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During this episode of the Sam’s On Fire Podcast, host Sam Livingston, business coach and realtor, talks to Hank Avink, the head coach at National Coaching League. Avink shares how he puts high standards in place to govern his business and his relationships. Learn more about how to structure your life and business with standards and principles in this insight-packed discussion.  Episode Highlights: Hank Avink has been a millionaire and he’s experienced bankruptcy. His mindset shifted dramatically when his son experienced open-heart surgery at six days old. Avink has structured his business to a point that he no longer does anything for money.He says being a father is the hardest thing he’s ever done.Avink looked up to his father, who was self-employed.While supporting a wife and three kids, he left his job making over $500k to start his own business with a one-year non-compete.Avink and Livingston discuss the importance of solid communication in marriage.Livingston asks how to avoid Stupid Tax.Avink reads widely and recommends reading to learn quickly from other peoples’ stupid mistakes.Recommending impactful books helps Avink impact others himself.They discuss Avink’s high standards for referrals.Avink outlines some of the expectations he has in business relationships.Avink even turns clients away. This is part of having high standards.You don’t need everyone. You just need your people.Consider how you can establish relationships that run parallel instead of intertwined.It’s not the end of the world if you have a relationship that needs to go in another direction. When you give more than is expected, you surround yourself with givers.Write down where your triggers are to know when you’re setting yourself up for failure.Avink speaks candidly about alcohol. Avink is currently helping people have better relationships.He describes his future plans for continuing to help those who have helped him. If you’re not happy, go fix it. 3 Key Points:Choose patience and consistency over urgency.    As you raise your standards, you will get better results.Build smart relationships that run parallel as opposed to intertwined.Resources Mentioned:Sam Livingston website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedInCoach Hank Avink website, FacebookThe Shadow Effect (book)Company of One (book)Profit First (book) The Road Less Stupid (book)Essentialism (book)The Lean Startup (book) Zig ZiglarThe Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck (book)Unfuck Yourself (book)Give and Take (book)Power vs. Force (book)No More Mr. Nice Guy (book)Unbroken (motivational video)

Sravish Sridhar. He’s the VP and General Manager at Kinvey Progress and was previously the CEO and founder of Kinvey before it was acquired by Progress. He’s also an angel investor in multiple startups with successful exits. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm What CEO do you follow? – Matt Barbey Favorite online tool? — If This Then That How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would never become a movie actor”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:50 – Nathan introduces Sravish to the show 02:18 – Kinvey’s acquisition closed on June 1st and was announced on June 28th 02:30 – Kinvey does “backend as a service”, which is a term that they coined 02:58 – Schneider Electric has a lot of apps that are used to interact with its hardware, employees and customers 03:13 – Kinvey is in charge of the backend features that an app needs 03:44 – “We make every frontend developer become a backend developer” 03:55 – Developers don’t have to learn the backend processes, they can simply drag and drop 04:07 – Kinvey has three types of customers: 04:10 – First, those who are building apps as a hobby or trial and pay nothing up to $200 a month 04:22 – Second, business edition customers who pay an average of $24K a year per application 04:44 – Lastly, enterprise edition customers who pay around 6 figures a year 05:03 – ACV is around $80K to $90K 05:24 – When Sravish came up with the idea for Kinvey, he knew it should be a venture-backed company 05:46 – Sravish funded the initial capital of $150K 06:06 – Kinvey has raised over $15M before the acquisition 06:30 – It took Kinvey 15 month to launch their product 06:43 – In the second year, they started to build their revenue 07:10 – In 2013, they were doing high 6-figures in revenue 07:24 – They broke their million dollar mark in 2014 07:54 – Sravish invested in startups to learn strategies and build his financial portfolio 09:20 – Sravish has three things he looks for when investing in a startup: 09:22 – The team’s relationship with each other 09:39 – The space of the startup 09:55 – The potential he has to help the startup to grow 10:40 – Kinvey has over 50 enterprise customers 12:54 – The acquisition of Kinvey by Progress was for $50M 13:13 – Sravish shares how the board and himself decided on the acquisition 14:40 – Sravish’s discussion with Progress 15:43 – Team size prior to acquisition was 44 and everyone stayed after the acquisition, current team size is 65-70 16:00 – Kinvey had multiple offers and it took them 2-3 months to decide 16:40 – Progress matched the best offer 17:00 – Kinvey and Progress are both based in Boston 17:58 – Kinvey had direct sales models and enterprise sales reps 18:10 – CAC is $95K to $100K and LTV is $2.1-2.2M 18:33 – Payback period is 13-14 months 19:04 – Kinvey has 98% retention rate 20:40 – Progress has been thoughtful with their employees’ restricted stock units (RSU) 23:40 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Choose the deal that will be a great fit for the long-term. Always consider the company and, most importantly, your team’s future when making decisions. Investing isn’t just about the financial gains, it’s about your ability to believe in and help a company grow and succeed.   Resources Mentioned: Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Joseph May. He’s the founder of the Breton Company. He launched his company in 2016 by running a Kickstarter campaign for a modern day briefcase. Prior to Breton, he worked as an attorney at a couple of different law firms and was director of operations and in-house counsel at a company called Freshly Picked. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Shoe Dog What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs Favorite online tool? — Grum How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5-6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Keep going”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces to the show 01:19 – Joseph left the legal company because there was no fun 01:23 – When Joseph was at Freshly Picked, he found out that he really liked to create products and be part of the design process 01:33 – Joseph had the idea of Breton when he was in Italy 01:59 – Joseph was 33 when he left Freshly Picked where he was getting $70-80K 02:28 – Joseph had kids when he started Breton 03:28 – Joseph is showing Nathan an example of the briefcase 03:45 – On Kickstarter, Joseph did $240K and $280K for Indiegogo 03:54 – Kickstarter is the biggest website to start and Indiegogo has Indiegogo on demand 04:29 – The total for both campaigns was 1200 units 05:00 – At Freshly Picked, Joseph learned a lot about Instagram marketing 05:38 – Zach from Episode 178 had his hand on the Kickstarter campaign and has a network which has done over $60M in funding campaigns 06:00 – Zach worked with Joseph 06:38 – Joseph had a lot of manufacturing contacts from Freshly Picked 06:44 – Joseph got a quote from overseas and moved their manufacturing to Asia, switched up their whole campaign and changed the price point 07:14 – Breton is totally bootstrapped 07:47 – Total sales as of today is $400K in revenue and 1900 units 08:06 – Goal for 2017 is to launch more Kickstarter campaigns 08:37 – The bestseller is the modern day briefcase which is $199 08:54 – It takes around $65 to produce a bag 09:04 – The leather is from Italy 09:16 – Jeremy really wants to have a high-quality bag 09:26 – $20-30 dollars is spent on marketing per bag 09:58 – Average profit per bag 10:28 – Jeremy had dark traffic on ly 10:42 – There’s no exact influencer who has driven the most sales to Instagram 10:51 – Mollyblogger has sold 17 units within an hour 11:07 – Mollyblogger is Joseph’s friend 11:25 – For every $500 per post, Jeremy expects to get 5 sales 11:33 – Breton now has 40K followers 11:50 – It’s difficult to calculate the return because it takes time before a customer purchases 12:21 – Joseph had a campaign in Fall where he had help, but now he’s doing it on his own 12:40 – One of Joseph’s growth strategy is to get people on their email list 12:44 – The main focus now is to make people aware of Breton and aggregate the information 13:40 – The bags are made with wax cotton which is water-resistant 14:03 – Customers often look for the look 14:30 – The bags are made to last 14:38 – Team size is 2.5 14:51 – Joseph won’t give up a part of the company 15:49 – “I don’t know exactly what we’re doing” 16:48 – Chubbies Shorts is effectively using Instagram 16:55 – Breton’s Instagram 17:24 – There’s a big percentage of women buying the Breton bags, too 18:58 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Choose a job where you can earn and have fun at the same time. Nurture your connections and network. Don’t give up a part of your company if you’re not confident doing so.   Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

In Episode #289, Eric and Neil discuss how to use dropped domains to enhance your SEO. Tune in to learn how to maximize those dropped domains and why it is better to use an established website rather than dropped domains if you have the cash to spend. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Use Dropped Domains to Enhance Your SEO 00:48 – Dropped domains are abandoned or expired domains 01:07 – Eric has been buying domains that have worked well and has a good number on Ahrefs 01:12 – What Eric does is he takes the site, takes the top pages and redirects it over to his money site 01:22 – The site that Eric bought has keywords that they’re targeting, at the moment 01:30 – Neil also learned something from this 01:48 – If you already have a popular site, you will not gain from this doing this technique—it’s not for you 01:57 – The technique that Eric uses works, but the dropped domain must relate to what you are doing 02:05 – You can use Internet Archive to see what the site used to be 02:11 – You don’t want to have a dog website then get redirected to a marketing website 02:36 – You can buy dropped domains from GoDaddy 02:45 – You can go to GoDaddy.com and they have the list of auctioned domains 02:51 – You have to filter through the list to see the sites that have the most bids, offers, traffic and then take the site to Ahrefs to see if it is relevant to yours 03:13 – Go to Wayback Machine to see what the website used to be in the past 03:53 – There are website brokers like FE International and Flippa if you’re willing to buy a more established site 04:11 – Doing this with a more established website is way better than using dropped domains 04:15 – Most people buy dropped domains and put a website on there or they take the domain to redirect traffic to their site 04:36 – If you think of the black hat SEO that works, why not just do it in a white hat way? 05:11 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Design Pickle, a design service where Eric gets unlimited designs for blog and ad images 05:33 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 05:30 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:03 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Choose a dropped domain that is relevant to your site. Don’t just buy a well performing website – make sure that it targets your market, is consistent and has the keywords that you’re needing. You can use black hat SEO in a white hat way. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #289, Eric and Neil discuss how to use dropped domains to enhance your SEO. Tune in to learn how to maximize those dropped domains and why it is better to use an established website rather than dropped domains if you have the cash to spend. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: How to Use Dropped Domains to Enhance Your SEO 00:48 – Dropped domains are abandoned or expired domains 01:07 – Eric has been buying domains that have worked well and has a good number on Ahrefs 01:12 – What Eric does is he takes the site, takes the top pages and redirects it over to his money site 01:22 – The site that Eric bought has keywords that they're targeting, at the moment 01:30 – Neil also learned something from this 01:48 – If you already have a popular site, you will not gain from this doing this technique—it's not for you 01:57 – The technique that Eric uses works, but the dropped domain must relate to what you are doing 02:05 – You can use Internet Archive to see what the site used to be 02:11 – You don't want to have a dog website then get redirected to a marketing website 02:36 – You can buy dropped domains from GoDaddy 02:45 – You can go to GoDaddy.com and they have the list of auctioned domains 02:51 – You have to filter through the list to see the sites that have the most bids, offers, traffic and then take the site to Ahrefs to see if it is relevant to yours 03:13 – Go to Wayback Machine to see what the website used to be in the past 03:53 – There are website brokers like FE International and Flippa if you're willing to buy a more established site 04:11 – Doing this with a more established website is way better than using dropped domains 04:15 – Most people buy dropped domains and put a website on there or they take the domain to redirect traffic to their site 04:36 – If you think of the black hat SEO that works, why not just do it in a white hat way? 05:11 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Design Pickle, a design service where Eric gets unlimited designs for blog and ad images 05:33 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 05:30 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:03 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Choose a dropped domain that is relevant to your site. Don't just buy a well performing website – make sure that it targets your market, is consistent and has the keywords that you're needing. You can use black hat SEO in a white hat way. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

"Hal Elrod is living proof that all of us are capable of creating miracles in our own lives.  His inspirational message, loaded with examples of Hal's never-say-die attitude and winning strategies, will empower anyone to make the most of his or her life." --Bud Gardner, co-author, Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul Hal got his start inspiring and entertaining people at age 15 as a radio show host where he was given the hip moniker, "Yo Pal" Hal. At age 20, Hal's life was almost ended when, traveling at over 70 miles per hour, Hal was struck head on by a drunken driver and found dead on the scene.  Hal’s heart stopped beating for 6 minutes, he fractured 13 bones, suffered severe brain damage, and spent 6 long days in a coma, awakening to the devastating news that he might never walk again. Never one to accept limitations set by others, Hal astounded the medical community when he miraculously took his first step only three weeks later and was released from the hospital less than two months after the night of the crash. Hal got back to work that same year to sell over $100,000 of kitchen products door-to-door and became one of the youngest members ever inducted into the company's Hall of Fame. Now at 27, Hal is a bestselling author, motivational speaker, and CEO of Global Empowerment Coaching. Hal is truly taking life head on with his autobiography by the same name, Taking Life Head On! (The Hal Elrod Story), which published last year and is inspiring thousands of people throughout the world, already reaching #7 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Hal's story is amazing, his youthful energy, humor, and unique principles for experiencing more joy and fulfillment in your life offer a fresh perspective for your viewing audience. [03:22] – Can you share the story of what happened and what you did to overcome it? [04:00] - I was involved in an accident.  Broke 11 bones.  Immediately in a coma from that impact. [04:24] - When I woke up – why am I in pain and everything hurts? [04:33] - Unimaginable reality.  I may never walk again. [05:04] - How am I going to respond to this?  Either negatively or positively. [05:29] - The source of all our emotional pain and suffering is resistance.  Fortunately, I learned this from my mentor a year and a half before the car accident. [06:27] - I can either be down about it or be the most grateful in my entire life. [06:39] - I am waking up every day, what more do I need to be happy? [07:56] - Three weeks later, the doctor came in with the x-ray report and said “we can’t explain this but your body is healing so fast”. [08:21] - Dedicated my life, my second chance to fulfilling my potential the way that I could for the purpose of helping others. [09:10] - How did you make the transition from a corporate job to being an entrepreneur? [09:50] - I was in sales (not exactly a 9 to 5 job), there was freedom.  I was paid on commission. [10:32] - I saved up $20,000 and started dedicating my evenings and weekends to my entrepreneur journey.  [11:52] - I decided I wanted to become a coach. [13:00] - Started by giving away discounts.  Launched my coaching business and focused full time. [13:48] - My first client was a forty year old finance adviser and I joined him in his Business Networking International (BNI) group.  [14:21] - The President the BNI group was impressed by what I have accomplished at 25 and hired me to be his coach! [17:04] - How it evolved into this concept of Miracle Morning and what it really is (you wrote a book on it and you have a series on it)? [17:40] - It was not an idea for a book.  The economy crashed and I lost half of my clients because they can’t afford to pay me. [19:10] - I went for a morning run to get me into a peak state every morning. [19:14] - I listened to Jim Rohn’s audio – “your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development”.  Those words at those moments hit me. [20:17] - I searched online for the best personal development practice known.  The breakthrough was when I did all the 6 most powerful, timeless and proven development practices.  [21:00] - That morning my entire life changed. In less than 2 months, I more than doubled my income beyond where it was at the height before the (economy) crash. [22:39] - By 2009, Miracle Morning was universal and can work for anyone and 7 years later, hundreds of thousands of people around the world were doing Miracle Morning every day, with the book translated to 24 different languages. [25:07] - It’s changing so many lives and I will keep promoting it.   3 KEY POINTS: Choose to be happy. You don’t need to have everything figured out like a 5-year plan – just start! Embrace your failures (whether big or small), you learn, you adjust and you correct.   Social Media www.miraclemorning.com The Miracle Morning book is available on Amazon and Kindle.

James and Larry of Nexd.io. James is the founder and the Chief Stratgey Officer of Next.io and has previously worked with IBM, Socialware, SailPoint Techologies. He has studied at Berkeley and now builds softwares that help people everyday. Larry is the President and CEO of Nexd and is highly experienced in leadership and operations.  Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Peopleware (James) What CEO do you follow? –  Jeff Miller (Larry) Favorite online tool? — Clearbit (James) Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes (Larry) If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – James wished he built a network. Larry would tell himself that the most important thing is execution.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:42 – Nathan introduces James and Larry to the show 02:10 – Larry just joined Nexd and he’s the new CEO 02:26 – Larry helps James build a business around the idea 02:34 – Larry’s background is multiple CEO 03:35 – James shares why he brought Larry in 03:59 – Nexd was founded 14 months ago 05:23 – Nexd’s space is analytics 05:45 – Nexd analyzes which emails are effective 05:55 – Nexd is currently on pre-revenue 06:00 – Nexd raised a million dollars on a seed round 06:10 – It is a convertible note 06:12 – Nexd did 2 convertible notes 07:10 – Larry discusses what he thinks about CEOs and founders not being on good terms in a company 07:20 – Larry has been an advisor to VCs 07:30 – Larry shares his advice to entrepreneurs 07:56 – Founders and CEOs should agree on who is going to drive the steering wheel 08:43 – Larry shares how he and James would represent the company in a sample article with TechCrunch 09:15 – Larry shares how they would resolve a possible disagreement in a seed round 10:17 – It was James’ own decision to get a CEO 10:48 – On the technical side, there is another co-founder 11:10 – “What Nexd is doing is going to be a game changer” 11:32 – Nexd targets sales manager and sales reps 12:58 – James and his co founder’s background is enterprise integration problems 13:20 – “We’re trying to be a system of engagement for multiples systems of work” 13:43 – Target for Series A is $6-7M 14:08 – A minimal viable product is needed to step forward—a pilot that has been tested 15:50 – Nexd is not interested on a quick exit and they are going to be the next great company 17:50 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Choose someone who can do something you’re not good at and who you respect. Founders and CEOs should agree on who’s going to drive the steering wheel – if issues come up, own your mistakes and deal with it. You need a minimal viable product with validation from potential customers to move forward with your business.    Resources Mentioned: Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Gary Guseinov, an investor, operator, and advisor in various technology companies including Business Hangouts, InCast, Playsino and Revenue.com. During his career, he has over $100 million in growth capital and structured complex financial transactions. He’s also acquired over 300 million users for global technology product and services. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Power the Mind What CEO do you follow? –  Mark Zuckerberg Favorite online tool? — Calendly Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I knew how to start a business with very little capital”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:26 – Nathan introduces Gary to the show 02:08 – Business Hangouts is a web-conferencing and webinar platform 02:17 – It is specifically designed for Google apps 02:47 – Gary has raised capital for USTechSupport in 2003 03:07 – Private from 2003 to 2007 03:15 – From September 2007 to 2012, it became public in Nasdaq 03:22 – It was bought out by a big marketing company in LA 03:29 – Gary was the co-founder and left the company because he needed a break 04:24 – “It takes a lot of processes when it comes to legal and accounting when you shift from private to public” 05:05 – SDC reviews the applications and processes 05:20 – Gary was in his mid-thirties when he started USTechSupport and didn’t have any experience running a company 05:29 – Gary is now 46 05:40 – Gary acquired Business Hangouts from the previous owner 05:51 – Business Hangouts had 1.7 million enterprise users when it was acquired 06:02 – Over 700,000 registered users and 70,000 enterprise users 06:40 – Number of paying users 07:10 – Business Hangouts’ competitors usually separate web conferencing and webinar leading to 2 different subscriptions 07:48 – Consumers wouldn’t know what their monthly expenses were going to be 07:54 – Business Hangouts is not as complicated as their competitors 08:10 – “Our pricing model is very simple” 09:07 – Average monthly RPU is $70 10:40 – Business Hangouts is currently getting offers from investors 11:45 – “We try to build a business based on purely economics” 12:06 – “We think that we are a strong contender to multi-million dollar entities” 12:54 – Gary does not wish to disclose their MRR because they are not looking for capital at the moment as they are still a small company 13:57 – Gary’s goal is to stay “at the radar” 14:18 – “You want to be good at what you’re doing and you want the market to recognize that” 14:55 – Churn is less than 10% yearly 15:32 – Gary acquired the company for less than $10 million 17:00 – Gary can afford to put inside sales representatives in the demo 17:36 – Business Hangouts is completely bootstrapped 18:15 – Current CAC is zero 18:55 – Team size is less than 10 19:16 – Connect with Gray through LinkedIn 20:42 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Choose a business that is viable in the marketplace.  Staying “at the radar” while doing an excellent job at what you do will help you become recognized by the marketplace.  You CAN start a business without raising capital.   Resources Mentioned: Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal  developers. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email. Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel. LinkedIn – Gary’s LinkedIn account Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Aman Advani, a man who’s bringing technological innovation to the fashion industry. Aman’s the founder of Ministry of Supply, a company that’s employing engineers alongside fashion designers to bring performance technology into the wear-to-work clothing space. Listen in as Nathan and Aman talk minimum wage, which numbers to focus on, and just how Ministry Of Supply made 14x their Kickstarter goal. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – Good To Great What CEO do you follow? — John Carlson What is your favorite online tool? — Boomerang Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —In building a business, all the easy things are hard and all the hard things are easy Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan’s introduction 01:58 – Welcoming Aman to the show 02:08 – Ministry Of Supply generates revenue through selling products 02:40 – Company launched on Kickstarter in 2012, raising $429k - 14x their goal 03:34 – Sampler package sold for $150 03:53 – “We didn’t factor in packaging or shipping...we joke that we probably lost money” 04:24 – Shipped over 100k units 04:55 – Started with a repeat rate of 10-20% over 22 days - that’s now doubled 05:50 – Team of 20 people 06:00 – Taken $7 million in outside financing through 2 priced rounds and 1 convertible note 06:40 – Currently focused on growth: they aren’t profitable 07:05 – Hoping to be profitable later this year 07:30 – Made $500k in sales in 2012 07:35 – Nathan guesses around $4 million in topline revenue in 2015 08:40 – Aman would rather focus on numbers like margins and repeat rate than revenue 10:05 – A direct sales model; not subscription 10:44 – Around 50k customers so far 11:00 – Focusing on optimising gross margin 12:00 – “We’re infusing technology into a fairly stagnant fashion business” 13:00 – Acquisition: currently investing in podcast advertising and direct mail 13:40 – Currently have two brick-and-mortar stores that are a significant investment 14:15 – “What’s your position on $15 minimum wage?” 15:30 – We’ll automate certain tasks and re-allocate humans to higher-value tasks 16:10 – Optimising inventory turnover - “A good rate for us would be 4-5 turns a year” 16:57 – Connect with Aman on Linkedin 19:25 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Choose to focus on numbers that mean something to you. Put people in the highest-value positions you can. Make the most of your workforce. You don’t need to be immediately profitable - but know when you’re going to be profitable Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives