My Digital Story by Triangle Direct Media

Mark Ferrara, owner of Anthem-Sports.com, comes on the podcast to talk about how he started the company in 2002, when he brought it to ecommerce, the painful migration, his biggest challenges, being tied up in a trademark lawsuit, what he's most proud of, and more!

Today on My Digital Story from www.triangledirectmedia.com, we talk to Ira Woods from www.oneworldmemorials.com on why he started the company, his blog at www.conscious-departures.org, how he built the Shopify site, how he got to the first page of Google for “cremation urns”, getting into wholesale, and his inspiration and motivation. 2:20 Ira’s wife gets sick and he becomes her primary caregiver 3:40 Why did Ira start his blog Conscious-Departures.org? 6:00 “Every day you’re facing a challenge you never expected, and you don’t know what to do” 7:00 Why did Ira start OneWorldMemorials.com? 9:45 “I was fortunate to work 7 days a week because it never felt like work” 10:15 What was the guiding vision for the site? 12:45 When the site launched and the first sale 15:45 When did Ira know that the business would work? 16:30 What was the online marketing and SEO strategy? 21:00 What boosts conversion rate by 600%? 21:45 What’s Ira’s biggest challenge? 24:00 What advice would Ira give to someone starting up an ecommerce store? 26:00 How did Ira come up with the name OneWorld Memorials? 27:15 What’s next for OneWorldMemorials.com?

Chris Pratt from CandyWarehouse.com joins the My Digital Story Podcast (www.triangledirectmedia.com) to discuss how he started the online business in 1998, the hustle to get the business off the ground, the mistakes he made while trying to compete with companies who had VC backing, how he’s grown the business, big events he’s worked (like the Oscars), and how he plans to turn the online store into a traditional retail store that’s anything but traditional. (3:40) Chris starts his career in Electrical Engineering making electric cars in the early 1990’s (6:15) Starting an online business with no inventory, no digital camera, no experience (8:15) Mars and Hershey were asleep, and Chris took advantage (9:15) Learning about shipping when the product can melt (12:00) When Chris decided to quit his job and do CandyWarehouse.com full time (13:15) VC funding backs eCandy.com with $20M, Chris gets nervous and takes on partners (17:00) Chris buys back the business and comes up with creative ways to market the business (21:30) How CandyWarehouse.com utilizes Amazon (24:30) What are the best forms of marketing for the business? (27:30) Big life changing events using candy buffets (28:30) Harry Potter, Jimmy Kimmel, Katy Perry, Madonna… (31:15) Opening up the warehouse to the public and making it a traditional retail store (36:30) Advice to anyone who wants to start an online business

Simon G Jewelry is on the My Digital Story podcast from www.triangledirectmedia.com. Zaven Ghanimian is the CEO of Simon G (www.simongjewelry.com), and he talks about how his dad started the company from nothing, why he initially had no interest in taking over for Simon, what it’s like to take over, and what legacy means. (3:30) From humble beginnings…Simon escapes from Lebanon to come to the United States with $200 in his pocket (6:30) How did the name become Simon G? (7:30) How did Simon initially get business? (9:30) Initially Zaven had no interest in working for his dad, so how did Zaven become a part of Simon G? (15:30) What did Zaven learn from his travels to Israel and India? (18:00) What are some of the major marketing challenges that Zaven faces? (20:30) Celebrity influencers and micro-influencers (22:30) What happened when Zaven took over as CEO? (27:15) What’s next for Simon G? (31:30) Why did Zaven start www.zeghani.com?

Today on My Digital Story from www.TriangleDirectMedia.com, we’re with the founders of MuscleClubApparel.com, Nicola and Jeff Smith. MCA has been around since 2010, and they sell shirts, shorts, towels and other apparel for your workouts. Their market is fitness fanatics who live in the gym, the crossfitters who get their workouts in after work, the moms who work out whenever they get the chance…really anyone who wants high quality workout clothing. Their designs are both hilarious and motivational. They’ve grown rapidly over the years, and right now they have over 350,000 facebook fans plus 36,000 on instagram, so they have the brand recognition they need to compete in a tough space. But their story starts with a heart-wrenching and emotional story about their son plus their love for each other and their family. (2:06) How Nicola and Jeff met, and their careers before MCA (6:00) What was the inspiration for MCA? (7:56) “He was selling them out of his gym bag.” (12:15) Building the first website and getting the first orders online. (14:00) How did a bikini model help the business? (16:20) What’s up with the Spokesmodel contest? (21:10) How do Jeff and Nicola come up with all the amazing designs? (26:15) What else is MCA doing for online and offline marketing? (31:30) How does MCA stay ahead of the competition? (35:06) How did Jeff decide to come on board with MCA full-time? (42:10) Jeff and Nicola’s contribution to Muscular Dystrophy research, and how you can donate to CureCMD.org

Today on My Digital Story from www.triangledirectmedia.com, we have Frank Jones from Freedom Electric Marine, maker of the Twin Troller boat. In 2007, Frank developed a boat that you can take in as little as 6 inches of water, where you can accelerate and steer with your feet so that you can keep your hands free for fishing. The idea was genius, but the timing wasn’t. With the recession of 2008, Frank had to work hard just to stay afloat. Here’s Frank’s story on how he marketed Freedom Electric, challenges he has faced, the market share he has today, and what his plans are for the future. (2:43) “The best rod-in-hand fishing boat” (5:46) How Frank came up with the concept for the Twin Troller (6:48) Making the leap to entrepreneurship (12:00) ”When you have your new business launch in the worst economic downturn of your lifetime, there are some dark days” (14:22) How did Freedom Electric get its early sales? (16:47) What form of online marketing transformed the business? (21:00) What other types of online marketing are working? (23:40) New Financing options could be a game changer (26:30) Rebuilding the shopping cart to WooCommerce (27:44) What challenges keep Frank up at night? (29:40) How much of the market does Freedom Electric have now? What about in 10 years? Will there be other products besides the Twin Troller? (35:00) What advice would you give to someone starting a business?

Today on My Digital Story by www.triangledirectmedia.com, we’re with Ryan Cunningham from PremierTableLinens.com. Since 2008, Premier has provided customers online and in the Miami area a way to rent and buy linens. But as we’ll see, it’s much more than that. On this episode, we talk to Ryan about marketing the site, optimizing for mobile, keeping their core customers happy, any mistakes they’ve made along the way, and then we get into what’s coming next in search, and advice that Ryan would have for anyone who wants to start up an ecommerce site today. (2:30) Ryan joins PremierTableLinens.com officially in 2012, but the relationship started long before that (4:45) “Premier Table Linens has become…omni-directional…” (7:30) “There was definitely a disruption…” (9:45) How does Premier keep up with what’s trendy in linens? (13:20) Has Premier grown as millennials have grown and become more influential? (15:15) Big corporate clients (16:43) How does Ryan spend his day-to-day? (18:32) What works in marketing and what doesn’t? (25:05) Mobilegeddon hits, was Premier ready? (27:08) Next big thing in search? (28:15) Advice for someone starting an ecommerce business. (30:40) What’s next for Premier?

Here's Todd Holder, owner of JustMensRings.com. Todd’s career was not in jewelry or fashion, not ecommerce or marketing or sales at all. Todd has been in finance for over 20 years, but in 2014, Todd was laid off from his job, and all of a sudden he had to figure out what he wanted to do with his next step. So why did he decide to get into ecommerce? (4:15) Todd gets blindsided and laid off, so what now? (8:50) Being penalized by google and getting out of it. (12:45) Why buy a penalized site? (15:00) How did JMR market the site with no rankings? (18:19) How does JMR compete with big box brands? (22:35) Platform changes from 3dcart to volusion and back to 3dcart. (24:10) Importance of Q4 to the business. (27:22) Advertising mistakes. (30:48) How important are reviews? (32:45) "Hey I need this ring, we're getting married this Saturday!" (34:05) What are the goals for the future? (36:50) What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into ecommerce?

Today on My Digital Story from www.TriangleDirectMedia.com, Mike and Sheree Roozen from RubberStampChamp.com come on to discuss building the business from a local mom-and-pop shop to a thriving online business, with over 2 million stamps sold to over 850,000 unique customers. (2:32) Buying the business in 1999 wasn't exactly what they thought it would be. (4:35) Typical month was $7,000, "and now we do $7,000 before noon." (5:05) "You don't have to show your ad to anybody unless they tell you they're looking for what you have!" (8:35) "That's what started making us rich..." (10:17) How Mike and Sheree met and started the business. (14:02) When was the first onlne order? (18:18) Who were the early competitors? (22:30) How does RubberStampChamp compete with big box brands? (25:51) What product launch surprised them? (27:49) The challenge of running a custom platform website, with hundreds of thousands of customers' previous order data (32:09) What advice would Mike and Sheree give to couples running a business together? (34:37) "Unlimited growth opportunity". What are the goals moving forward, and how do they get there?

Today on My Digital Story by www.triangledirectmedia.com, we interview Todd Askins from TacticalDistributors.com. Todd came on board with TD in 2010 as partner and ecommerce director, taking a wholesale only business to retail, and new heights. How did Todd and the rest of the team do it? What platform is TD on? What marketing techniques are best? How do they use or compete with Amazon? Is there more room for growth?

Welcome to My Digital Story by Triangle Direct Media, a podcast about online businesses, how they've grown from a simple concept and a domain name to a thriving online business. With this podcast, we'll interview the everyday entrepreneur who has built a website and business from the ground up.