syrup and couple other supplements. Who are we going to be? How did you make that transition and make those decisions?

Yeah, so we. I mean, we're kind of lucky that we actually started with a pretty decent story. I mean, I think, to be honest, almost anybody can create and craft a great story about their brand and use the story of origin as a branding piece. But we were lucky that the way we came together, which, to sum it up, was basically, we're dissatisfied with what's in the market. We don't like the way other companies are essentially lying to their customers, creating false marketing, and also confusing people. I mean, it's tough out there. It's hard to know what's working, what's good for you. So we actually came together, which is a totally true story with, okay, let's do something about it. Let's create a company to change this. So we have used that story as a base that that's what we're here for. That is our why. Because we're just like you, and we decided to do something about it after going through the same pains and the same frustrations that you, the consumer, have. So we've used that story. And then, to be honest, what's given us a branding edge is obviously having great feedback from designers and strategists and a lot of smart people that we've been able to have on our team. But to actually look at tech companies, tech companies are really good at culture, they're really good at branding. They're really good at creating stories. One of my favorite companies is Airbnb. You think that Airbnb is just selling apartments or not, is renting out people's apartments. Airbnb is actually selling home anywhere. That's what Airbnb has come up with. Know when this was, but essentially their why and their vision and what they're actually doing, selling the feeling of home anywhere where you can live in an apartment in any city in the world and feel like you actually live there. So that's a great source of inspiration for us. I mean, looking at, you know, bigger companies like Facebook and Google, they're a little bit out of reach. But I feel like companies like Airbnb, some of the other startups out there still in the tech world, you know, not in our industry, but they're just so good at crafting that vision and the why. And just we, we took a lot of inspiration from them to really get that dialed in, especially with our culture as well. You know, building the team here in an office downtown Vancouver, that was something that was very important to us as well.

How do you communicate that to your customers? What you just said is beautiful in terms of looking at tech companies and modeling what they stand for, but how do you communicate that in a way to where it attracts the type of people who would resonate with that?

I get it.

In theory, it's hard to do in a setting like selling physical products on the Internet, especially when they're just browsing for whatever keywords you rank for. So how are you communicating that to a way that builds customer loyalty?

So I feel like we've done a pretty good job at this so far. However, I'm always. I'm really pushing, especially as of late, to really get this dialed in, because I think that once we get this locked in, we're gonna be good. So so far, we've been really good about our what and our who. So when we're talking about our products, when we're, you know, when you pick up one of our products and you see it and you feel it, you get a pretty good idea of who we are and kind of how the product benefits you. What I'm really interested in now, which I've learned a lot over the last few months, about which we're just starting to really get dialed in. The why. So there's a great talk and book by Simon Sinek called Start with why. I know you like that one, Ryan.

Must read.

It's.

Yes, I think it's a must read. And. Or if you don't have the time, do the TED talk. Because it's essentially the same thing. But he essentially says, start with why. Because the why is the most important. So people don't care what you do, they care why you do it. So exactly what I just said a few minutes ago with our story, why we got started. People don't really care that product X is better in this little way than product Y. They care that we started the company because we were out of frustration. We wanted to make a difference. It's a bit of an underdog story going up against the big brands. That's what really resonates with people. So I Feel like we have some of that now. We're really gonna dial it in over the next, you know, over this summer. And I feel like that once you have a belief that people can't compete with you on, I think you're good. So that's essentially my goal, is to kind of be almost a little bit of a unicorn, where nobody can really truly compete because we've got such a strong belief.

I a hundred percent agree. There is a reason why I acquired capitalism.com and that is because I believe individuals are a better source of solutions than government, is that we need more entrepreneurs and we need more capitalists, and that as a result of doing so, everyone is better off. Not everybody agrees with that, but those who do agree with that will never, ever leave, and they will defend.

To death, if you will. In the same way, when you identify that why piece, you have your what and your how, and you communicate that through your branding and through your email messages. When you have that why that really connects with your customers, they'll never leave. And I know you haven't quite cracked this 100%, but you've done it a little bit. How important or how much of an impact has your customer loyalty or your returning customers or the people who really back you and believe in you?

How much of a contributing factor has that been to your overall growth?

Massively. I mean, it's hard to really quantify, but we know it's had a huge factor because of the emails and the responses we get from our customers. And as Kevin just said.

We still feel like we can improve it. We always knew our why. We were always communicating it to a certain degree, but we really wanted to solidify that, and we're putting a great effort into doing that as far as what our message is and how we're communicating it to the public.

In a way that deeply resonates with our beliefs and what we're doing, and that will transmit to the customer and in turn resonate with them. I mean, it's going to have a positive effect because we've seen how. I don't want to say it hasn't been communicated well so far, but we know we can do it a lot better. And that's just going to improve things without a question.

I know recently the two of you started building a team. You got an office, you decided to really go all in on this and not just be a virtual company. Tell me about that transition, because that's not an easy one to make.

Yes, I'll kind of take my point of it. I Was hoping you'd ask about this. It was a new thing for Kevin and I. We were e commerce remote working entrepreneurs for a decade. You know, working from home or wherever we want from a laptop. That's how we started this company. But we got to a certain point where things were growing so fast and going so well. We just, we wanted to really create that culture and create that core team in person. We just felt deep down that was the right move to make. We're three months into our office now here in Vancouver. Absolutely zero regrets. It has been an absolute thrill ride getting this started and bringing these people together. We're doing amazing things here in the office building and preparing for the future. We haven't had an ROI quite yet, but everything is built and everything is being prepared for a massive like summer, fall and end to 2016.

I want to say to people out there listening to this, when hiring people, the absolute number one thing above all else is that the person aligns with your values as a company and shares your beliefs. There's lots of talented there, there's lots of talented people out there but you have to have a very high standard to whether they align with your company. A billionaire here in Vancouver, Jim Patterson has an excellent quote. Building a company on high turnover is like building a company on quicksand and you are not going to get loyalty unless those people align with your beliefs and your values. It is absolutely paramount.

Yeah.

And I've experienced when somebody really rallies behind it, they can. A normal C player can be an A player and if somebody just doesn't believe in what you're doing, they could be executing but not be an A player. It's again that start with why? Philosophy of if they buy into your beliefs, you can turn a non performer into an A player because they believe in what you're doing so passionately.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

You mentioned that it doesn't have an ROI yet that the team is not quite creating profits for themselves yet. What is your plan to grow so much that you're having an exceptional ROI from these people that you hired? Because you went all in. You hired like three full time. You went from like the two of you in an outsourcer to three full time people and an office really quickly. So what's your plan to make that work?

Yeah, and actually we'll be at I think six or seven just a couple of weeks from now.

Wow.

We're in a temp space right now because we're getting a reno done but we are going to be pretty full here in Just a few weeks. But yeah, I mean, to be honest, Ryan, we are doing this for.

Future, a future play. It's a future roi. You know, I kind of feel like if we just wanted to do one channel, just wanted to be good at one thing, I don't really know if we need to be here. I think that Jeremy and I could have, you know, done the remote working thing. We could have had our virtual team still. You know, we could have been doing exactly what we were doing before. But we realized with what we're trying to accomplish with the company and for many other reasons, experience.

Bit of diversification, also just taking risks and just being entrepreneurs.

We felt it was necessary for an office. And to be honest, we had a few bad experiences with actual, like agencies and just outsourced workers that we decided that we could do a better job and even for cheaper of bringing people in house. So when you look at roi, I mean, we've only been in here for not even 90 days. 90 days online feels like an eternity. 90 days with people in an office is like you're just getting started. So I think just the nature of things, it takes a bit longer. But also with the work that we're doing here is truly for a future play. So we're kind of setting the groundwork and the framework to actually do something a lot bigger. And that just naturally won't pay off within 90 days.

I 100% agree. But let me ask you the question directly again. What's your plan? What are you having these people do that you expect to pay off in the future?

So there's probably a million things, but the big ones are diversification of channels. So we are going actually stronger than ever.

On Amazon. We're really putting a big focus into that because that's one of the main drivers of anybody's business who's experienced success on Amazon. What we're trying to do is reach our customers also in different ways. So putting a big focus on E Comm. We've got some other channels in the works as well. So we've got quite a bit of a marketing focus. But then on the opposite end, we're also working on the supply chain. So really optimizing that. We're getting processes down in the office so when we bring on new people, they're able to do better, work faster for us. So really the purpose of us being here is to really see that growth away from Amazon, not in replacement of Amazon, but to really be strong in just more than one thing.

And I just want to add, Ryan Because I know what you're getting at. I just want to be clear. Our plan is not we don't have an exit strategy in 18 months or 24 months. We're in this for the long haul. We want to create a legacy with our company. We think it's a great marriage of many things right now with health consciousness in the world, people looking for transparency in the products they're buying and the companies they're buying from, and also e commerce all coming into one. It's all converging into one. I think this is a very big time in history and as far as spreading the consciousness of health and wellness through products and through other materials throughout the world. So I know you're kind of getting at end game play. There's no exit strategy at the moment. It's just all in massive company, huge impact, leaving a legacy.

What I more mean is what is the plan to have that massive company? And you mentioned that Amazon independence is really important to you. How are you navigating that and building up the exposure that you need to be bigger than one channel? And what specifically are the roles that these six or seven people that you've hired are playing in order to fit into that vision?

Yeah, so I mean two things come to mind. One is building an audience. So you said, I know you've said this before, whether it's on the podcast or in emails, that if you have an audience that you can bring with you, you can kind of take them almost anywhere no matter what channel you're selling on. Now that's not true with everyone. But if you have a core group of people, I mean it's the same with customers. Believing in your why is the same as your team. So if you have customers that really, that resonates with, they'll follow you around to where you are going. So we're putting a focus on that, that kind of quote unquote future proofs us in some way. The other thing I would say is we were lucky enough to get some really good info and just kind of do a deep dive into hiring before we actually did it. And we made a few key hires with really smart people from companies that are bigger than we are who can bring experience that we haven't had yet. And they're bringing an element and getting us to think about things to really prepare us for the future. So if we want to be, you know, a $50 million company, we better start hiring people from 50 plus million dollar companies and gathering their strengths and their experiences so that we can, you know, Grow up to that level. So, you know, talent acquisition, that's a big thing for us right now. Like I said, we've got another handful of people coming into the office. And really we're just trying to get those smart people so that if we don't have direct experience with something that we're trying to do, we can get the expert on it.

So I want to, if I can be so bold.

I know from our talks that you guys, you're at the multimillion dollar point, but you live frugally, you're not taking a big salary, you're reinvesting mostly into the company, and you're not at that point yet where they're just printing money left, left and right hand over fist. You know, it's still a scaling up process. It's a bold move what you guys are doing to be hiring as aggressively as you are. I know people who are bigger than your company is in terms of revenue, who are not willing to make this jump, that aren't really all in like you are. Did you feel fear making this jump? Because you talk about it like it's just the way that it needs to be. Where I know people who have sleepless nights hiring one or two people because of the increased overhead. How are you navigating this emotionally?

Great question. I think even with the hiring Ryan, we've always kept it within our means. We've never felt like it's been a huge stretch to bring on these people because we're very liquid, we have a lot of cash flow, a lot of money coming into the company with revenue and everything, we're reinvesting. But yes, there was a bit of trepidation there. It was a new experience for us doing this whole office thing. I just think that's part of being an entrepreneur and just that excitement of taking things to the next stage. And I mean, you asked a bold question. I'm gonna make a bold statement for us right now. It's not immediate profits, it's not short term profits that excites us. It's the future and the massive reach we're gonna have with this company that really excites us. So a little bit of extra hits on our expenses doesn't really leave me up sleeping sleepless nights or anything like that.

And it's a learning experience. Kevin and I have been devouring lots of material on obviously building culture, leadership that Kevin and I had leadership experience prior. But this is a new stage for us personally in our lives. So it's just an exciting experience right now. And if there is a bit of fear there, that's just part of the excitement of being an entrepreneur.

That is a bold statement. What, if anything, does keep you up at night and are you afraid that it's all going to go away?

So I mean, you know, anybody who sells on Amazon keeps them up at night sometimes of products going down for almost no reason. You know, fighting a beast that's just going to, you know, be really uncooperative at times. It's the nature of the game. I mean, we know that we can only do so much. We know that we're kind of in any seller's position. You're a small fish compared to the large giant that is Amazon. You have to work with, have. So you know that that is frustrating, right? To be. Are we worried if it's all going to go away? To be honest, I mean, maybe not so much as other people are. I think that a lot of different sellers, whether you've had success or not, are seeing it in many different ways. I'm sure there's a lot of people that think it's going to go away tomorrow. Their best selling products are all going to get taken down, they'll never be allowed to sell again. And then there's others that think that the gravy train is going to keep going forever. So I would say we're somewhere in the middle. I mean, we love and appreciate Amazon for allowing us to tack on to their growth. I mean, since we started selling with them, they have grown immensely and we've been able to take advantage of that with all their new customers. But with that being said, I mean, we're not stupid and just thinking that all we can do is only sell on Amazon because it's going to be good forever. Right? So that's why, you know, we're looking at being smart in other areas to continue to acquire and get recurring customers in other channels away from Amazon.

What does your plan look like to do that? How are you? That's a big elephant to eat. So what steps are you taking to be able to lay the foundation for that?

So I think the biggest one, I mean, keep in mind we've only really started to lay the foundation and the groundwork in about the last three to four months. I mean really when we got into the office was when this started. But we're putting a big focus on E Comm. So I mean E Comm as in our own website, by product from website, get it shipped out away from Amazon. So there's a few great things that you can do when it's your own site, obviously you get all the data. So you know Amazon's not hiding your buyers email addresses. But if you, if anybody who has an Amazon store and also as an E Comm store, if you look at probably 95% of the time, your average cart size on Amazon is going to be like small. It's going to be 1, 1.1 units, relatively small. On your own e commerce site it's 2, 3, 4 units. I mean I think our average is like 2 and a half. So when you look at your price points, when you look at your margins and you say, okay, I have to go out and I have to acquire a customer, I can't leverage Amazon's marketing to have them help me acquire the customer. I have to do it myself. However, what happens when my cart size is 2, 3, 4 times bigger? So it's things like that where we can also optimize for the conversion rate. We can do retargeting. We can follow up in both email and any other form of marketing. That's what's really getting us excited. So we're putting I would say the largest focus into E Comm because I feel like we're in the most control there. And I think that we can do what we want to do as long as we can be smart with the testing and our targeting and really getting the people that we want to get.

And what does your strategy look like for building up the E. Com platform? Are you advertising to cold traffic? Are you doing content? Are you running social media? What's the overall strategy?

Yeah, so I mean we're doing a lot of things at once. They're all pretty much building up at the same time. So we're doing a few big campaigns and we've tested out in the past podcasts, actual, you know, buying up ad space on podcasts. That has worked. Okay. I think there's potential there. So I want to keep trying that. We've had success with buying, believe it or not, with buying ad space on newsletters. So this is like, I feel like 1999 when I say this, but literally buying banner ads and newsletters. So the newsletter has to be targeted, has to be exactly who you're going after for a target audience. But I think if you can make that line up with a great ad and a great offer, it's driving sales.

It's great that it converts really easily. The problem is that it's not very scalable because I mean, unless you know of any, please let me know. But there's really no place where you can scale those types of ads. You kind of have to go out on your own, find them, do the negotiation. There's no real marketplace anymore because it's not 2003 of, you know, buying banner ads and emails, especially in a non marketing atmosphere. So out of the digital marketing kind of industry.

So, you know, there's little things like that, but then the bigger play that we're actually building right now is a big audience play. So we're working with some pretty incredible influencers that together have an audience of several million people all added up. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to leverage their trust with their audience and we're trying to get these influencers sold on our vision and our why and getting them partners and on board and then having them relay that along with the products to their audiences. So we're doing that both on a short term campaign scope and we're also doing it on a long term brand ambassador scope, which is obviously a much longer play. But there's a lot of potential for scale there because you can have the big ones as well as small ones that come in where every sale adds up there. So we're doing a big audience play. We're also doing, you know, buying up some paid media and just testing that out. We're looking for something that we can scale and there's always a little hook that is stopping us from doing that. But to be honest, we're only a few months in, so it's tough to find that one thing right away that's gonna instantly scale up. So I mean that, that's kind of the overall scope of how we're gonna do it. We're really testing on what is gonna work A and then B, what can we scale?

And when you're advertising either on a podcast or in these newsletters or with an influencer, where are you sending them? Are you sending them to a squeeze page sales page? What are you doing from a strategy perspective at that point?

Yeah, so we are. So our first thing was just testing straight up coupon codes to the product page and I mean product pages in like a traditional E commerce, you know.

Product page on your website, not on Amazon.

So that was the first offer. And then it's going to evolve into actual targeted landing pages that may have an opt in before you may need to put in the coupon code there. From that point, the most obvious next thing to do is to test out bundles and recurring. So actually doing more of a funnel situation where we're quite at that level yet, but I think there's a lot of potential there.

And then really playing around with the offer. Like right now we're going to start playing with. Does a 10% off work as well as the 30% off? I mean, my immediate thinking was 25, 30% off your first order, that's a strong offer. You know, a lot of people would take advantage of that if they were the right person. However, we're going to test, does 10% do the same thing? Is 10% enough? So that obviously helps with our costs. You know, we're keeping more of the sales so we can pay a bit more to acquire a person. And just kind of testing. I mean, there's no. We think we know and then we test it and then we test something else crazy and then that works better. So that's kind of what we're focused on right now.

This is such exciting stuff. I'm just so stoked for both of your growth. Let me ask, in terms of the company branding, it sounds like a lot of your focus is on where can we diversify sales, how can we create a bigger why? What are you doing, if anything, to try and establish yourselves as a player in the space, meaning a respected brand, or is the focus right now mostly on increasing sales and deepening the customer experience?

I would, I would say from my side, we want equal as much focus on what makes us different, what makes us unique and what makes us worth people's time and pulling out their wallet, basically. Obviously from day one with product development, we've had very high standards. We do not make compromises. We do not just look at strictly cost. We look at getting the best possible ingredients in the products while still keeping them profitable, even though they may not be as profitable as cutting some corners. We believe again, that's a long term play for building up our brand and our trust in people's eyes. This is definitely in the future. We're not currently doing it, but expanding into actual. A different research capacity where we actually have some product innovation. That is something that really excites me.

And beyond that really just.

Yeah, those are the things off the top of my head.

Well, I think having the big why also plays a factor into being respected in kind of the marketplace too. It kind of impacts everything.

Yeah. And it's always been there. We're just solidifying that. Just kind of tweaking. Not tweaking, but making it more clear. That's a process we're involved with now and obviously putting out good information as well. We want to start putting out good, authoritative content in the health space, health and wellness space. That will help definitely solidify us as a big brand and respected company, for sure.

Selfishly, I want to ask you this question. How has your experience inside of the back room and being a part of a group of people who are really advanced and moving in a big direction influenced your success?

It's been pivotal, Ryan. Absolutely pivotal. As far as the direction it's taken us, the clarity. Every time we go to these backroom meetings, Kevin and I are always overwhelmed with the ideas, and we really have to sift through all the knowledge and value and really choose just a couple things that we can focus on. Now that we have a larger team, it's a little bit easier to maybe tackle more things at once. But every time we go to these meetings, it's a good refresher on what we're doing. Right. So we get the reassurance with that we can get some ideas on maybe some directions we were heading in that others have already walked that path and it wasn't as fruitful as they anticipated.

It's just the collaboration and the group of people in the room.

It's something we look forward to every few months or every quarter that it's happening 100%.

Dude. When we first went to the first meeting at the Four Seasons in Austin, that was the first one we were at. We went back to the hotel room after and we threw our laptops down, looked at each other, and went, oh, my God, I can't believe everything we got. And I mean. I mean, since then, if I were to take all my notes and compile all those Evernotes together, I mean, I could almost write a book. I mean, there's so much stuff that I think even with a big team now, we can't accomplish everything. But even if we only did half of what we actually did, it would have paid for itself, like, easy, no question.

That is beautiful, gentlemen. Well, I can promise you this. We are just getting started together. The two of you are just getting started as a company.

There is much more exciting stuff happening in the back room and inside of your company, and I can't wait to see where you guys are going. It's such a privilege to have you in the back room and to be a part, a small part of the journey that you've done over the last couple years. Thank you for hanging out with us at Freedom Fast Lane and for sharing this experience. This has been really enlightening for people who are at that level where they could Hockey stick up if they just took some lessons that you've learned over the last couple years. So thank you guys so much for hanging out with us.

Thank you so much, Ry. See you in Cleveland, buddy.

Thanks.

One of the smartest things that Kevin said in this interview was when he mentioned looking at what other industries and other companies do for their branding, for the marketing, when he mentioned looking at tech companies. You know, there is something, there's something to be said about going to big companies in other industries and looking at how they do things and taking some of their best ideas and bringing them into yours. When you're thinking like that, you're thinking more about just a cash flow business. You're thinking more about just an Amazon business. You're thinking more about a single channel more than just about a single channel business. You're thinking about building a really breakthrough business. That's when you really have staying power. That's when you really have the ability to grow a multi million dollar business that changes your whole family tree. We can teach you how to do this if you head over to freedomfastlane.com million I can show you the formula that Jeremy and Kevin followed, that I followed, that all of our students followed to get to that first million and then we can talk about scaling from there. But in this free training, we'll talk about what it takes to get to that million dollar point, what those steps are, and you'll see that the process is very simple, not necessarily easy, but the formula is very simple. When you get that and you're able to implement that and I'll give you all the tools that you need in order to be able to implement that. You see that building a business that makes a difference, that makes more wealth in the economy, that has the ability to hire people if you want, and that also gives you the income and the lifestyle that you want is closer to your grasp than you might realize. So if you head over to freedomfastlane.com.

I'll show you the formula for what it takes to build a million dollar business. The same formula that Kevin and Jeremy use, that I've used and I'd love to share it with you as well. Thanks so much for listening to Freedom Fast Lane. If you found value in this, please share it with an entrepreneur that would find it beneficial. As always, we appreciate you subscribing over on itunes and following us@freedomfastlane.com I appreciate you and I will see you on the next show.