The Shift: Selling Products vs. Creating Fans Who Buy #FreedomFastLane

You're confident that with some product launches and with the Q4 ramp up that you're going to cross that million dollar mark. So that's great. How can I help? You either get there faster or grow from there. How would you like some help?

So one thing that I think we could do much better, and I'd love your opinion on, is a cohesive marketing strategy.

Build a business, invest the profits. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran and this is Freedom Fastlane.

Hello, ladies and germs. Hey, did you ever watch Homestar Runner? When I was in high school and college, there was this really popular cartoon series called Homestar Runner and it had this character on it named Hamsar. And he would go, I'm Hamsar, the.

Captain of the gravy train.

Anyway, it's worth a Google. Anyway, hey, welcome to the show. It's Freedom Fast Lane and my name is Ryan. And sometimes I start off the show with crazy rants about cartoons that I watched in college. And today we're going to be hanging out with Jason Franciosa. He is a longtime member of the capitalism.com community. He's come to our events, he's bought some of our courses, he's built some businesses. But he started out just like a lot of people, just listen to the show while wondering, am I capable of starting a business? He's gone through some entrepreneurial trainings, but it wasn't until he discovered that he could really do this stuff and follow the plan that we talk about here on the show that he's like, I think this is possible for me. So Jason started launching products. He got to about $50,000 a month, and then he got stuck. And then it went back to discovering who the customer was and doing that work. And he started to break out. And I noticed that he was breaking out six months ago because he seemed to be operating his business with a lot more ease. So we started talking about that in today's episode. And as we were working through his business, what we were crafting together was how he could grow to that million dollar mark, which is that $83,000 a month mark, and pass 100k and beyond. And we had a really cool moment where I shared with him how he might communicate with his audience in a way that developed raving fans and built a big following. So if you audience, if you build that reading fan base, it makes it much easier to release additional products and more products and more messages. And that is really where you can scale beyond the first million. And also if you do that work first it makes getting to the million or even, you know, your first hundred thousand much faster and easier, too. We also talk about finding that key person, that key member of your team that allows you to be able to build the vision and the direction of the company. When you find that person, magic happens. So we talk about how Jason got to the 50k a month, how he broke from 50 and is now growing to 100. And we look at some things of how we can do that faster and easier, and then we talk about growing beyond them. And I think you'll really enjoy this discussion. Hey, if you want results like this, or you want to start crafting out your plan for building your first physical products brand, head over to capitalism.com brands. You can go through our challenge. You put down a deposit, you do the work, you get the deposit back at the end, and you have a predictable plan for building out your first successful business. Until then, enjoy this case study in this chat with Jason Franciosa.

Jason Franciosa, the kindest guy in our tribe. How's it going, dude?

Doing well. How about yourself, Ryan?

I'm doing well, man. I've been looking forward to chatting with you. Tell me a little bit about your business and what you're trying to accomplish and tell me how I can help.

Absolutely. Well, before we start, I just want to say a genuine thank you to you.

I had started in entrepreneurship kind of accidentally. I never actually intended to do it, but I had quite a few failures. And that was after going through some pretty intensive entrepreneurship programs at Stanford and up mit. And none of that was actually successful until I found your brain builder boot camp and started listening to your podcast and started understanding that business is about the people, the people you serve and the people in your organization. And once I made that shift, I started seeing success much faster and.

The potential and the amount of fun that I have in doing what I do has quadrupled from before. So thank you very much, Ryan, for everything you do.

You bet. And that's such an important shift, so I'm glad you got that. And that is usually when you can get the million. Thank you for the kind words, Jason, but you did all the hard work. I did not know that you did formal entrepreneurship training. I can now say I have been referenced as more helpful than Stanford and mit. I think I can say that now that you've said it, so thank you.

It was a sub program within there. I didn't go through the whole course, but it was the Fuse program and their ignite program at a stamp.

Yeah, got It Cool. Well, Jason, tell us about your business and where you're trying to go, and I'll see if I can help from here.

Sure. So my company is called element 26. We believe physical training is the gateway to a healthier and happier life. Our mission is to end training setbacks due to injuries and limitations of the human body. To do this, we provide functional gear to functional athletes so they can destroy their PRs and not their body. Basically, what that means is we provide athletic gear to functional fitness athletes.

Nice.

Our product line consists of everything from weightlifting belts to hand grips to knee sleeves, straps. Pretty much a bunch more products coming out soon. We started the business about two years ago, and I went through your Brambler bootcamp. So we are one of your entrepreneurial children, I guess you could say.

Great. Great. So.

I know that you were doing okay there for a while, while you were kind of traveling the world and all this. And it seems like you had a kind of a hockey stick or like a point where you broke through a bit, maybe six, eight months ago, and maybe it just looked like that from the outside. But is that a correct assumption?

Yeah, I guess you could say that. I don't know if it would call it a hockey stick growth, but what.

Really broke through in some way.

Absolutely. So I think the big shift was more mental and understanding that my job as the owner is how can I most efficiently allocate the resources that I have towards growth.

So once I understood that, that's really all that I do as the owner. And of course, some of that allocation is my own time and work putting into the business, I was able to think, okay, well, these are the tasks that are most important to get done in order to grow our revenue, in order to grow our audience, in order to grow our outreach. Who do I need to do them or what do I need to do to get them done as effectively and inexpensively as possible?

That was a big mindset shift for me. Once that happened, everything started growing into place, getting into place. I started finding better people. We found a new sourcing agent where we're sourcing our products, who's been former U.S. army Ranger, you know, similar mindset. You know, we're both veterans, you know, able to get things done much more effectively. And the quality and cost was. It was much better as well.

Got it.

With my business partners, I was able to much better articulate the tasks that needed to get done and allocate their time more effectively.

And then also focusing much more on the audience, connecting with the audience. So spending A lot more time with customer service, spending a lot more time responding back to them and even initiating conversations with them about upcoming products.

Got it. Cool, dude. Well, tell me about what you're trying to accomplish next.

I mean, our goal right now is to break the $100,000 a month mark just to meet that makeshift goal, or that arbitrary goal I should call it. There's really no reason to set that as a goal, but it's what we've done. It looks like we're on track to do that. So our next step is how do we really scale this going from hitting that million dollar a year mark run rate.

To where we can get to 5 million 10 million or bigger and really get our name out there to become almost a household brand within our functional fitness space.

Yeah. So I mean, I can totally help you with that. There's an in between here that I'd like to address because you said I want to get to 100k a month, which makes me believe you're not there yet, but you know you're going to get there. And then you skipped to how do I scale this to a $5 million thing? So it's often a dangerous precedent to set about thinking about scaling to 5 million before you've hit the million. And sometimes that thinking can slow you down because you start prioritizing things out of order. So tell me a little bit about where you are now and what you're focusing on in order to get to that hundred K and then I can either help you make that easier or I can say, okay, he's got it under control, we can talk about next steps.

Absolutely. So right now we're at about the $60,000 a month mark this Q4 doing nothing additional. We should be able to break the 83,000 magic number for the million dollar a year business. With that said, we are still. One of the mistakes we made in our first and probably the first half of the second year of business was trying to focus on too many things. So we've taken all of our efforts and stopped doing a bunch of stuff. We're now focusing specifically on our Amazon sales and our Instagram following and building our email list. That's essentially the three outlets that we're focusing all of our efforts on. And it's also produced the most results because.

In terms of the type of company that we have, Instagram seems to be the most visually stimulating and also interactive with our audience. Email by far is still converting the best along with manychat. Those are kind of hand in hand. I Look at those as kind of the same thing.

And then Amazon for that sales channel because there's so much free traffic that I don't have to pay for. So it'd be silly for me and to try and compete against Amazon essentially and not just take advantage of the huge opportunity that we have here in 2019.

Got it. So you have a couple different traffic sources and you've got your conversion platform, which is email, and then you have the sales channel, which is Amazon, of course. And so that's all working right now. What is preventing you from hitting the 100k right now?

So we were a little late to the game launching new products, so we're just getting those new products up and going. With that said, if we had a bigger email list than we do, we have some around 10,000 people right now. If that was 100,000 people, it would probably be a lot faster.

But we're working on that as well.

So one fine point that I just want to hit. I think it is a mistake to to treat manychat and email as the same mechanism. I'm of the opinion that ManyChat is a traffic source, not a conversion source. Email is a conversion source. People tend not to buy via ManyChat, but they do take actions that generate traffic via ManyChat. So just something to consider. I know just because I know you a little bit that you're pretty good at manychat. And in my circles people would say you're damn good at manychat. So because that's a skill set of yours, the approach that I have recommended is using if you're good at ManyChat, going from ManyChat to email and then email to sale. And that has an increased conversion rate than trying to skip email and going straight from manychat to whatever your sales channel is. Just curious if you've had any experience playing with that order of operations.

Absolutely. So one thing with ManyChat, because it is a Facebook controlled channel, I always do my best to also capture that person's email. So I think the main reason I said that I see them one and the same is I own that person's email and their manychat. I see, because I can see Facebook taking it away and I'm seeing that already where they're making it much more difficult to actually utilize ManyChat for business. They restricted some of the broadcasting and stuff like that.

Agreed. Yeah. And I would. I always encourage people to treat the mess. The messaging can be similar, but the actions are different between manychat and email. Like it's cool to send somebody to a video on Facebook, but the sales really happen in email anyway. So you're saying you're confident that with some product launches and with the Q4 ramp up that you're going to cross that million dollar mark. So that's great. How can I help you either get there faster or grow from there. How would you like some help?

So one thing that I think we could do much better and I'd love your opinion on, is a cohesive marketing strategy right now. We understand our audience and we understand the stuff that we put out, but we don't have a cohesive strategy planned out for the next 3, 6, 12 months. I think having that put into place could definitely help with our 12 month vision. So how did you do that and how do you essentially make a 12 month marketing plan that is effective with your audience?

What would a completed marketing plan look like to you?

So maybe even down to like a weekly basis to where you understand the content that you're going to put out for that, the products you're trying to push, the promotions you're going to do and then.

I guess based on the different goals that you have. So whether it's a sales goal or an audience growth goal or different strategies, I guess I'm not sure.

How are you building your audience right now?

So we're doing a lot. One thing I found very effective that I love doing is looking for win win situations with other businesses. So we've had a very successful strategy doing giveaways with other complementary businesses. So we sell gear, but a lot of people sell supplements. We're not direct competitors, we have the same audience. So we partner with some of those companies and do giveaways together. Same thing with influencers.

Paid advertising, just direct lead generation through that and of course trying to recapture our customers from Amazon, which is the best customer ever because they've already bought from me.

Yep.

So that's our real three main or four main customer acquisition strategies right now.

Okay, got it. So this is, I'm going to do a little bit of guessing here, but this is my initial take analysis. It sounds to me like you've done a really beautiful job at creating a sales experience of going from a cold audience to a warm follower to sale and that's going to take you to the first million. That's a very coveted position for a lot of businesses because it means that you have enough of a machine where you can plug in three more products and double or triple your business over the next 18 months, which is really great. I mean, that sets you free and is a scalable, sellable business at this point. The thing that I would encourage you to think about in this point is, is to start crafting messaging that only speaks to your customer and edifies your customer. So you're already, you've already got your person dialed in. You already know who that is. You're using some cool strategies to get buyers to notice you. But I don't hear you saying much about crafting a message that speaks and attracts your ideal person in a way that makes them a raving fan, yes, an Amazon buyer, yes, an email subscriber, but not a raving fan. And the pivot point for you right at that million dollar point is going to be identifying what that message is or what the, the way that you serve that person in a way that goes out and gets followers at scale. If you do that, then you very quickly become industry leader because you have a financial engine behind it and that gives you the megaphone to launch further products. Does that make sense so far?

That makes incredible sense. I just, I don't know how to do that. So how, I guess what would the exercise be to figure out how to do that? Because obviously you can't do it for me on, on a podcast. But what if I could?

Jason, let's do it. So, so the exercise is going to be how are you a champion to the athletes that are breaking down their bodies, not breaking their PRs? How are you a champion for that person?

I mean, we're the Yoda in that journey. We're supplying them the equipment that they need in order to not break their bodies down and break the PRs.

That's great. Now there's an in between step and it's communicating to the person that you are not Yoda that they are Luke Skywalker.

So before you can say I'm your Yoda, you have to edify the fact that they are Luke Skywalker. You do that by showing that you understand the journey that they're on. Now there's a lot of different ways that you can crack that nut. You can do that through showing customer stories. You can do that by doing how to content. You can do that with a feel good branding story that is a viral video. You can do that through a dollar shave club humor video. But there is an in between step.

Between them being on their journey and them trusting you on the journey. And it's you stepping into their journey and saying, we know who you are, we understand you and we help people like you along the journey and, and the way that you start to communicate that is by understanding the pain points that that person experiences along that journey and starting to speak to them or edifying the person going through that path. Do you know what I'm saying? So far.

So just to recap, basically using stories to emphasize with the customer. So that's the empathy stories, basically. And then showing them that they are the hero of their own journey and we provide the necessary equipment in order for them to achieve their, their mission.

Yes. So here would be an example. You would start as content producing video or textual stories about your main market is CrossFitters, is that right?

Yes.

Okay. So we're now producing either video or.

Written stories about CrossFitters and why they break PRs. So you have the, like, you have the mom who.

Rarely takes time for herself and was burning herself out. And the reason why she breaks her PRs is because she needs to perform for, she needs to be there for her children. Before she was breaking her body by running it into the ground. Now she's breaking PRs. You support her to make sure her body stays healthy while she's breaking PRs. Then you have the story about the retiree who decided that he wasn't ready to.

Retire from life. He had retired from a career, not from life, but his body was, was not his body had retired. Rather than watching his body break, he decided to break a pr. You are the person who supplies him with gear to make sure that he doesn't break his body, he breaks his PR. There's the 19 year old kid who's picked on and he breaks PRs because he said no more, never again, not me. And so you provide the gear that helps him break PRs, not break his body. So what you're doing is you're edifying the journey that all these customers are on and you're positioning yourself as the supplier, as the Yoda to the Luke Skywalker who is breaking prs. You follow me so far?

That's awesome.

What's incredible about this is as you were telling those stories, I could think of about five to six examples of customers that reached out to me with their own stories. And I'm like, why did I not just share those?

Yes, yes, exactly. I think people, this is why I say content's overrated because people try too hard to teach their following. That's not your job. Unless one of the ways that you serve your person is by teaching them how to stuff. But really, people don't want to learn. They want to be supported on the journey they're already on. And your job in this way is to be the megaphone for people who are on that journey and to supply the gear that helps them do that.

Absolutely. That's awesome. Yeah. We have one guy who was a firefighter who started using our gear and he could start doing his job better. I mean, perfect story.

That is perfect. If you can get him on video or if you can write it up.

That is a piece of content that will get shared by other people and will convert into email, leads and customers again and again, forever and ever. And then you retarget them with the next one. That's how you're going to build an audience and build a real megaphone that allows you to launch whatever the heck you want to launch.

Cool.

What else?

I think I'm just absorbing that for a minute.

That's a big one, dude. You've done this great job of creating a conversion mechanism. If you now front end that with top of funnel audience building, you will put so many people into that conversion mechanism that it will take you. That will take you from one million to two and a half or three. Just that. And then you can just release whatever products you want at that point.

Yeah, absolutely. No, it makes sense. Perfect sense. Then next step is implementing. I mean, everything is great in idea phase, it's execution that matters.

But for you, you already can think of stories of customers that this would be a fit for and it's really just a matter. Like here would be a great way for you to practice this. Just take those write ups, take those videos and put them as organic content on social media. And the ones that start to spread, the ones that are like, oh my goodness, this is me or I love this, and they get more likes than other posts and they get more shares, those are the ones you go, okay, this is a story that's worth refining and possibly running as an ad. And it's simply an awareness ad. And you do that, you start to become the Yoda to people like that.

Absolutely. Very cool. So then I guess the next step, now that we have this part of it figured out, is finding the right people within the organization. I think we're starting to get to that point where I'm starting to look for good people.

So what is your primary tips or strategies in terms of not only finding people that are good at the job, but that are truly passionate about what you're doing and are going to be initiative takers?

Yeah. So.

One thing.

That I would encourage you to do is be a shopper, not a Buyer. There's a lot of people out there and there are talented people out there.

And.

One of my mentors asked me the question, if you could only hire one person for the next five years, who would it be? What would they do? What would they be good at doing? And the reason he asked me that is because I was outlining like three positions I needed to fill and he was getting, he was, he was reminding me that one good person, one good ally, can completely change a company in an organization. And it is better to get that one right than to try and fill a bunch of positions because you can afford them. So I would spend one to three months just getting an understanding and being very clear about who that person is and what their performance metrics are and what they need to be amazing at and what their personality is going to be like. Now if this is just you need some things taken off your plate, then you outsource customer service, you outsource ads, you outsource Amazon management, and then you go hire the internal person. But if it is an internal organization, then you are starting by being very, very deep about who that person is. And then you very slowly.

Look for that person. By slowly, I mean patiently. So I learned by making mistakes. And it means putting it up on this job site, putting it on social media, running ads on LinkedIn and just getting data. But be very, very patient because when that, it's like finding the one when the one shows up, you know it. But until then, it feels like it takes for frickin ever. You're, you're a newlywed. So I think you know what I'm saying.

Yep, absolutely. Honestly, I think we have that person.

Okay, tell me more.

So we have a. He's a minority partner. He has a certain part of equity in our business. But he came to us. He's a former friend of mine from the military, a great leader, a great officer. But he came to us because he loved our products and he loved what we were doing and wanted to contribute more. And he's been a huge asset. So I'm. I guess I'm almost taking it for granted as to how lucky you are to have him now that you say these things, because if I could have one person, it'd probably be him.

So then your job is to become the leader that he needs to become everything that he is capable of being.

Your job. Would it be fair to say that he is your integrator, like he's your number two?

Absolutely.

Then your work is to empower him and become a leader for him so that you can be in the position to lead the overall vision and the direction of the company. That is your next move and that is what your partner needs from you. He needs the visionary to cast where you're going to set the overall direction so that he can integrate that. And if, and then you let him decide what people to bring on while you are casting that vision. If you do that, then you build a real cool company. The temptation is going to be you going in and doing the work that he could handle because you think you have to. But if you treat him like the partner that he is and empower him to become that integrator, then you will be able to lead this business. And then you have something that is scalable to that 5 million dollar level.

Cool.

That makes perfect sense.

Great. Great. How else can I help, Jason?

I think that's quite a bit to digest. How can we help you, Ryan?

Oh, you surprised me, Jason. People don't usually turn it back on me. You know, I'm in this mode right now in my career where I am doing a lot of listening and doing a lot of crafting my content forward to help people like you.

I often think of you as one of my avatars because you listen to the content, you consume some of our courses, you've built a cool company. You've gone full time, now you're on the podcast. So the way you could help me is by sharing the content with more people like you and giving more active feedback around the content and the products that we're doing. And if you like them or if you want to see something different, that's where I need the most help right now.

Cool. Well, I think everyone listening should step up as well and we can all help out and give you the positive feedback you need.

Well, thanks, man. Well, I've been so it's been really rewarding for me to watch your growth and I continue to watch it and I continue to root for you. So please keep me and the rest of the capitalism.com community posted on your growth and your progress.

Will do.

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