Podcasts about khierstyn

Khierstyn Ross is the founder of Launch and Scale™, an e-commerce digital marketing firm that specializes in fast, early-stage growth for online physical product brands. Through Khierstyn's work, she's helped launch and scale multiple 7-figure brands such as Jamstack.io, Aberlite.com, CeresChill.com, and many others. Khierstyn believes in empowering online product creators to build a business that gives them the freedom to fund and create the lifestyle they want to live on their terms.In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro[00:58] What Launch and Scale™ does[01:31] Launch and Scale is the question Chase always asks[01:55] How Khierstyn ended up launching her own business[04:47] The crowdfunding landscape is very different today[05:19] From crowdfunding to pre-orders/Shopify launches[05:58] Clarifying that “Kickstarter” means crowdfunding[06:29] Why is product validation important?[07:27] Validate products before crowdfunding[08:23] Product validation: Small runs[09:34] Product validation: VIP programs[10:56] The duality of interviewing podcast hosts[11:21] Shopify vs Kickstarter on product validation[12:04] Weighing in on Shopify and Kickstarter[13:11] The downside of Kickstarter being popular[15:50] Shopify provides a more controlled launch[16:16] Breaking down the expenses on Kickstarter[17:37] You essentially run 2 campaigns on Kickstarter[17:55] If Khierstyn would choose, is it just Shopify?[18:47] Don't use the Kickstarter model on Shopify[20:13] Kickstarter is viable, just know the risks[20:39] When should you reach out when you have an idea?[21:38] Where to find KhierstynResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeSubscribe to Launch and Scale™ @LaunchAndScaleConnect with Khierstyn linkedin.com/in/khierstynUsing a proven growth system to quickly test, launch, and scale your product through Kickstarter and Shopify, profitably launchandscale.coIf you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Khierstyn Ross has made a name for herself by successfully launching products and brands on Kickstarter. However, the crowdfunding landscape has significantly changed in recent years, particularly on Kickstarter. It is NOT the same world it was in 2019.While the barrier to entry for launching a successful project has become higher, it's still a good fit for many clients. In addition to helping brands on Kickstarter, Khierstyn is also a pro at helping companies grow on Amazon. She's mastered the art of launching new products and pre-sells on Amazon. Here's a look at what we cover: What products do well on Kickstarter, and what products usually flop? What kind of $ do you need to invest for a successful Kickstarter launch?When to launch a new product on Shopify vs. Kickstarter.How to build a brand on Amazon.What kind of results should you expect when launching on Kickstarter?

For the head of a successful business coaching firm, Toronto-based Launch and Scale, Khierstyn Ross, founder and CEO, has an odd goal. “We actually want our clients to fire us,” the e-commerce strategist tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart. Khierstyn is crazy — crazy like a fox. Her firm's mission is to help launch and scale online brands until they achieve $3 million in annual sales. She's done that successfully for dozens of brands. However, by the time her clients' sales grow to $10 million in yearly revenues, Khierstyn says her nestlings need to move on. That is, fire her before she fires them. Whether you're a startup or long-established, Khierstyn's growth methodology and operational discipline are sure to impress you. Photo: Khierstyn Ross, Launch and ScalePosted: April 10, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 37:12Episode: 11.34

Do people under 50 know what a yoke is? I honestly don't know. When I consider that millions of Americans don't know how to use a rotary telephone, I can easily believe they might be unfamiliar with that wooden implement used to unite a pair of horses or mules or oxen so that they might be able to “pull together” and accomplish things that neither of them could have done alone.You have people in your life to whom you are yoked. You are connected to them.We have names for these connections: Husband. Wife. Sister. Brother. Life partner. Business partner. Co-worker.Regardless of how you are connected, you can strengthen that connection and create a wonderful partnership by doing two simple things:Make a list of all the things you admire about your partner.You know their superpowers. You know their shining moments. Focus your attention on their talents and skills.Celebrate your partner.Tell people about the marvelous things you have seen your partner do. Your audience will be impressed and wish they had a partner like yours.Your partner will be happier. You will be happier. There is literally no downside to this.But the person who really needs to hear these stories is you.Feelings follow actions. When you focus on your partner's superpowers – those things they do remarkably well – and tell happy stories about the things you have seen your partner do, you will remember how lucky you are to have that person in your life.If you are frustrated with your partner, it's probably because you have been noticing their weaknesses and complaining to others about them.You've been telling the wrong stories.Feeling follow actions.Did I just hear you say, “I can't help how I feel?”Of course you can!Instead of telling the negative truth about your partner, look for those things your partner does well and begin telling a different truth; a positive, affirming truth.Your feelings will change. And your partner, will, too.Roy H. WilliamsNOTE FROM INDY – The wizard answers a HUGE question for Nick on page 3 of the rabbit hole today. I was interested in his answer. I'm betting you will be, too. – Indy BeagleKhierstyn Ross has an odd goal: she said, “We actually want our clients to fire us.” Khierstyn isn't crazy. Her mission is to help launch and scale online brands until they achieve $3 million in annual sales and she's already done that for many clients. By the time her clients' grow to $10 million in yearly revenues, Khierstyn says her nestlings need to leave the nest. Roving reporter Rotbart says, “Whether you're a startup or long-established, Khierstyn's growth methodology is sure to impress you.” The place you want to be is MondayMorningRadio.com

Khierstyn is an e-commerce strategist that specializes in fast, early-stage growth for online physical product brands using Shopify and Kickstarter.Through her work, Khierstyn helped launch and scale multiple 7-figure brands such as: Jamstack.io, Aberlite.com, CeresChill.com, and many others.Khierstyn clients have been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Shark Tank, Dragons Den, and many other leading publications. https://launchandscale.coConnect with me:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimtalkspodcasting/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimTalkscaYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCowz4fs2_3aPu8D5d1NAmQwTwitter: https://twitter.com/Kim_Hayden1LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-hayden-74a203181/Website: https://www.resilientseries.com/kim-talks-podcast

With the holidays upon us, it's CRUNCH TIME for online retailers! Mike is joined by a fellow marketer, Kickstarter, and Shopify guru, and Founder & CEO of LaunchandScale.com, Khierstyn Ross. Khierstyn's mission is to give entrepreneurs the expertise, skills, and experience needed to launch custom products that make their customers' lives better. Give the gift of knowledge and share this one! Who's The Guest? Khierstyn Ross helps early-stage eCommerce brands launch and scale their brands using Kickstarter and Shopify. They've helped launch and scale multiple 7-figure brands such as Jamstack.io, Aberlite.com, CeresChill.com, and many others. Highlights How Khierstyn helps brands during the holiday season. - 0:40 Tips for last-minute Thanksgiving marketing. - 4:00 Helping clients who are marketing and selling to their audience for the first time. - 7:29 Leveraging, identifying, and using what you have instead of being in a place where you can't deliver. - 10:48 The benefits of creating a personalized shopping experience for customers. - 12:17 Difference between selling and buying in Etsy and Amazon. - 13:03 Advice to clients who are finding the balance between where to put their resources and where to put their marketing efforts. - 14:12 Kickstarter is a tool to help their business get off the ground. - 18:29 How to be successful on Kickstarter? - 20:25 The connection between Kickstarter and Shopify. - 23:23 Why people or brands are doing crowdfunding campaigns? - 26:09 Where to find information about Khierstyn Ross and why people should find out more about them. - 27:14 Episode Resources Connect with Mike Brevik: http://www.cyberdogzmarketing.com/ mike@cyberdogzmarketing.com Connect with Khierstyn Ross https://msha.ke/khierstyn https://launchandscale.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/khierstyn  Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player. Subscribe with Apple Podcasts Follow on Spotify Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

Khierstyn Ross talks with Paul about starting a running Launch and Scale. Launch and Scale is an online resource for people looking to start an ecommerce brand. Khierstyn describes how she got started, the decisions founders make and what it means to sell a product. Listen to hear about Khierstyn's story and what she does.Stay tuned as they talk about : -  Building a product that makes an impact and has a community following-  Why do people want to create their own products?  -  How to determine whether a product is a right fit    Thank you for listening. Connect with us athttps://businesslegacypodcast.com/ https://innovativewealth.com/ More about Khierstyn Ross: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khierstyn/?originalSubdomain=ca Website: https://launchandscale.co/

Khierstyn Ross is the founder of Launch and Scale™, an e-commerce digital marketing firm that specializes in fast, early-stage growth for online physical product brands. Through her work, she's helped launch and scale multiple 7-figure brands such as: Jamstack.io, Aberlite.com, CeresChill.com, and many others. She believes in empowering D2C product creators to build a business that gives them the freedom to fund and create the lifestyle they want to live on their terms.Get in touch with Khierstyn:tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@khierstyn_youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Khierstynwebsite: https://launchandscale.co/

There are three things you can do RIGHT NOW to recession proof your business! There's no doubt that we'll experience a recession. But that doesn't mean your business has to suffer. Listen to this podcast and find out what they are!

Short form video is a powerful way to drive traffic and sales for your eCommerce brand. In this video, you'll learn how to create a content machine that produces short, engaging videos that will keep your customers coming back for more.

Making the decision on where to manufacture your product can be tough. In this video, we'll compare some of the pros and cons of manufacturing in the USA vs China. By the end of it, you'll hopefully have a little better idea of which option is best for you!

In this episode, we're going to talk about how to use pre-orders as a way to validate a new product. Now, pre-orders can be a great way to gauge interest in something that you're thinking of launching. You can also use them as a way to get some early traction and start building your customer base. So, if you're thinking about launching a new product, or you just want to know more about pre-orders, then this is for you.

7 Step Process To Rapidly Test New Product Ideas For Your Next Launch // You've launched a product successfully and have ideas as to what you'll create next for you audience. In this video I break down our 7 step process to test new product ideas and maintain the momentum you built from your first launch. Every product you create should fulfill the next need your audience needs.

Khierstyn Ross is back for another episode of Lunch with Norm! Crowdfunding has changed the game for developing products for Amazon and E-Commerce. Khierstyn Ross specializes in go-to-market strategy for products using Kickstarter & other popular channels. In 2015, she began this journey when her first launch failed terribly. After relaunching, she went from a $16,710 failure to a $592,742 success story. But it's not as easy as posting about your dream product and walking away. In this episode, Khierstyn answers your questions about running a successful crowdfunding campaign. Khierstyn also shares how she was able to raise 100K in 14 hours! Find out everything you need to know to have a great product launch. Produced By Kelsey Farrar Theme Music By Hayden Farrar

In today's episode, we have a conversation with Khierstyn Ross. Khierstyn Ross is a product launch expert that specializes in Kickstarter & Shopify launches for physical products. In 2015, she began this journey when her first launch failed terribly. After relaunching, she went from a $16,710 failure to a $592,742 success story. Since then she's raised multiple-millions of dollars in pre-order revenue on Kickstarter and Indiegogo with her clients and students. Khierstyn talks about how she went from going to medical school to getting bit by the entrepreneurial bug and eventually working with entrepreneurs to help them launch successful crowdfunding concepts. She'll take us through some good crowdfunding strategies - from marketing to mailing lists and what makes a good campaign. The Product Launchpad https://khierstyn.com/ _____ About the Show: ‘In The Ring' is a weekly podcast about eCommerce hosted by John Suder, Bart Mroz and Brittany Blackman. The show combines interviews with eCommerce leaders together with the latest news and strategies to give listeners actionable ideas and inspiration for their eCommerce businesses. The show is a production of SUMO Heavy, an eCommerce Consulting firm located in Brooklyn NY and Philadelphia. Hosts: John Suder (@johnsuder) - Producer and Director of Marketing at SUMO Heavy https://twitter.com/johnsuder Bart Mroz (@bartmroz) - CEO/Co-founder of SUMO Heavy https://twitter.com/bartmroz Brittany Blackman - Writer and Junior Marketing Coordinator at SUMO Heavy Learn more about SUMO Heavy: http://www.sumoheavy.com Follow Us: Newsletter: SUMO Heavy Weekly https://www.getrevue.co/profile/sumoheavy Twitter: @sumoheavy Sponsorships: off for this episode --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/intheringwithsumoheavy/message

➜ Grab Khierstyn Ross's product launch system: https://bit.ly/Launch_Guide ➜ Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4KE... ➜ Why most people get the product launch process all wrong ➜ How to see success with your new product launch The way most people launch new products online is extremely outdated. Here's what the standard product launch plan looks like: - Create a product idea - Develop the product - Buy inventory - Launch the product - Market & advertise the product I'm oversimplifying it here, but notice how marketing is at the bottom? Here's the thing: Marketing your product shouldn't wait till after you've already finished developing and are ready to launch, you should be getting the word out there long before day one. By the time you start your Kickstarter campaign, there should be a waiting list of people ready to buy. In this video, I talk about how you can set yourself up for success from Day One by marketing your product BEFORE you launch it. *** Want to work personally with Khierstyn? Go to Khierstyn.com to learn more.

Welcome to Part 1 of my 3-part Mini-Series "How to Launch Your Product Online". This Mini-Series is designed to get you excited to take massive action toward your product launch, as well as informed on the critical steps that will make (or break) your launch. When doing a launch campaign, do you think about your target consumer? Or are you looking for whatever opportunity will allow you to sell your product? I find that there are two main types of goals that people have when they start to do a campaign and they lead to very different outcomes. There are people who, on the one hand, are testing out their product to see if they can make it into a viable business. These people haven’t completely committed to the idea that their product will be successful, so they want to do a campaign to test the waters. Then there are people who know they want to build a sustained business that reaches six or seven figures. These people have a product that they believe in and they have a target consumer who they want to reach with their launch campaign. There’s a big difference between these two types of people and how they approach their business. When you know that you want to build a business to six or seven figures and you focus your effort on your product rather than going after opportunities, you end up making decisions based on long-term growth rather than short-term gain. One important part of building a sustained business is finding the right customer that will get behind your product. What kinds of people will this product serve? When you can figure out your target consumer, you’ll be able to design a launch campaign based on that niche. So, what’s your goal? When you answer that question, you’ll have a better idea of how to move forward. *** Want to personally work with Khierstyn to launch and scale your product? Go to www.workwithKR.com to learn more

Are you looking to launch a Food and Beverage (FAB) Startup and want to get your product onto grocery store shelves, but can’t seem to figure out how to navigate the large corporate bureaucracy? Here’s the bad news… the large CPG brands can’t either.  But here’s the GOOD news… the large CPG brands are so slow that you can still beat them at their own game if you know what to do. Today’s guest, Ainsley Moir, is a veteran of the FAB world, working for big brands such as Coke, Campbells, Vitamin Water, and more. She has been in the boardroom meetings for these large companies with infinite bank accounts and decades-long relationships with retailers. The disturbing news is they still take 4 YEARS to launch new products. Ainsley believed that this was way too slow and so on evenings and weekends she successfully launched her own FAB. coffee startup using proven corporate marketing strategies with startup speed. In this episode, Ainsley walks you through exactly what retailers want for you to get your product in stores.  You will learn:  The single piece of paper (double-sided) you need to get your product into a retail store How to find CPG buyers and get a meeting What it is that Food and Beverage buyers actually want (and it’s not flavor) How to test your message and assumptions about your market cheaply before you blow a bunch of money developing a product no one wants Why some products lose money for each unit sold… and how to avoid it How to get proof of demand before you’ve even sold a single item Want to learn more about how to get your FAB product off the ground? Check out AinsleyMoir.com **** Want to work with Khierstyn directly to launch and scale your product? Go to www.workwithKR.com to learn more.

How do you know if you’re creating effective ads on Facebook? How can you learn from your data to improve your funnel creation ability? In this video, I talk about three of the most important metrics for measuring sales funnel success and what it means for your business. When you do a product launch, you need to have a waitlist of people built up from day one. You achieve this through what’s called a sales funnel. The idea is to show potential customers your product. When someone’s scrolling through their feed on Facebook, they’ll see a little bit about your product and a call to action. That’s the first step. You want to get customers from Facebook to your product landing page. Then, you’ll ask the visitor for their email so that you can contact them easily and move them closer to a sale. So, how do you know if you have effective ads? There are certain metrics that can allow you to determine whether or not your funnel creation went well. Click through rate is a percentage of people who are clicking the link in Facebook to go to your website. Cost per lead is the amount of money you spend to get one person onto your email list. The overall cost per lead should be from one dollar to two dollars and fifty cents. Landing page conversion rate is, of the number of people that come to your landing page, what percentage become email subscribers? Each of these three metrics have benchmarks that you should be above or below. By making sure you’re staying within these benchmarks, you’ll be able to tell if your funnel creation strategy is working and whether or not you need more effective ads. *** Want to personally work with Khierstyn to launch and scale your product? Go to www.workwithKR.com to learn more

Gabby Samkova, originally from Australia, was living and working in Bali while surfing in her spare time.  While she thought she was getting as far away from city life as possible and experiencing nature, she was constantly brought back to reality.  Even while 100 meters offshore surfing, she would encounter plastic.Plastic bottles... plastic bags... plastic particles. She even kicked a dirty diaper trying to catch a wave!Gabby was determined to figure out how she could do her part to fix the problem. After doing her research, she discovered that we can now take old plastic and upcycle it into a polyester microfibre.  Gabby realized that meant that it was now possible to take used plastic bottles and turn them into fast-drying, sand resistant, and compact beach towels! That’s when she founded SomerSide Towels and successfully launched on Kickstarter, even delivering early.In this episode, we talk about the steps Gabby took to deliver a premium fabric upcycled from plastic bottles in the ocean from diaper to launch and go over many of the lessons Gabby learned along the way.  We also cover:  Having high standards GOOD! Spending the time upfront to manage product quality is crucial for a successful business after the launch While volume is manageable, you need to be involved in every step of the process Why you need to be backing other projects while planning your own launch Be willing to write 300 or more thank you letters to your backers… and watch what happens as a result. Did you resonate with Gabby’s story? Check out SomerSide Towels here at https://www.somerside.com.au/ and pick a towel at the same time. *** Want to work with Khierstyn directly to launch and scale your product? Go to www.workwithKR.com to learn more.

➜ Where Kickstarter fits in your product development phases ➜ Should Kickstarter be a part of your product development strategy? Kickstarter, and crowdfunding in general, is a fantastic tool available to entrepreneurs who want to launch new products. It allows people to launch their products without nearly as massive of a burden as they would've had before. BUT that doesn't mean it's an instant or easy success story; using Kickstarter the wrong way can still lead to a product launch failure. Many of these product launch failures have become the poster children for Kickstarter's sometimes less-than-stellar reputation. If you want to avoid becoming another one of those poster children, you need to know where Kickstarter fits in the product development process. As times have changed, so has the way you need to use Kickstarter (or Indiegogo). In this video, I talk about whether or not Kickstarter fits in the product development phase, and how to use it best for a product launch. If you'd like to personally work with Khierstyn with your product launch, go to www.workwithKR.com.

In this episode, Khierstyn will delve into the wonders of leading with the results and how it can captivate, win, and sustain the right customers. She will highlight the difference between results and features and why the former is the real deal when selling your product online. Finally, she will share a piece of important advice that will protect your products from becoming a mere commoditized product. Tune in and find out how!   "People buy based on emotion. People buy results." – Khierstyn Ross "Lead with the result that the product gives in someone’s life." – Khierstyn Ross   Timestamps: 1:19 – The things you need to consider when trying to market your product and the best way you can present them in the market 3:13 – The advantage of comparisons on premium solutions over comparison on price differences 3:56 – How you build a brand that stands out 4:44 – Why is it important to look at the impact your product gives to someone when you are facing struggles in marketing your product? 5:44 – What does “results-driven marketing” means and how it is advantageous for you

Do you want to be on top of your game? Then paid advertising could be for you! Whether you're launching a new product, an email list, or simply want to drive people to follow your page and turn them to clients, you need a specialist to help you. And what better tool or platform there is but Facebook and Instagram! Why? Because both will give you a volume of traffic that will help get your product to a wider audience who can help you whether you're launching or scaling. Listen to this episode and find more reasons from Khierstyn why you may want to hire a Facebook ad person.

00:54 – Introducing today’s guest, Khierstyn Ross 01:26 – Khierstyn’s background in launching products to market 03:17 – How Khierstyn got into entrepreneurship early on 06:58 – Khierstyn’s foray into the product-based world 11:05 – The misconception of bringing product to market 11:51 – Khierstyn reflects on a recent interview from her podcast 15:18 – How Khierstyn works with her clients 17:07 – The shift from an agency model to a training model 21:55 – Leveraging group coaching & educational services 24:31 – Potential drawbacks of the consulting model 28:01 – Managing unrealistic client expectations 31:06 – Issues Khierstyn has encountered running her business 32:54 – What Zen Money™ means to Khierstyn 34:20 – Takeaways Khierstyn wants listeners to know 35:03 – Where listeners can find Khierstyn Sound Bites: • “Helping someone take a product from zero to Kickstarter is very, very similar to launching a painting company; you need to have a certain financial goal you’re going after. You need to have a certain road map.” (06:33) • “I give people a system and a process for identifying who their customers are.” (15:59) • “I want to be able to work one-on-one with projects I fall in love with.” (20:51) • “Agency model you can probably do twenty to forty percent profit if you’re really, really good. But leverage group coaching you’re looking at more of the forty to seventy percent profit after marketing costs.” (22:35) • “Zen Money means no stress finances. And, no stress finances, to me, means that I just know that that part of my life is growing, it’s being managed well, and I actually feel a little financially literate.” (33:49) About Khierstyn: Khierstyn is a digital marketing consultant who helps entrepreneurs launch and scale their physical product businesses. She's built a reputation for wildly successful crowdfunding launches, having raised more than $3M for her clients, has an impressive track record. Reach out and request a free strategy session today by going to www.khierstyn.com/schedule. Links Mentioned: Khierstyn’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/khierstyn/ Khierstyn’s Website – https://khierstyn.com/ Khierstyn’s Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/launch-and-scale/id1465155308 Zen Money Financial Quiz – https://www.zenmoneymap.com/moneystyle Zen Money Website – https://www.zenmoneymap.com/ Sam Ovens Website – https://www.consulting.com/sam-ovens

Transcript:  Hey everyone, welcome to the Launch and Scale podcast. This is episode five, and I'm Khierstyn Ross. This episode is brought to you by the Launch and Scale program, which if you are looking for a done with you program that is a proven step by step system and support that we have put together to get you the support that you need throughout your product launch, be sure to head over to khierstyn.com/schedule and book a strategy session with myself, or my team where we're going to be able to help you map out your roadmap for your campaign and ultimately see if the program is a right fit to get you the support you need to smash your product launch goals. Khierstyn Ross: In this episode, we are taking a look at ... Essentially this is really the first interview that we're doing for launch and scale, and I've been friends with Marcus for the last four years. Marcus Rader is the CEO and co-founder of Hostaway, which is an enterprise solution in the travel space. We'll get into that a little bit more. But really what this interview focuses on is how they were able to go into a market, property managers and assess where the solution is and ultimately create an MVP around customer needs and customer interviews. And so, we're going to talk about that process of how he went from the conception of an idea to an MVP and really how he was able to scale that very quickly over the last two years to a company that has raised multiple millions of dollars through VC and angel funding. But they're now, they work out of five different countries with over 38 employees and growing. Khierstyn Ross: Hostaway, is now one of the fastest growing enterprise tech solutions in the travel space, and really stoked to cover this interview because it does really cover that fast growth period and how he was able to iterate based on customer feedback in the field. And so we have a lot of juicy tidbits to go into it. So I'm really stoked to launch and kick off our official first interview of the podcast. Khierstyn Ross: If you've been a listener for a while, you will know that this show has evolved from Crowdfunding Uncut where that was primarily interview focused, and what I'm looking to do with this show is have a range of teach you the stuff, answer your questions, but also bringing on valuable guests from different niches that have either a great results or they're doing great things. And I have Marcus Rader from Hostaway, which I'll get into what Hostaway is in a second. But Marcus and I have known each other for about four years now, I think. And we met when mutual friends brought us to a baseball game, and ever since then, we've just been friends hanging out in the startup space. Khierstyn Ross: What's been really amazing about Marcus is I've seen him move to Toronto from Finland and start Hostaway from nothing to over a two year period, maybe two and a half, bring Hostaway from nothing to one of the fastest growing tech travel on enterprise solution software on the internet and in the world, which is just fascinating to see his journey. And I thought, what better way to kick off our first interview of this show than get into the mind of someone who has taken something from nothing to 38 employees in five different spots over the last two years. So, Marcus, I'm really stoked to have an officially recorded conversation with you and instead of just over beer. So welcome. Marcus Rader: Well, thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be on the show. Khierstyn Ross: Yeah, we're still good. So, let's give some context, what is Hostaway? Marcus Rader: So, Hostaway is a software service platform for vacation rental property managers. So software as a service is a concept where you buy a piece of software as a subscription model. Typical examples include Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, even Stripe. What our software does, it allows vacation rental property managers to grow faster, so through our one in all solution that's completely cloud-based, we connect to their partners, Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway, VRBO, TripAdvisor, Expedia, and within our platform, they manage all their stakeholders. So they manage their guests, they manage their cleaners, they manage their real estate investors. They manage their staff, they make sure their response times and ratings are good. And they, of course, do financial reporting as well. So pretty much everything needed to run a vacation rental business can be done through our platform. Khierstyn Ross: So I used to host on Airbnb, but it was my living room. So I wouldn't be a prime customer for you, but just to do context, if I were someone that had multiple properties and multiple listings on Airbnb, I want to maximize my listings by posting on Expedia, a ton like Booking.com, a ton of other platforms. But imagine trying to manage five or six different booking platforms for five-plus listings, it gets to be a freaking nightmare. It's like managing multiple calendars. So your solution to be able to manage that all on one platform is phenomenal. So, I know when you first started with this, you weren't so heavy on the enterprise, but you were trying to do more like smaller property managers and that that evolved. Who would you say is your ideal customer now that uses Hostaway? Marcus Rader: So right now we only target what we consider professional property managers. But, like a lot of real estate business, the term professional is a bit vague. For example, there's a lot of real estate brokers who actually have another job on the side or maybe they're real estate brokers on weekends only. So, the way I define it is those who consider their time valuable. So let's say they spend an hour or 10 hours, they have an actual price on that because that's what businesses have. When you take in employees, and you ask them to spend 10 hours on something that's actual money away from your bank accounts. And if our software lowers that 10 hours into just 30 minutes, that's nine, and a half hours saved time. Marcus Rader: And that's why, you when you were renting out your spare room, probably the 15 minutes a week you spent on it, you didn't consider yourself losing a single dollar on that 15 minutes. But if you had to pay someone or even a team of 10 people their salaries for a full-time job, that would be a substantial amount of money. And if you can save them time and focus on growing your businesses then that's where the value of the software like ours really come in. Khierstyn Ross: So, taking this back, how did you get the idea for Hostaway to begin with? Marcus Rader: I'm not really a strong believer in business ideas. First of all, there are not many success stories of someone who had a great idea and then decided to implement it then it became a massive business. Usually, those ideas go through a lot of iterations. And on the other hand, some of the most brilliant ideas I've ever heard when it comes to business, they never become a success at all, or they don't even try. They're just an idea. Unfortunately, I knew that when I was starting out, I knew that ideas are worthless. I had a couple of different ideas, but what I really focused on before fully committing to this, what I considered a project back then was doing extensive research, checking overall business trends, macro trends, and then doing very in-depth interviews with actual property management companies in the industry. Asking them everything from, what do they first do when they wake up to what are their biggest challenges? Marcus Rader: And, it wasn't very solutions-oriented, it was more focused on what area do we want to be in, and then we started looking at the industry as a whole, what is Airbnb doing? What do we expect to happen? Can we find any proof on this? Can we find any scientific papers proving that our theory is right, and we had enough evidence, and we had enough research done, we decided to do an MVP. And eventually, that led us on to a couple of iterations and funding rounds, and to get where we are today. Khierstyn Ross: So, when you focused on interviewing property management companies, even taking it a step back, did it start with you deciding you wanted to start your own company and then looking for trends and then narrowing down on the property management company type, or did you just know that you wanted to go after property managers? Marcus Rader: I gave it a lot of thought. I think it was more about me wanting to start a company that actually finding an opportunity. So, I knew there were a million opportunities out there, I just wanted to choose the right one. So, it wasn't that an opportunity presented itself and then I evaluated whether I take it or not. No, I was actively looking for opportunities, and the markets that I found was big enough, growing fast enough, going through a lot of changes and consolidation, and that's why I decided to start the company and exactly this industry in this part. Khierstyn Ross: So how did you know that this was the right direction for you? Marcus Rader: It came actually from personal interest. A lot of the trends that we're seeing in the world are very similar to my own experience. For example, one of the trends is remote work. People like to work in different locations and if I'm not wrong Khierstyn you have also ... You don't spend all your days at the same office, you tend to work from different locations around the world. I have moved around, lived in many countries, and I know that you need flexible living solutions. If you go somewhere for a couple of months, you can't rent the place for a full year. Marcus Rader: Another major trend is travel. There's a massive middle class growing, even though people always say the middle class is dying out, but actually, globally it's growing at a massive pace. There's a huge amount of people, especially in populous countries like China and India that are traveling, and that is a trend that's not going anywhere anytime soon. And, back when we started out a couple of years ago, it was also not going anywhere, and it turns out that all the predictions are correct, people are traveling more and more. So, those were the trends that we found evidence off, and we believed in. But yeah, it came out of personal interest. I like to travel, I like living in different places. Khierstyn Ross: Honestly, I think that's so important because if you are going to devote so much of your time to build something, it has to be something you have a personal interest in or else you may not be driven as hard to do the thing. Marcus Rader: That's very true on one hand, and some of the most successful founders that I've met today always have a personal interest. If you can align that with somehow making the world a better place, that's usually really nice touch as well. Unfortunately, I haven't found that alignment. I don't know how making business operations more efficient will, for example, reduce child poverty. But, having somewhat of an interest, whether it's an interest in technology or finances, that definitely helps. So, if you don't care about money then just don't start an accounting software company. Khierstyn Ross: For sure. And there's something I want to clarify. I know you don't believe in business ideas, but when you narrowed it down to property management companies, something in flexible living space and solutions, did you have the idea for Hostaway, like you knew in your mind it was this hosting platform for property managers? Or did you just decide to go talk to property managers and figure out what was the one thing they really needed the most help with and then the solution was born out of their feedback? Which of those were you? Marcus Rader: Actually neither. We did want to do exactly what they were asking for, they had multiple problems, and we had a couple of different solutions for that. But, those solutions were pretty difficult to build and when we did more research and found out that every single company on earth that has tried, has failed in building those solutions. And by failed, meaning that they only had done a couple of iterations and maybe in a few years they'll have a good solution in place. So, we decided to simplify it as much as possible and go very heavy on marketing and sales first while building the MVP, because a lot of people think they need a product in order to sell it. But well as you know in our crowdfunding space, it can be the exact opposite. First, you sell it, then you see if we can make the product. And that's what we did, and we were actually quite successful with our first iteration. We got a bunch of customers. Marcus Rader: One of the common breaking points of young software startups is when you talk to customers, and they're willing to pay for a solution and then you provide the solution and suddenly they're not willing to give you any money. For us actually, we did not have that problem. Our first customer suggested to us, that how about they start paying us so that we can afford to improve the software. Which was a nice thing because we didn't plan at that point to charge money for it. When we did start charging money for it, we quickly got up to about a hundred customers and found out that the target audience that we have they're way too demanding, and they're not tech savvy enough to, for example, read the documentation for a fairly complex solution. And at the price that they're paying that we were charging, we just didn't see any way this business could scale. Marcus Rader: But, what we did find out is that there's a lot of companies out there with much higher demands, but they're also willing to pay for it. And that comes back to what I said earlier if you value one hour of your time as $0 probably any software is going to be expensive. But if you have to pay a $20 salary to someone else, suddenly one hour's worth exactly $20. And, that's when we started targeting those customers. Khierstyn Ross: Okay. I want to clarify something. Did you build an MVP and then focus on sales? Marcus Rader: Well, I think- Khierstyn Ross: Or sale and then MVP? Marcus Rader: I think a lot of companies say, well, Facebook is a good example, if you launch a product, and it doesn't work, just launch it again. And I think Facebook did seven launches and that's a fairly common story, but it's not actually the truth. The truth is that it's somewhere in between. There's not an exact launch. You constantly do sales, marketing, product development, market research, and at the pace that you're going where you basically reinvent the company every single day, you can't really define lines. Sometimes you find that you're pitching an idea that's already two days old and sometimes you find that you've sold a solution that's only going to be available tomorrow. But by doing quick iterations, you can't really draw any lines. But if you do enough of them eventually, you'll find a recipe that scales, which is all that matters when you're dealing with software. Khierstyn Ross: Because something that it's not very clear to me is that you mentioned before that most, actually every software solution in your space that has tried to do what you guys are doing has failed. So you focused on sales and marketing, but then you go on to say that you actually had to have a customer offer to pay you and then you got a hundred people. So, where's the line with that? Marcus Rader: That's what I was trying to say. The line is very, very thin, and I wouldn't say that our competitors have failed. It was more that we found one niche within niche markets that were completely uncatered to. And that's the first one we attacked, and then found out exactly the reason why it's uncatered to. A bit like you'll find a hundred dollar bill lying on the streets, and you wonder why nobody picked it up. Then you pick it up and find out it's fake. Khierstyn Ross: Yeah. I think what you're getting at is you focused on developing a very, very, very basic and simple MVP that did the job instead of focusing on building this amazing, beautiful product right away, you did bare minimum to do the job and then focused on sales and then used sales to gradually improve it as opposed to the bloat of having like product devs to design something amazing and not focus on sales right away. Marcus Rader: That's very, very true, and it's sometimes hard to ... I mean, if you want to build a very simple product, then you can take it quickly to market, and you can quickly sell it. But that also means that if it's like a fidget spinner, that's very simple to build. When it first came out, it was a big success, but suddenly you had a thousand other companies producing them, and the price plummeted and now they're worthless. If you want to build something very complex, there's a certain threshold, you need to invest a certain amount of time and money in order to make that complex solution work. But, what often happens is once you're ready with that complex solution, nobody wants it or they don't want it for the purpose you thought, or they don't want to pay what you thought. Khierstyn Ross: Or the other thing happens, which is exactly what happened to you is you found out very quickly that you are actually serving the wrong kind of ... Not the wrong kind of person but the person at a price point that wouldn't allow you to scale. So, the other point that I want you guys to take away from this listening is that you don't want to focus on creating this beautiful, amazing full solution product right off the bat. You need to focus on getting the job done and bringing an MVP to market because you're going to take real customer feedback, paying customer feedback, customers that are using your product, or the software that are going to help you create the iterations for that customer ahead of time. So, that you can really build onto the product as you grow as a company. Marcus Rader: Yeah. That's a great summary right there and something that I find a lot when I talk to people who actually want to become entrepreneurs, so have a good idea and have all the basic skills needed. They tend to do exactly the same thing that I did as well, which is set up these mental barriers. For example, if I just had $1 million or if I just had a development team or if I just had a co-founder, and they focus so much on that they bind themselves down. They can never get to the next stage, and that's actually what took us forward instead of looking at what do we want to become in the end and how do we get there? We were looking at, okay, what is the next step? Can we get a million? Can we hire 10 developers? No. Okay, well what can we do realistically? What can we do? And where would that take us? Marcus Rader: And that's exactly what we did. We found out that, okay, there's a hundred things that we should do, but if we just do three of them, we'll not get to the next stage. And if all three of those work out fine, then we can get enough resources to do 10 more. And if those workout fine, then we can do to 90 others. And that's a much nicer approach because that's where you actually can move forward with something more tangible and realistic. Khierstyn Ross: No, that makes so much sense. How did you find ... If you have a hundred things, how do you decide what those three are? Marcus Rader: In reality, in hindsight it's always going to be those three. But in practice you have to try 20 of them. If you're successful at the end, you can go back and say, oh, I was so good. I looked at the list of a hundred things, and I managed to pick the three that really mattered. In reality, I haven't really seen that with anyone. You have to try a little bit, and I think luck is a big factor there. Trying to do as much as possible, as many different things as possible and dismiss the opportunities, try to get any proof or this proof of concept as fast as possible so that you can move on to the next thing and constantly hope that you happen to stumble upon the right one, and that will bring you to the next stage. Khierstyn Ross: It sounds like when you started, you were bootstrapping to an extent, but at what point did you decide that you needed to go after investment? Marcus Rader: I think it was at the point when I wanted to pay for nice things in life, like rent and food, electricity and heating, they are perhaps luxuries, but especially rent and food is something that's really nice to have. Something that I definitely knew I did not want to do is have a job and then try to set up a business on the side, because I felt that then I wouldn't be committed to the job, and I wouldn't be committed to my business. I wanted to make sure I put myself in a position where I'm 100% committed because I have not seen successful side projects. I have seen people who are very determined to create a business and have managed to create it and are fully committed and people who have been determined and failed. That's a more common story, but I haven't met many people who have done a side project that turned into a massive success. Khierstyn Ross: So you go full time with Hostaway, did you quit your job to go full time? Did you have investment going into Hostaway? Marcus Rader: No, I quit my job and moved to a new country with a lot of expenses and no job. So it was very easy for me to start a company because I didn't have to give anything up because when I arrived in Canada I didn't have anything to give up. Khierstyn Ross: So it was just saving for a little bit, and then you looked for investment essentially, and then it worked out. Marcus Rader: Yes, it did work out. Khierstyn Ross: So coming from Finland to Toronto, Canada, where do your investors come from, is it primarily Finish investors or have you been able to tap into North American market too? Marcus Rader: I haven't spoken to many US investors yet, I have a fair bit of experience in the Canadian investor landscape. It's worth noting that I moved here four years ago and most of the VC's in Toronto are only two or three years old. So, there wasn't a lot of investors living around here. But based on the conversations I had back then, I found a lot of them really want stable businesses, which I didn't want to build a stable business. I wanted to build a fast growth business, which is the opposite of stable. And it turns out that I managed at least so far to do a fairly good job at it, but it's very risky route for investors. And so far we've been relying on Finish investors through most literal networks and cold calling as well. But, they have a lot of success. Marcus Rader: I mean, Toronto unfortunately doesn't have a single company worth more than a billion, and that's younger than 10 years, which is a shame compared to Finland or Helsinki that's only 1 million people, and they have, what is it? Four or $5 billion companies that this VCs have managed to even cash out on. Khierstyn Ross: So in Finland, I know that, what I've learned from your tech tio talk that Angry Birds came from Finland. What are some other heavy hitters that have come from Finland? Marcus Rader: There's lots of let's say mid sized, but I think, was it three years ago? The Super Bowl, the most expensive ad was a Finnish tech startup. Unfortunately it was also in the same space as Angry Birds, it was a mobile games. It was Clash of Clans. There's many others, one of my favorite is the biggest music educator in the world, Yousician. I think they have 100 million users now. It's basically a mobile app that allows you to learn how to have to play any instrument as a game. Khierstyn Ross: It's awesome, I use it. Marcus Rader: Really? Khierstyn Ross: I now play guitar very badly, but I play guitar. Marcus Rader: That's nice. Is Yousician good to you? Khierstyn Ross: They are very good. Yes. I'm like, oh, I can do this. Marcus Rader: That's good to hear. Yeah. And, there's a lot also in the region, not specifically Finland, but for example, in Sweden and Estonia there's a couple of pretty heavy hitters like Skype and Spotify. Khierstyn Ross: So knowing that Canada VC is a little, they're risk adverse a little bit. They want more established companies, but Finland, because so many fast growth massive companies have come out of it, do you see a cultural difference in how investors treat your company between Finland and Canada? Marcus Rader: I think for most VCs, they don't really have the luxury to choose their investments. They have certain criteria they need to meet, and if they try to go with what they think is good based on numbers or something, they later on re iterate, then come up with more strict profiles. So for example, if they only invest in technology related to health, then it doesn't matter if we're the best company in the world, they can't invest in us because we're not into health. And if they only invest in US based companies, then they can't invest in us because we're based in Finland. But outside of that, I think definitely the VC landscape in Toronto has moved massively forward. I was just that coalition and all my days were filled with VC meetings most from Toronto, and the feedback was good and they also seemed to have caught up. They were very professional, asking the right questions. It felt like they were trying to sell themselves as an investor, just like it should be. Khierstyn Ross: Excellent. Can you tell me about how you got your first investor? It doesn't have to be VC, just first investor. Marcus Rader: Definitely it wasn't the VC, it was ... I remember once I asked my father ... I felt really good, and I asked my father, hey, why am I so lucky? Why does everything go right for me? And he said, "You know what? You're just fooling yourself. You're not lucky, you've been planting these seeds for so many years. And most of them died, but now some of them are giving fruit and that's not luck. That's just planting enough seeds." So, when I lived in Amsterdam, I went to online marketing conference in Germany. There I happened to see a guy, and when I saw him I thought, well, he doesn't look German or British. He looks very Finish. So I went up to him, I said, in Finnish, sorry, are you from Finland? And he said, yes, I am. Marcus Rader: And that's how I met one guy who later on turned out to introduce me to our angel investor who got so excited about the project that he gave us that sweet salary for paying rent and food, but more importantly he's actively working in the company and he's helping us a lot in strategic things in finances and has helped us find other investors as well. Khierstyn Ross: So how did that conversation happen? You meet the Finnish guy at a conference and then how does he suddenly, not suddenly, but he introduced you to someone. So tell me about that. Did you ask, were you going around your network looking for connections? Did he just know what you worked on and said it just happened organically or what? Marcus Rader: That's a really good question. I think if I would have to reproduce that now, I don't know if that even would be possible, and I don't think I can give any advice. It's exactly like you said. I think he asked me what I'm doing or maybe I posted something on Facebook, and he reached out and said, hey, this sounds interesting. I could talk to you. And then, he said, hey, I actually know someone who wants to buy the product. And, I think our meeting was even set up, so then I was supposed to sell the product, but I happen to sell the idea of the company instead. And that's what led to it. Marcus Rader: But how to find an angel investor, I think that's going to be very hard. I think if you go out to your network and ask, that's probably the wrong question. A bit like asking your parents if you can move back in with them. It's something that they don't want, and you don't want to do that, and it's, yeah, usually not a good outcome. Khierstyn Ross: So what is the right question then if you're looking for an angel investor? Marcus Rader: Oh, I wish I knew how to find an angel ... Actually, yeah, there's a network in Toronto, I think it's called Maple Leafs Angels. Khierstyn Ross: Yup Maple Leaf Angels. Yup. Marcus Rader: Yeah. So, there's a lot of those and of course there's things like Dragon's Den as well, but that's- Khierstyn Ross: Shark Tank. Marcus Rader: Yeah, Shark Tank. But those are more for companies, well they want to put on a good show. So usually the companies that end up there are actually not just starting out, they are, for example, seasoned entrepreneurs who have done this many times before. Khierstyn Ross: So maybe the question is more, if you had to go out and find an investor tomorrow, which this is your job now, how would you go and find a new investor? Marcus Rader: For a new company, I would definitely not go out and find an investor. I would do everything I can to set up the company for growth, and by taking the smallest steps possible. For example, if I speak to 100 people, how many have the problem that I'm trying to solve? Then let's say it's 40 out of them, how many of them would be interested in hearing and talking about my solution? And then how many of those would be in theory willing to pay something. You can find yourself 10 then see what would be the shortest way to build that solution and then test them on whether they're able to buy and pay for that. And if you're able to do those steps, you're able to move forward, and it's, yeah, I think we could have done a lot of things differently and faster and better. But on the other hand, we invested heavily into technology and into the research part, which is now paying off. Marcus Rader: So, it's very hard to go and say that we could have done things better, there's a million things we could have done better, but then maybe if we hadn't done those things, other things would have failed. Khierstyn Ross: Makes sense. My last topic I want to talk about is the pivot from, I think it was the $9 a month solo person you were going after to now enterprise solution. When you realized that your pricing structure didn't make sense for where you wanted to take this, how did you start to pivot toward the higher end solutions? Marcus Rader: Very good, good question. I remember we had a long hard meeting I think three or four days where we really evaluated the market size and the options. We tried to figure out can we automate certain parts of the process, what are the challenges? And eventually we decided that I think even at that stage we realized that we don't have enough time or money. We have one shot at making this happen, but if don't do it, we're probably going to fail anyway. And we made that decision, it was one of the most stressful summers, especially for the development team, which back then was three people to build all the features. And yeah, we did the decision in May and we could confirm that things looked good by September, November. But when things look good, that usually means that it feels good. It doesn't show up on the bank account yet. Marcus Rader: Now, feeling good doesn't pay anyone's salary either, which is a problem when people want the salary. It doesn't matter how good it feels, but sometimes that's what you have to go with. And to us it felt good and we just had to sell the idea that it feels so good that in a couple of months we'll see some money on the bank accounts and that's exactly what happened. So, we were able to scale up our product or change it in a way so that bigger companies were able to utilize it and pay more for it. Khierstyn Ross: Because I can't imagine that being easy conversation where you decide internally to pivot away from something that's already proven to make revenue, have to go to your VCs, or your board of directors and say this is the move we want to make. I can't imagine that was an easy conversation. Marcus Rader: Yeah. Fortunately we didn't have to do that at that stage. We were so early on, that there wasn't really pressure. But of course for us it was massive pressure because we knew that our current business is not going to take us to the next stage and we have to make this change, but it's going to destroy a lot of what we built. And what nobody told us at that point is that the experience that we gained in the first couple of tries is going to make everything so much easier. So we actually thought it was going to be harder than it eventually was, but it would've been nice to have an outsider to come and say, look, you built this business already a couple of times and I need to rebuild it from scratch. It's going to be much easier. But it sure didn't feel like that when we made the decision. Khierstyn Ross: When did you know ... Can you go back to the moment when you realized, I think we made the right decision. When did that happen? Marcus Rader: I think, for me it was when ... I don't know, I had a realization one day, I don't even remember when it was at what stage, when I realized that we have gone from being an idea to being a startup, to struggling to survive, to be a company where we are in charge. We are not going to go bankrupt because we have the flexibility to make changes necessary, whatever happens. And that was one of the happiest days in my life because before that I had been constantly focusing on when are we running out of money. And the funny thing with a runway and with fast growing revenues is that things change every day, but you can also make future plans and then change them later on based on what happened yesterday when you have the actual information and that way you can adjust your own runway depending on how things are going. Khierstyn Ross: So, you would say this pivot gave you confidence to make massive business changes in the future where necessary. Marcus Rader: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. But, I would not look forward to doing a pivot any time soon because it's a lot easier when you don't have employees, when you don't have customers who rely on your product, you can make a lot of changes, and more importantly you can make mistakes. But once you have customers who rely on your product, and once you have employees who rely on either your leadership or in some cases maybe rely on getting a paycheck or I don't know what the employees appreciate more, then you can't just go around making a bunch of mistakes all the time and testing things out because it can upset a lot of people. So the changes have to be better planned and they have to be executed way better as you grow. Khierstyn Ross: Yeah. Well said. What's next for Hostaway then? Marcus Rader: Oh, that's exciting. I wish I could tell you, but we have a couple of exciting announcements coming up and you can see them on our social media on the upcoming months. Khierstyn Ross: Excellent. It's funny because when it's not a recorded conversation, maybe we'd go for beer, maybe over the raptors game on Friday, maybe I can find out from you. But anyway, I'll leave that for another conversation. So this has been awesome. I think I like to end this off with, do you have any famous last words or a piece of advice for your younger self? Marcus Rader: I've been Googling a lot on how to hire and recruit the right people and apparently that's something you're supposed to ask at a job interview. And I always thought that it's funny because nobody's asked me that question. No, I really don't have any advice for my younger self, I wish I could say be more confident or take charge and move forward at full speed, But that's pretty much what I've been doing anyway. Khierstyn Ross: Yeah, but still, what people need to hear. Marcus Rader: Yeah. I mean, I would like to give myself the advice to be more mature, but I also know that if someone from the future would come and tell me now, hey, you need to be more mature or do things in a more effective way then I wouldn't really believe them. And even if I did, I wouldn't know what that means or what to do. So, hopefully one day I'll be able to say that I can give advice to my 10 year younger self. Khierstyn Ross: Well, we all have lots to learn, right? So, well I'm going to wrap this here. If anyone listening wants to learn a bit more about what you guys are doing, what is a good spot to send them? Marcus Rader: The best spot and the best approach here, if you want to learn how to be amazing at life is to go to hostaway.com and look at the open jobs positions. Find the one you like and I guarantee you will find satisfaction. Khierstyn Ross: I agree. It's a fantastic company to work for and you guys are hiring for virtually every position right now. Marcus Rader: Yes, so every position, everywhere. Khierstyn Ross: That wraps up another interview. Thank you so much for listening. If you are planning a product launch on Kickstarter, I want to know if that platform is right for you for your product launch goals, whether you are just starting and this is your first product or you are a current brand and want to see how Kickstarter can help you build your audience and get your brand in front of more customers to really give you more street cred and momentum, really help you build as a brand. Then, you should head over to khierstyn.com/schedule and book a free strategy session with myself and my team to really look at what your product launch goals are and your branding needs essentially to see what we can do to help you build your audience. Khierstyn Ross: Apart from that, this wraps up another episode and because my name is so hard to spell, you should grab a pen and paper because how you spell it is K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N. So again, to schedule a free consult with our team, please go to khierstyn.com/schedule, and there will be a link in the description in the show notes, which you can get at khierstyn.com/LS05.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Launch and Scale podcast. This is episode four, and I'm Khierstyn Ross. In today's episode, we are going to be taking a look at what is my recommended software stack to use when building up an engaged audience for your product online. And this question was inspired by really Fernando Perez. He emailed in asking how we can incorporate click funnels into our overall plan? So I'm going to spend the next few minutes of this episode really diving in to help you simplify that process because I know that when you're getting started online there could be some confusion as to which software solution do you actually need and what is it for. So, when you are building up a targeted audience of people to reach out to when building up that audience in anticipation for your product launch or even a new business that you have, you can have contacts in different areas. You may have friends and colleagues on LinkedIn that have messaged you to say, "Yes, I really want to help support you." You may have people at work, you may have people from an existing customer base or email list that all say yes, "I'd love to be kept in contact and let me know when you're launching." And the problem with that is if you look at managing communication between multiple platforms, you may get overwhelmed because some people are your friends and you may think that they need different information on the product then a new email subscriber, and how really do you compartmentalize that data? So the answer is that you want to have one central spot online where people go to sign up for information to get updates on your product launch. So that's the very first thing is any communication you have, don't complicate it. You want to have one universal spot where everyone goes to not only learn more about your product but be notified when you're live. So you want to have one spot online. This is a landing page. So a landing page is going to be a one-page website with a little bit of product information on your product, of course, and information on when you're launching, and you want to have this website on a domain that is relevant to the product you're launching. So it could either be yourproductname.com it could be yourpersonaldomain.com if you don't currently own something that's having to do with your product, but have one central spot online where people go to subscribe and join your mailing list, so that's one thing. One kind of software we need to look at is what to do to build a landing page? That's phase one is landing page software. And the second one is when people actually go to this landing page online and they like your product information and they want to join your mailing list to stay up to date with your launch updates and get notified when you're live then you need to have a spot to actually organize and manage those email addresses. The thing is that when you are managing multiple hundreds of people that want to stay in contact with you, think of how crazy that's going to be to try to manage all that communication in Gmail. It's going to get lost and it's just going to be a bit of a nightmare. So you want to have, the second kind of software you want is an email CRM system where when someone inputs their email address on the landing page, that that landing page software will push that email onto a list in a software that will keep that nice and organized. And so that's where we get into an email CRM system as well. And then when you actually go to email your full mailing list, you can do that from one spot where you can automate emails and do a bunch of cool stuff. So those are the two kinds of software I want to look at is what is the recommended landing page software we need so that you can go in, don't worry, you don't need technical coding skills to do this. There're a lot of really simple, straightforward solutions that give you landing page templates you can use. So the first one is what is my recommended landing page software? I have a couple, depending on your budget. Personally, I am a massive fan of ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is a software that is $97 per month and I am an affiliate of ClickFunnels, but I'm a mega fan of Russell Brunson and the work that he does. I love ClickFunnels because they have really awesome templates and their builder is so easy so I can customize anything that I want to. And I found that when I was trying other landing page software’s a couple of years back that I got really frustrated by how clunky the system was and how not easy other software’s were to use. And so when I moved over to ClickFunnels, it's just, it's stupidly easy, which is awesome. So I love ClickFunnels because it's super customizable and you get really good analytics to tell you really how your landing page is performing in terms of how many people come to the page actually subscribe. And so that was excellent for me. That's more of the higher priced option. If you are on a budget or you don't want to spend $97 a month, other popular solutions, you could look at our Wix or Squarespace. They also have great builders, not necessarily as customizable as ClickFunnels. However, those are two lower priced software’s that end up being around the range of 20 to $40 per month. That's my first recommended software stack. And so Fernando, if you're, of course, you're listening to this, but you're wondering how to incorporate ClickFunnels into your overall plan, it's going to be to create that one spot online where people can go to learn more information about what you are working on. That's one thing. The second kind of software that we talked about is once people actually subscribe to your landing page, where does that information go? So the recommended software that I use is ActiveCampaign. Another popular solution is MailChimp and they start at, if you're just getting started with email marketing, they start around $9 per month and then they will increase in price based on the number of contacts you have. So that's more of a solution that you grow into. So those are the recommended software’s I use and that's really how the funnel works online. Where I find people get really stuck is when you do some research, you may look online and say, "Okay, well I need a website and a landing page and they're all these things happening and I don't really know. Maybe I need multiple landing pages for the different kinds of people I talk to. Maybe all these things." So just when you're setting yourself online with your landing page, just keep it simple. You don't need multiple URLs, you don't need multiple landing pages, you don't need all this fancy software. Just keep it really simple with what you need. Send everyone to one spot and that's going to help make your life a lot easier and make sure that you are keeping the same conversation with everyone so that you don't have all these different communications. So the other thing, I guess one common question I get, is what if you are coming into this episode and you say, "Okay, well I already have a website," what do you do in that case? So again, you have two options. If you've already built out a full website, then I recommend if you are planning on doing paid ads or sending people to a page, then I would still build a separate landing page specific to that product. Because if you already have a website where you're selling three to four different products, if you send traffic to the website where it's not specifically talking about your product, you're actually going to lose a lot of people because they may not know where on your website to go to find out more product information about the new launch. Right? So you want to have again, one central spot and if you have a landing page, what we did with Foundr is we did something, I don't remember the exact URL, but it was something like foundrmag.com/kickstarter so even though foundrmag.com was a full digital publication and it was their main business, Nathan didn't want to muddle the message on that by advertising the whole Kickstarter project all over his main page. So we had a designated spot, a designated landing page that again, you can use Squarespace, Wix, or ClickFunnels to set up, and then you would just set up a subdomain or a separate page on your website where you direct all traffic to. Again, just keep the conversation simple. So that's another easy way that you can really just navigate and set yourself up online so that you don't have literally a hundred different things going on. Keep it simple. One landing page. I love ClickFunnels, but again, if you don't want to use that Squarespace or Wix is good. If you do want to test out the different software’s, see which one works for you. I highly recommend that. I have links to all three software’s that you can access by going to Khierstyn.com/lso4. So in the show notes, so you can go down to recommended resources and there will be links to the software’s that we talked about in here. And apart from that, my name is really impossible to spell, so it's K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N. So again the link for that is Khierstyn.com/lso4 and apart from that, if you are working on building up your E-commerce brand or are looking to launch a product in the near future, let's talk, you can schedule a strategy consult with myself and my team by going to kiersten.com/schedule again, that's K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com you're listening today, guys. We will see you next time.

Welcome to The Launch and Scale Podcast. This is episode three and I'm Khierstyn Ross. The first thing I wanted to cover in today's episode is that Launch and Scale is now available on all major podcasting platforms. So whether you are Google Play, iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher, then you will be able to find Launch and Scale by just doing a quick search on those platforms. And please do subscribe and leave a review, an honest review if you are enjoying the content as it does help the show get found by other people. In today's episode, we are ... Well, I'm going to be covering a question from Tony Hawkins, which he wanted to know how do you go at it alone? What are some best practices for who to hire and when to hire that very first person when you are a solo entrepreneur and really looking at launching that first product, what does that look like? And to answer that question, unfortunately, there is no one right answer that fits everyone because the reality is that who your first hire really depends on what your strengths are as a person, on your budget, on ultimately what your goals are. So this episode is going to lay out a framework for how you can identify, really, and for your unique situation, who that first hire should be and when the heck you should actually bring them on. Before you look at what you need to outsource and who that first hire needs to be, you actually have another question that you should be asking yourself. Now the difference between ... A big difference between people that succeed and people that don't seem to get anywhere is that the ones that succeed actually know what they're working towards. And they know how to measure progress towards that goal. And before we can really look at what to outsource, we first have to make sure that what we're actually focusing our time on and the activities that we are looking to do on a daily basis are actually going to get you towards where you are trying to go. First thing I want to do is I don't want to look at what to outsource. I want to look at defining where you're going. So the first step in figuring out really what to outsource is asking yourself, what are you trying to achieve? Now, it's important to pick one goal. What is your big, wildly important goal? And that is the thing that really you will start to define things that you can measure your success towards. So here's an example. In the crowdfunding space, if your goal is to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter and six months from now, then that is your big goal. Your big goal is to raise $50,000. But then how are you actually getting to that point? So when you set that goal of $50,000, the next thing to do is to break down that goal into one measurable thing that you can do every day to achieve that so that every day when you wake up or at the end of every week, you can look back on the week and say, "Great, I specifically made measurable progress toward my goal because I did this one thing." When you look at this, I would look at, okay, I have a goal of $50,000. What is the one thing I can do that is going to move the needle toward getting me toward that goal? Okay, build my audience. Okay, cool. So I need to find people that are going to pledge toward my Kickstarter campaign in six months. But the problem with setting the goal as build my audience is it's not specific, and it's not measurable, and it's too ... Not fluffy, but it's just it's not a smart goal. It's not a goal that you can track whether or not you're actually moving toward it because build audience is really not specific. So when you take ... Number one, we've established the big goal, which is raising $50,000. But then you want to use the question, what is the biggest, I guess, the best thing I could do that's going to move me toward that is build my audience? Great. Or find people to pledge my campaign. They're both in the same. But what is a metric or a key performance indicator, AKA, KPI's that you can use every day so that if you just do that one thing, that one measurable thing, you're moving toward that goal? So in this case when you say, "Okay, the big goal is 50,000. What can I do and what is one thing I could do every single day that is measurable that will move me toward that goal?" And that's when you look at, okay, my measurable target is talking to five people every day. Or that target could build my email list by 200 people every day. Or it could conduct 10 customer interviews a week. Those are all measurable specific things that move you toward that bigger goal of building the audience to, again, hit $50,000. So that's a very specific measurable achievable thing. Because, again, if you start to move forward every single day without really defining what you're working toward, it's going to be very easy for time to slip away and you to be focusing your time on the wrong things that don't actually move you toward your goal. So it's important to start with the end in mind, define where you're going, and then work backward through measurable targets. Another example of this is like when I did the Iron Man Triathlon. So if you followed the older podcast, Crowd Funding Uncut, you will have followed me through that journey of training for a so-called death race because you have 17 hours to complete a triathlon which covers 140.6 miles, which is nuts. So it's like a swim, bike, run combination. But the reality is that I was never an athlete growing up. And me embarking to do triathlons really felt like within a five-year span, I went from running 5K to competing in an Iron Man Triathlon. So of course, when I embarked on that, I didn't know how I was supposed to prepare my body to be able to endure 140.6 miles. And so what I did was I hired a coach. And the coach defined the goal. So my goal in athlete terms is to complete the Iron Man. Okay, and so because the Iron Man is based on certain distances, for example, I need to run a marathon, I need to be able to swim 2.4 miles, and bike 112 miles. So those are measurable targets. And then when we look at breaking down the goal into measurable things every single day or every week, I knew that the coach would break it down so that my KPI or my measurable target was, okay, if I do this workout and I complete my workouts every single day, that will eventually move me toward my goal. But if I do not complete my workout, then there's a very good chance that my body will not be ready to perform at that elite level. So that's another example of you take the end goal in mind of the triathlon and then you break it down into bite size pieces where you can actually measure your performance to see if you are ready. And so those are two examples of really looking at the end in mind and moving forward. Whenever we bring on new clients or do strategy sessions or whatnot, that is the very first thing we do is we have to define what your big goal is and then work backward. So I need you to do the same thing. So we've covered the first two steps. The first step is to define your big goal. The second step is to break it down into measurable targets. Don't complicate this. I would choose one metric where if you did this one thing every day, you can tell what yes or no, whether it's moving you toward your big goal. Now that we've taken a look at those two, the next thing I would recommend is to have a system for keeping track of whether you actually do the thing or not every day. You can use a whiteboard calendar, or piece of paper, or even ... Just something to track on a 30-day schedule because that ... It's going to become like a nice high every time you do that. It'll give you a sense of accomplishment, which is awesome. So I do that. I strongly recommend it to you. The next thing we have to look at is once you've defined where you're going and how you're going to measure progress toward that goal, we have to actually look at what is happening in practice with your time. So the next thing I want you to do is to ... I highly recommend that you track what is actually happening in your life and business over a seven-day period. To tack this, again, I would just keep it simple. Use the current ... Something that you can have on your desk. So be it a simple eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper that you draw a calendar on or you do that. Or you use your current planner to keep track of what's happening. Khierstyn Ross: But the goal here is to, for the next seven days, I want you to track where you're spending your time. So every single hour, no matter what you're doing, put a timer in a phone to remind you every hour to create a summary of what you worked on. And then at the end of the seven days ... And remember, during the seven-day period, no judgment. Don't make changes. Just look at where your time is actually being spent so that at the end of the week you can do an analysis of all the things that are on your plate or all the things that you're doing that ... And you can assess whether they are actually things that are important and moving you toward your goal or if they need to be deleted completely or even delegated. So the first step, do the seven-day spread. And then when you do that, the next thing you should do is take out a sheet of paper after the seven days and summarize exactly where you spend your time. So put them into buckets. For example, you may say, "Okay, I spent my time marketing. I spent my time doing ... Emailing my friends for outreach. I spent my time writing Facebook ads. I spent my time on LinkedIn. I spent my time on Candy Crush. I spent my time on," and just compartmentalize it so you can have a massive list of all the things that you do in a regular week. And the next thing to do after that point is to analyze. Successful people are really self-aware and they are really good at understanding what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are. If you realize that this is an opportunity for growth in your life, two resources I recommend. One is to complete the Myers–Briggs Personality Test. And the other one is to do a Strengths Finder 2.0. These will both be linked in the description, which you can go to the show notes at Khierstyn.com/LS03 and you will find this post with the show notes with links to both of those. Anyway, so with that being said, when you spent the last seven days blocking your time, and tracking it, and then you create the list, when you analyze the list, you want to look at it from the lens of what are my strengths and what are the weaknesses that I'm doing on this thing because you will be doing a combination of both at this point. And then make two lists, strengths and weaknesses. Off of this list, you want to really look at the things that you are spending your time on on a weekly basis. Are they things that ... Is there anything on that list that is not moving you toward that goal? That is not actually helping you make measurable progress. For example, skimming Facebook may not be something that moves you toward your goal. So what on that list can be completely deleted? These are things that are not actually getting you toward your goal. The other side of things, which is the whole purpose of this podcast episode is to create a list of things you can delegate. So things you can delegate are typically your weaknesses. If you are ... And I find that the founders that we work with, their strengths are usually marketing, for example. So well say if you are a founder that's really good at copyrighting or you're a founder that's really good at product development or that sort of thing, those are not things that you want to outsource because that is your literal zone of genius. That's where you thrive. This is where you're the best at it. And you outsourcing some of your strengths may actually do you a disservice. So where we want to look at your delegate list or your outsource list is really in your weaknesses. So what are the weaknesses that you feel that you have to do but you are not necessarily the best at it? And so that would be the delegation list. If you ... So for example, in product launches, a key skill that people should have if you are looking to do paid ads is Facebook. And at that point, you can look at, is my strength Facebook ads? And if it is not your strength, that will probably be on your delegate list. And at that point, you ask yourself, "Okay, if Facebook ads is super important but I'm really not comfortable or I'm really not good at it," that is probably a key contender for something that you're going to outsource. However, if it's not in the budget, then you would weigh that against, okay, is that a priority for me to learn and get better at? Because, of course, you can develop your strengths. If you ... So I'll give you a couple of examples. Like when you're doing a product launch or running a business, I typically don't recommend that you do it alone and that you actually have some leverage support. And if you have a bit of a budget, it's important to look at ... I'll give you an example. You may want to do this alone, but you don't have to do this alone. Working with one of our clients, he educated himself in Facebook ads and how to do it so that he knew he was able to talk to Facebook ad specialists and kind of understand the data they were presenting him so that he knew how to make a ... He knew how to hire the right person and also how to see whether the results they were getting was good or not. So that he knew that his weakness may be Facebook ads, but he educated himself on it so that he would be able to know what he was talking about without actually having to do it. That is key ... That's a really awesome skillset that you can have that you may want to understand and educate yourself on all aspects of your weaknesses so that when you delegate it, you are able to keep up with the person you are delegating it to. However, it doesn't mean you actually have to do the thing. Another thing is we have Jordan in our Launch and Scale program where he ... One of the big things that he loved about our program is because we educated him on all aspects of marketing a product, he didn't necessarily have to do all of the marketing himself. But when he hired and was looking for agencies and looking for hired marketing help, he really was able to talk to them with confidence and manage them with confidence, even though he may have had no experience with Facebook ads himself. But he was able to educate himself, which gave him a leg up when it came to outsourcing things. So I wanted to cover that because you may be thinking when you're looking at ... When you've created your delegate list and you think, "Oh, I could save some money and do my own Facebook ads," yeah, you probably can, but if you have the budget for it, you're actually going to be saving a lot more time that you can use on something else that's going to move your project forward more. But if you are like, "Okay, well, I don't want to outsource Facebook ads because I don't even know where to look," it is important to educate yourself a little bit on it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be the one to do the Facebook ads. So yeah, I guess, in summary, we have looked at why you should not look at creating an outsource list without defining where you're actually going and having a measurable way to track progress. And then when you are in your day to day, really understanding where you're spending your time, and analyzing that time, and breaking it down into a delete or delegate list based on your strengths and weaknesses. So apart from that, that wraps up this episode. Thank you for sticking around to the end. I hope you guys got some good value from it. If you dig the show, please do head over to iTunes or your preferred podcasting platform and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And if you actually have a product that you want us to walk through, the strategy around your launch or whatnot, you can head over to Khierstyn.com/schedule and schedule a one-on-one session with myself and my team. And again, my name's a little complicated so here's how you spell it. It's K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com/schedule. Apart from that, we will talk to you next time.

Hey, guys. Welcome to episode one of the Launch and Scale podcast. If you are confused and wondering why there is an episode before this, that is the overview episode. That is a way to give you a flavor of the show and see if this is something that you want to give a shot and listen to. If this is your first time listening to the show, be sure to head over to khierstyn.com/podcast and subscribe to the show, and if you like what you hear, please do leave a review, as it helps other people find the show. If you cannot find my name, it's probably because you can't spell it. No one can spell my name properly, but that's the fun in this. My name is spelled K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com. I'm just stoked about this episode. Last week, I emailed the Crowdfunding Uncut family, which is the name of the old brand. That launch and scale evolved too. I asked them what do you want to learn in e-commerce? Here are the name and the topic of the new show Launch and Scale. What is a question you'd like me to cover? Brett Buxton is one of the people that emailed in a question, and actually, his evolved into a two-parter. The meat of his question is covered in episode two, so the next one, which is how to make sure people actually want your product before you sink thousands of dollars into it. Brett, where he's at in his product cycle is he is an Amazon seller that is now creating a proprietary product, so a product that is his own. It's not necessarily a white label product or a commoditized product like on Amazon because he wants to actually build a brand around a product that he owns the IP for. His question had that in there, so I was like that would actually also make a good branch of an episode. I'm going to read his question in episode two because his question is heavily related to product validation and being sure that someone wants your product before you actually go and sink money into it. For this episode though, the question really is do you have a me-too product or do you have a brand? Because frankly, in my mind, I think that you cannot have both at the same time. I think that one should evolve into the other or you make the conscious decision to go with one and grow into it as you go. Let's start by looking at what a me-too product is. A me-too product is as it sounds. It's like a knockoff or it is a white label version of something that's already selling. If you are someone that wants a me-too product, you would generally go to Alibaba, look for the manufacturer of that product, and then slap your brand name on it and then start to sell that product. With me too products, typically you'll find them on ... in my world, it's Amazon sellers that start off with the me-too products. There's nothing wrong with me too. I think it's an excellent gateway plan to learn the ins and outs of manufacturing and bringing a product to market. It does have its downsides, which we'll talk about with the what is a brand in a second, but me too products have one thing that I don't like, and it is a race to the bottom. In my mind, you sell a product or a service based on price or quality. With Amazon, with me too products, unfortunately, it is just so easy to sell based on the price that you, by actually being a best seller in a product, may have another seller come in and undercut your prices because they've found a way to manufacture and create your product better and faster. So, it's a quick race to the bottom of the price war, which actually is a detrimental long term strategy because if you have a product that's selling really well and you have healthy margins and everything is great, any day some other seller can come in and undercut your prices in half. Suddenly, they start to take all the traffic that you got, and it's dangerous because at that point you're going to be ending up slashing your prices if you are only selling to people that value price over value. With that quick race to the bottom, unfortunately, your prices, you keep slashing them and slashing them and slashing them to a point where you actually barely make any margin or profit off of that product anymore, and suddenly you don't have a sustainable business because you need margin in the product to be able to actually grow this company. While me too products are, I think, a really great gateway to getting into e-commerce, it's dangerous in my opinion to stake your whole livelihood and build a business off of me too products because there is the risk of other people undercutting you on price, which is why I'm in the brand category. Well, a brand in the traditional sense is any product that is manufactured under a specific name. Technically speaking, you could say that me too products, if you have a product with your logo on it, that is also a brand. But, that's not what I mean when I say that I'm in the brand category. Brand and building a brand is by building a product with an associated name, where that name has quality and a perception of value behind it. A name brand, for example, can be both. A name brand could be Mercedes. A name brand could be McDonald's, where those names inspire certain feelings inside of you. They inspire a certain image of quality behind it. Whereas your perception of McDonald's may be crappy food, it could also be a great hangover cure. Whereas if you're looking for someone who values quality and workmanship in a vehicle, you may not buy the Ford or the Toyota, you may go and buy the BMW, the Mercedes. So, there is a different element of perception of value when you're actually looking at designing a brand for yourself. The brand is something where the main objective for the buyer when they buy your product is they are purchasing your product because of the perception of value, which is very different from selling based on price alone, which is when you are focusing on getting into certain product niches on Amazon that sell just because they're hot markets right now. That's dangerous because you're selling based on price versus a brand. When you have a brand, I associate this with having your own website, your own name, your own customer service ethos, and you're really looking to have a premium product where you stand behind the workmanship, that's what I mean by brand. To take this a step further, brands focus on the person they are selling to. Let's look at the difference between that and the product focused. Whereas with me too products, if you are looking at white labeling something, typically the reason you're doing that is that you're looking for an opening in the market where there's a healthy amount of people buying but a low amount of competition, so it's a profitable niche for you. At that point, you're making your decisions on the product purely from this thing is going to sell standpoint. That's really where a lot of sellers get their start online. While you may have a successful business off of that, if you're looking at building something more fast growth, long term sustainable, the way to do that is by selling to the person. Let's look at why that is. Let's use the example of yoga. If I decide to go into me-too product space online and I've identified that thin, lightweight yoga mats are hot sellers right now and there isn't a lot of competition, I might decide to slap my label, Khierstyn's Yoga Mats, onto an Amazon product and sell it. However, the downside to that is that when I start to become a best seller in that category, someone else can come in and undercut my prices and sell the same thing for half the price. That is just how it goes. Then, I'll be constantly competing on price as opposed to perceived value. Let's say I then, after that failure, I decide to go and launch khierstynsyogamats.com and this time I choose to not stake my success in all one product, but I decide to use a rebrand as a premium yoga mat where the name Khierstyn has this perception of value. I now can sell my product at a premium price, I can have product guarantees, and then I can now interact with my customers because I decide to do cool health tips via email marketing and choose to really build a relationship with people and use khierstynsyogamats.com to eventually build out a suite of products. The difference with that versus a me-too product is the me-too product really focuses on that one product that can get bombed really quickly on Amazon versus by you looking long term with your product, by associating it with a brand and a website that you own, you can actually do a lot more for the customer and focus on creating products that serve their needs and also being a resource online for them in that space. When I say an online brand, that is the route I mean. Again, downsides with the brand are that it takes some time to build up that trust and credibility. However, you are building your house, essentially, because you're building something that has longevity, something you own. You own your customer list and you are not at risk of say, Amazon shutting down your account or getting involved in that price war on Amazon. I wanted to use this episode to really define the difference between me too white label commoditized products versus a brand because ultimately Launch and Scale is about how to brandify your products, essentially, to give you longevity to create something that you can sell, something you own, and something that truly serves the person that you are going after. It really takes your product to a different dimension, depending on really what you're looking to build with this thing and to see what the right method is for you. Hey, if you aren't sure what the right approach for you is or if you want to talk about brand strategy and go to market, head over to khierstyn.com/schedule and you can schedule a strategy session with myself or my team. Again, to spell my name, it's K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com/schedule. Apart from that, that wraps up this episode. If you like what you hear, please do subscribe. Email into the show if you have a question that you want covered on a future podcast. We do give shout-outs, as you know. Again, to reach me or our team will be support@khierstyn.com. Apart from that, that wraps up this Launch and Scale episode one, and we'll see you next time.

Gareth Everard ran a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign when he launched the first product that led to the founding of Rockwell Razors. He used that first campaign to launch several other successful product lines and made the transition to make it a sustainable brand. But his road to success was not an easy one. In today’s episode, Gareth shares his story of the manufacturing problems he ran into and what he did to keep those troubles from causing his product to fail. If you’re launching a product, or even thinking about it,  you’ll want to join us and learn all you can from Gareth’s experience. What made Gareth Everard’s crowdfunding campaign so successful? Gareth Everard’s first crowdfunding campaign exceeded its goal the first day and made 12 times that goal by the end of the campaign! In this episode, Gareth talks about how he chose his product, how an online community made a huge difference in the success of his campaign, and how he navigated the challenges that came his way. Listen in to gain some great tips and ideas for a successful crowdfunding campaign. When your crowdfunding campaign becomes a series of unfortunate events As Gareth Everard describes it, his crowdfunding campaign became a series of unfortunate events when he discovered that his manufacturer had massively misled him regarding their capability for producing a quality product. In this episode, Gareth tells me about how he overcame this huge obstacle in a way that allowed him to keep his backers and customers and successfully launch additional products. It wasn’t easy. Listen in and learn from Gareth’s experience how you can prevent your crowdfunding campaign from ruining your life.  The one factor that made Gareth Everard successful turning his campaign into an actual business Are you wondering how to create a business out of your crowdfunding campaign? Do you want to learn from someone who did it well? Gareth Everard was successful in turning his campaign into an actual business. In this episode, he talks about the one factor that played the biggest part in his success. And it’s not what you might think. Listen to this interview to learn what you need to do to keep your backers and customers receptive to new products. Is Kickstarter or Indiegogo the better creator for my crowdfunding campaign? Are you trying to decide which creator would be the best for you to use for your crowdfunding campaign? In this episode, Gareth Everard provides some insight into Kickstarter and Indiegogo and which one will likely best serve your needs, based on where you are in your product development. Listen in for some great advice that will help you make a good decision about the platform you want for your campaign. Outline of This Episode Introducing one of my favorite humans, Gareth Everard, founder of Rockwell Razors. How Rockwell got started, in Gareth’s senior year of college. How Gareth chose what product to go after. To what did Gareth Everard attribute his overnight success? When your crowdfunding campaign becomes a series of unfortunate events. What Gareth did with the new manufacturer to make sure the same problems didn’t happen again. Gareth’s advice on manufacturing and fulfillment. Setting pricing and shipping and customer perception. The one factor that made Gareth Everard successful turning his campaign into an actual business. How Backer Kit helped Gareth decide on new products. Using backerKit to recover transactions that are lost due to Kickstarter. Is Kickstarter or Indiegogo the best creator for my crowdfunding campaign? Two words of advice for anyone launching a campaign. Resources Mentioned RockwellRazors.com Gareth’s E-mail - Include “Crowdfunding Uncut” in the subject line Tech Crunch: How to fail at Kickstarter even if you get funded Venture beat: How my Kickstarter blew up my life Shipfusion Episode #60:  Reversing the Manufacturing Death Spiral Wicked Edge Reddit community Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Contact Khierstyn at www.khierstyn.com  Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off set-up charges Gadget Flow

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, a book of short stories about extraordinary women,  surpassed one million in preorders, in spite of the small budget that was available for advertising. Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo did not expect the success that came their way. But, looking back, they have realized the steps they took that all worked together for their project to become the most funded book in crowdfunding history. Listen to this interview with Elena Favilli to hear the story of their campaign and learn the secrets to their success. How to know if there is a market for your product Testing the market for Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls began with Elena and Francesca’s newsletter audience. In this episode, Elena details how they entered into open dialogue with their readers and how that dialogue informed the decisions they made and eventually led to the launch of their book. Listen to this conversation to learn how you can engage your audience early in your project and ensure that you are creating something they really want. Taking orders before your product goes live - Does it help or hurt your campaign? Once Elena knew that there was a market for her product, she sent out a Google doc with a link to purchase. While it might seem that this could be a mistake and hurt her campaign, the result was quite the opposite. In this interview, Elena discusses how they went about choosing the people who would receive the Google doc, and how the response to it drove the success of their campaign and helped them exceed their goals even with their small marketing budget.   How to keep the community energized throughout your campaign  Keeping the community #engaged and energized throughout their# campaign was important to Elena and Francesca of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. In this episode, Elena explains how they managed their updates and stretch goals in such a way that their community became their ambassadors for their campaign. The engaged community was a major factor in allowing their launch to succeed with a small advertising budget. Listen in to find out what you can do to keep your community energized! Elena Favilli’s top two marketing tips for people on a budget with a great product Elena Favilli has two marketing tips for anyone who has a great product and a tight budget. First, do a lot of research for journalists who might be interested in covering your campaign. Second, make your video great. In this episode, Elena shares details about both strategies. She clarifies when and how to establish relationships with journalists that can help your campaign succeed, and describes the most important qualities for your video, which don’t include spending a lot of money on it. Listen to this interview to get the details on these two tips that can lead to a successful campaign on a small budget! Outline of This Episode  Why Khierstyn loves Backerkit (sponsor Info). Introducing Elena Favilli and the surprising success of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls Elena’s first steps in discovering that there was a market for her product. Elena’s story of testing the market and starting preorders before the campaign. The process and effect of taking pre-orders before the Goodnight Stories campaign. How Elena chose the people for the preorder release   Break: BackerKit - How to keep organized after your campaign (sponsor info). The value of validating your product and educating yourself on the crowdfunding process. How Goodnight Stories kept building and avoided the mid-campaign slump. Keeping the community energized through updates and stretch goals. How Elena and Francesca used their small advertising budget. Elena’s top two marketing tips for people on a budget with a great product. How Elena pitched her project to journalists. How Elena and Francesca completed their launch without outside help. Khierstyn’s similar experience with validation, and your invitation to Crowdfunding Product Launch Academy. If you would like to contact Khierstyn, please visit www.khierstyn.com  Resources Mentioned  Elena’s Rebel Girls website Launch, byJeff Walker  Ask, by Ryan Levesque Brian Harris (10K Subs) Friezen (printer in Canada) The Crowdfunding Product Academy Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services Gadget Flow

Have you ever seen a Mystic Unicorn poop creamy, delicious, ice cream? If you caught the viral sensation ad for the Squatty Potty then you are familiar with some of Derral’s work. But Derral was not always making millions of dollars for himself and his clients creating incredible direct response video ads. After Derral Eves graduate from college with a degree in Public Relations and Advertising he landed his “dream job”: As a Hospital Administrator. No Really. That WAS his dream job. And he loved it… at first. Within six months of diving in he had saved his new company $680,000 and went to his boss for a $10,000 per year raise. A 1.5% commission seems like a pretty good deal eh? Well, not according to his boss, because if Derral got the tiny raise he was asking for he would be making more money than his direct supervisor. We wouldn’t want to rock the boat over a measly $680,000 saved in the first six months on the job, would we? “I knew right then and there that I needed to get out... I needed to work somewhere where my work was appreciated.” Despite having a brand new baby and wanting the security of a salary for his family, in 1999 Derral ended up in business for himself generating traffic for websites and doing internet marketing. In the early days, Derral was being paid a base for his work but ALSO a commission of final sales, so he was looking for every possible way to get visits to convert into sales. And video was his Golden Ticket. Fast forward to 2016, Derral has been the Executive Producer and Project Lead for the Squatty Potty ad, he’s launched the musical careers of the Piano Guys from retail piano store owners to  global sensation, and recently celebrated over 1.8 BILLION total views on Youtube from videos he has produced. This episode is NOT about a specific crowdfunding project or crowdfunding necessarily. But it IS about the most crucial element of your crowdfunding campaign that you have to nail if you want to beat your funding goal: Your Video. People who come to your page will base the majority of their buying decision on quality of the MESSAGE in the video, (fortunately, NOT the “expensiveness” of the production). In this episode, Derral is going to teach you exactly how to make a video with a MESSAGE that sells. Derral considers himself a student of crowdfunding videos and offers up a number of wildly successful crowdfunded campaign videos as examples of his concepts at work. This could be the most actionable podcast I have ever recorded. Pay attention, listen to it at least a half a dozen times. Especially pay attention to how to study successful crowdfunding video online, and it will all but guarantee you hit your crowdfunding goal. You will learn: The 5 Step The Power Pitch Formula Derral uses in EVERY single one of his videos, beit a sales video for a Shark Tank client, a 1 minute sneak peek video for his own sites, to drive traffic, sales, and virality. How to get someone like Howard Stern to endorse your product, and how to leverage that endorsement into credibility and sales. Why your crowdfunding video MUST inspire for it to have a chance. Why Derral doesn’t work on the FIRST 15 seconds of his videos until the AFTER the rest is done, and why he spends MORE TIME working on the intro than the rest of the video combined. Why every single video you make needs just ONE Call To Action. The biggest mistake most video marketers make that kills sales, and how to avoid it in your campaign. Why video is the BEST way to sell your products and services without you being in the room face to face with your prospect. Why “30 seconds ads” are a relic from TV and long form “edutainment” ads on the internet are crushing them in sales. How to study the most successful Crowdfunding videos to be able to model their structure to basically guarantee your success. Why “authenticity” is so important, and how a low budget iPhone video can beat a high budget production if it is more aligned and authentic to your story. The importance of having at least three “credibility pieces”, and how you can get them even if you consider yourself an “unknown, inexperienced, rookie”. To contact Khierstyn visit www.khierstyn.com 

Cheat Sheet Burnout is inevitable if you try to do everything yourself. When you start to feel overwhelmed, that is when you should start outsourcing. Start small, with discrete, one-off tasks, that you could do, but someone else could do a lot better. For example, if you aren’t a graphic designer, don’t  mess around in photoshop! As you get used to outsourcing tiny projects, your confidence in other people and their abilities will grow. Never settle for less than awesome. If you fail to delegate a task that could be better done by a specialist and instead do it yourself, you are settling for less. Settling is the path to mediocrity. An Entrepreneur is someone who builds a team to solve a problem. A solopreneur is someone who tries to do it all themselves. Which do you want to be?   About this Episode If you have been preparing for your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign then you are probably finding out just how much stuff you have to do: Build an audience Source manufacturing Build a website Logos Copywriting Talk to potential customers Iterate Pay your bills in the meantime Patents Sleep Date night with your significant other Etc... Oh yeah! And design your product! And if you are like most of the people I talk to, you are probably a rookie in most, if not ALL of these categories! When you are researching any one of these tasks, you have probably realized that you can go REALLY DEEP into any one of them. There are awesome, in-depth products on each one of these fields. So where do you start - other than with my Product Launch Checklist? Your time is scarce. It takes time to execute everything you want to execute... It takes more time to learn how to execute what you want to execute… And it takes the MOST TIME to sort through all the information out there just to decide WHAT to learn and who to learn from before getting down to the business of learning and then executing. And because you may not have the financial resources to go on a mad hiring binge, nor have the experience to be able to properly vet the people you want to hire, you probably fall into what this week’s guest, Chris Ducker, calls.... SUPERHERO SYNDROME Superhero syndrome is where we as entrepreneurs try to do everything ourselves. And that is incredibly overwhelming. It is hard enough to learn one new task as opposed to 10, and to be able to complete the task to your own high standard, let alone your customer’s. At some point, the only solution is to cut something or hire someone to do it. Enter Chris Ducker. Those of you who have been following me for a while will recognize this episode from my original podcast, Entrepreneur Uncut #19. But I have been getting so many calls from overwhelmed project creators that I decided to repost it for you here. This episode is a crash course on both how to decide what to outsource, and how to outsource. It applies as much, if not more, to crowdfunding Project Creators as it does to any other entrepreneur. Chris explains in detail his concept of the 3 Lists Of Freedom that I have personally used to delegate tasks in my business. When I got started advising entrepreneurs launch crowdfunding campaigns I was doing most of the work myself. But now, I have a team of people that help me do the copywriting, customer support, and technical work, while I focus on strategy, media outreach, and quarterbacking the whole project. Listen to this episode, go through the 3 Lists of Freedom exercise, outsource something small, and then get some sleep! Your business will thank you for it. If you would like to contact Khierstyn, please visit www.khierstyn.com  Resources mentioned ChrisDucker.com YouPreneur.com The New Business Podcast Virtual Staff Finder Virtual Freedom Tropical Think Tank

When weighing the options for crowdfunding, most project creators opt for a months-long process to ensure optimum success. In some cases, however, time is not abundant. This was the case when Bryce Fisher of Ravean Heated Jackets approached his first Kickstarter campaign. The timeline from idea to prototype to crowdfunding campaign was just a few weeks long, giving Bryce a time crunch to meet his goals. The question is, how do you find success with so little time to raise funds? In his chat with Khierstyn, Bryce unveils the secrets that helped Ravean launch with a bang, in spite of having just a couple of weeks. The importance of marketing in order to spread the word. As Bryce approached the Kickstarter campaign for Ravean, he knew spreading the word quickly would be the only way to find his supporters. With a little trial and error, he was able to connect with his target market via social media and gain incredible support in a short time. Bryce shares some secrets that can help you connect your product to the sometimes-elusive target market that is essential to the success of any crowdfunding campaign. Driving traffic to his site was key, Bryce explains, and his strong focus on those efforts have given him the edge Ravean needs to maintain vigorous support. The #1 best practice of the Ravean campaign. When planning a crowdfunding campaign, it’s pretty clear customers will either make or break you. Bryce explains why customer validation was the #1 reason for success with his Kickstarter campaign, and how he maintained this as his top priority throughout the campaign. He delves deeper into some key strategies by sharing marketing techniques that truly transformed his campaign. Finding your niche will help to drive all-important organic traffic to the campaign, which saves time and money in gaining support. Why the campaign picture and headline are key. A great first impression is essential to any interaction. Bryce explains the role of having a clear, eye-catching campaign photo in converting customers. He offers a few tips that can give any crowdfunding campaign the edge. Getting potential supporters to your campaign page is just half the battle and Bryce shares the importance of the details as you create your campaign. He shares his top 3 marketing focuses and how he applied mistakes from his first campaign to his current Indiegogo campaign. By understanding the key differences between Kickstarter and Indiegogo, future crowdfunders will be better equipped to choose the best platform for their product. Bryce explains what’s next for Ravean. Bryce shares with great passion the unique heated jackets offered by Ravean and what he sees as the next steps for his company. By continuing to focus on quality and customer validation as top priorities, Bryce believes the sky is the limit for this growing company. After far exceeding the goals set by his first Kickstarter campaign, Ravean continues to see success in the current Indiegogo campaign. He shares his key learnings and future goals for Ravean with Khierstyn. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE: Khierstyn’s introduction of Bryce Fisher of Ravean, who shares how he built a successful Kickstarter campaign in a short period of time. Bryce explains his current project status. Understanding Ravean and the inspiration behind the Ravean Heated Jacket. Why Bryce started his campaign later in the process than most, giving himself less time to raise funds. The process of marketing the campaign and spreading the word within the 2-week window. What is the #1 reason for the success of the Ravean Kickstarter campaign? Bryce explains how he drives traffic to the Ravean site. Overcoming the marketing limitations present in a short-term campaign. The #1 best practice during the Ravean campaign. What is the #1 mistake made on this campaign Bryce would avoid in future campaigns? What insight into customers does Kickstarter give you after project completion? Bryce’s reasons for choosing to run an Indiegogo campaign after his Kickstarter campaign. The resources Bryce used in the push to get his campaign off the ground. The importance of understanding the competition in finding traction as you approach your campaign. Setting a realistic marketing budget for a campaign. The top 3 things you should be spending your marketing budget on for a Kickstarter campaign. Indiegogo versus Kickstarter as a crowdfunding platform. What’s next for Ravean? Why did Bryce choose to continue using crowdfunding to launch new products after having a successful Kickstarter campaign? Ways to connect with Bryce. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Ravean Ravean Indiegogo Campaign Kickstarter Indiegogo Coolest Cooler CONNECT WITH Bryce: www.Ravean.com CONNECT WITH KHIERSTYN: www.khierstyn.com   

So great to have Khierstyn Ross in the show today. Khierstyn is the Managing Director of her own business, the Crowdfunding Uncut, based in Toronto, Canada. She helps business owners who are looking to gain international exposure for their physical product and build long-term and sustainable business. She used to be a Senior General Manager at Student Works Painting. Her task was mainly as a consultant who streamlines company operations for strategic growth targets. One of her excellent achievements during her stint there was the implementation of the required changes for Student Works to do $6M in revenue for 2013. Today she shared how joining Student Works made her get out of commoditized space and how she was able to create something new. Not only that, but she also talked about her way of networking, what she does and where she goes to find a different set of eyes. That’s not all; you will also her talk about what she does to keep her on track of her habits, what are the tools she used to do that. Khierstyn did not hold any details that will not help you in your journey as an emerging leader. Sit back and enjoy! Learn More: https://studentworks.com

Khierstyn Ross     What does it take to start a successful crowdfunding campaign? Khierstyn Ross knows the secrets – and she’s learned through her own successes and failure. After her first attempt at a crowdfunding campaign failed miserably, she worked hard to learn from her mistakes and ended up raising $600,000 in funding… and going on to become a crowdfunding guru who helps her clients bring exciting new products to market. In this episode, Kuda Biza and Alexander Star talk to Khierstyn to learn the secrets of her success. Listen now to learn what goes into a successful campaign on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, as well as how Khierstyn discovered how to harness her personal strengths to become a successful entrepreneur and scale her consulting business. Khierstyn is refreshingly transparent about how she learned through trial and error, meaning that this episode is full of takeaways about tuning into your own strengths and finding your own personal route to success.

Khierstyn’s guest for this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut is Paul Nadeau, skilled hostage negotiator and the person who is going to revolutionize how you think about stopping self-sabotage. He takes his knowledge of negotiating with people in crises and applies it to personal and professional situations, giving you the best chance at finding success and happiness in your own life. It’s an episode that is going to help you advance your career, find fulfillment, and learn how to prevent your subconscious from sabotaging your success. Don’t miss this insightful and inspirational episode. How are hostage negotiations and business transactions connected? Paul transitioned from his background in traditional police force work into hostage negotiations because he learned how to communicate persuasively with people - a skill that is necessary for any business environment. He frequently takes people who have reached the end of their rope and renegotiates a situation into one where everyone is given the best chance to succeed and find peace. These scenarios were not approached with an inflated sense of bravado and an abundance of pre-formed answers to the problems at hand. Rather, he followed a refined process that always kept the human factors in mind. On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut Paul explains to Khierstyn that you can’t judge a person before you get into the situation and identify all the details. You must then ask them, "What is it you want? What is going on with you right now?" Making that personal connection with an individual (hostage or potential client) is key for the interaction to be successful. They must know you, like you, and trust you in order for any solution to succeed. Taking your time, having empathy for the individual, and working together towards a solution works for hostage crises and business interactions. Paul draws on his extensive experiences to offer you a great explanation as to why these two seemingly separate scenarios are linked, and it’s something you don’t want to miss. The first step in stopping self-sabotage is learning how to recognize your own self-worth Paul and Khierstyn are adamant on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut that every individual is worthy of success, happiness, and fulfillment. These wonderful things only come after recognizing your own self-worth. In order to stop self-sabotage, you must take the time to recognize the areas of life that you are struggling in, identify the conscious and subconscious thoughts that are holding you back from succeeding, and eliminate those thought patterns. Khierstyn explains that reality is often 100% contradictory to what your subconscious is telling you. If you take away the bars that are caging you in, nothing can hold you back. For more great advice on learning how to recognize your self-worth, be sure to listen to this podcast episode. Don’t let the negative defining moments in your life create a belief system that dictates your future Everyone has those moments in our pasts that resurface and tell us we’re not worthy of happiness or success. Paul explains to Khierstyn that there are two ways of handling these moments in retrospect. You can choose to believe that the terrible thing that occurred was your fault, and because of that, you are not worthy. Or you can choose to understand that terrible things happen, it was not your fault, and that you don’t have to internalize it and let it define your future. Essentially, you can choose to be a victim or a survivor. The most important moments in your life are the ones that are happening right now, and Paul and Khierstyn want you to recognize you are worthy of enjoying these moments. Don’t miss the rest of their conversation on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Your past does not define you, your future has not yet been written, and you are worthy of success and happiness Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut is the fact that there is nothing separating you from success. The other people that you admire and view as successful are no more worthy of that success than you are. Paul explains that your past does not have to define you, you can learn how to renegotiate situations to your benefit, and that your future has not yet been written. You CAN stop self-sabotage, you CAN pursue personal and professional success, and no one can dictate how you choose to feel or react to situations in your life. This podcast episode is sure to make you rethink how you approach your past, present, and future, and it’s one not to be missed. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Paul Nadeau, skilled hostage negotiator and believer in self-worth [4:49] Paul’s journey from police work into a hostage negotiation specialist [10:04] Scenarios where Paul’s negotiation and persuasion skills become essential [14:15] The predictable selling environment vs. working within hostage situations [19:00] The challenge of getting people to open up [24:06] The first step in stopping self-sabotage, utilizing hostage situation skills [31:38] There is nothing separating you from success! [35:12] Don’t let the negative defining moments in your life create a belief system that dictates your future [40:50] Life is about the process, not the outcome [43:54] Paul shares how you can get a copy of his new book [46:18] Paul’s famous last words for "unhostaging" yourself Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Paul’s soon-to-be-released book “Take Control of Your Life: Rescue Yourself and Live the Life You Deserve” The Landmark Forum Connect with Paul Nadeau Paul’s website Connect with Paul on LinkedIn Follow Paul on Twitter Follow Paul on Facebook Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

Leadership, motivation, and entrepreneur are three of the biggest buzzwords in today’s business environment. Chris Thomson, business owner and partner for Canada’s Student Works Painting, has built a company that brings in over $17 million in annual revenue, has raised over $1.3 million for various charities, and plugs highly-skilled undergraduate students into a working business model. Khierstyn herself is an alumnus of the program and on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut she and Chris discuss the most important leadership strategies for young entrepreneurs and why identifying your “why” is so critical. You don’t want to miss this inspiring episode, so be sure to give it your full attention. How Student Works Painting creates future business leaders Student Works Painting operates by giving undergraduate college students the opportunity to create a business plan, market, and sell a company. Participants can elect to work as a minimum wage painter for a single academic year or apply to be a part of the prestigious Summer Management Program. The summer program teaches students leadership and business skills that are transferable to any career path. By focusing on the mentorship and student development portions of the business model, not just the final painted product, Chris and his team are able to enable promising students to flourish in their personal development. Chris is “developing the next great generation of Canadian business leaders” and his insights are sure to inspire, be sure to check out this episode. Identifying the “why” behind your work will motivate you to create more and take more action Just as Student Works Painting is so much more than a house painting business, your business needs to be about more than just the final product. Identifying the true reasons behind why you’re doing the work you’re doing will pay off in dividends. Chris stays motivated and passionate about his work because it’s really about impacting young people and giving them the tools to succeed later in life. He explains to Khierstyn on this episode that you have to connect your business idea, your future life goals, and the needs/wants of your employees and customers for your entrepreneurial venture to really succeed. Identifying the “why” will motivate you to complete the business tasks that are necessary but aren’t that exciting. To hear how Chris discovered his “why” be sure to listen to this podcast. The top essentials for good leadership and why you should apply the pay it forward technique in life and business Servant leadership is a huge part of what Chris does at Student Works Painting, and he encourages listeners of this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut to always take care of people first - tasks and objectives can wait. If your employees aren’t being taken care of and don’t feel valued the important work won’t be done at a high-caliber level. Your conversations shouldn’t revolve around money. Focusing solely on the transactions of business cheapens the relationships you should be trying to develop. When there’s real alignment between vision, value, employees, and customers, that’s when your company and brand are going to be launched into success. Chris also mentions that you can attract high-quality people with a vision, but you have to keep them through mentoring. The most important part of being an entrepreneur and Chris’ famous last words of motivation The first step in becoming a successful entrepreneur is passionately seeking out your own strengths, weaknesses, and communication styles. After you determine your authentic self, fill your team with people who will encourage your strengths and support your weaknesses. Chris explains to Khierstyn that people work better in teams because no one is great at every task or leadership style. However, incredible things can happen when passionate, dynamic people tackle a common goal. By always learning and being willing to take the first step into a new project, you’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish. “The world bends to those who are in action,” exclaims Chris, and you definitely need to hear the rest of his advice for aspiring business leaders. Don’t let this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut go unlistened. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Chris Thomson, business partner for Student works [3:27] How did Khierstyn go from a biochemistry major in college to working with Chris at Student Works Painting? [5:38] What exactly is Student Works Painting? [7:14] Chris’ journey from individual to business partner and owner over 30 years of working in Student Works [10:34] Developing future business leaders through Student Works [14:00] How can you realize what your passion is, even while working on your business? [19:04] The magic behind why Student Works has returning participants year after year [21:46] The essentials for good leadership and applying the pay it forward technique [27:25] We work better in teams because no one is great at every task or leadership technique [34:53] Creating a network is so critical because you become like the 5 people you spend the most time with [36:21] Chris’ famous last words for entrepreneurs Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Student Works website Landmark Forum for personal growth and development Tony Robbins’ books Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coaching BOOK: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Connect with Chris Thomson Student Works Painting website Connect with Chris on LinkedIn Follow Chris on Twitter Like Student Works Painting on Facebook Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

With nearly 50% of all e-commerce sales occurring on Amazon, many crowdfunders are asking the question, “how can I take my product and sell on Amazon?” On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, Khierstyn has a conversation with Ben Arneberg, founder of Product Fuel and creator of crowdfunding giants Willow & Everett and Terra Mat. Ben shares his top tips for crowdfunders looking to move into the e-commerce space after a successful campaign, how to rank highly within Amazon’s categories, and many more trade secrets that you don’t want to miss. Be sure to listen to this episode - your product will thank you. Crowdfunding platforms and Amazon are delicate partners - here’s how Product Fuel makes it work Turning a successful crowdfunding campaign into an equally successful brand online is hard work. That’s why Ben created Product Fuel - to help entrepreneurs move their products from crowdsourcing platforms into digital marketplaces. While it may be easy to list products on Amazon, it’s extremely difficult to allow that product hit its full potential. Product Fuel has successfully taken campaigns such as Wilcox Boots that earned over $140,000 through Kickstarter and helped them bring in over $80,000 monthly Amazon sales. When a campaign is nearly complete, Ben and his team will begin conversations with the client to determine product flows and shipping methods. This allows both parties to fully understand the desired outcome for the product and make a game plan that is tailored to each product, target audience, and sales goals. To hear how to get your product on Ben and Product Fuel’s radar, be sure to listen to this episode. The art of combining a crowdfunding campaign, a stellar website, and selling on Amazon Product Fuel attracts clients who already have a successful crowdfunding campaign in progress. Ben encourages aspiring creators to go to a crowdsourcing platform first, rather than trying to launch solely on a website or directly to Amazon. There’s a trifecta that leads to the most success: a successful crowdfunding campaign, an interactive website, and ranking highly on Amazon (leading to more sales.) The campaign is the first integral piece in the process - aside from having an innovative product that fills a market gap. Campaigns create “an amazing halo effect” as Ben explained, and when harnessed properly the momentum drives organic traffic to Amazon and pushes your rankings higher. Without all three of these pieces, your efforts will be much more difficult. For Ben’s full explanation on this cohesive approach, be sure to listen to this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Why accurate keywords and appropriate pricing is key for Amazon success To explain the importance of great keywords and appropriate pricing, Ben uses a hypothetical coffee mug scenario. Even if you have a stellar coffee mug that sells well for $50 on your website, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will sell well on Amazon. When compared to $7 competitor mugs, if your $50 mug only has a 5% conversion rate on Amazon, it will be pushed down in the rankings and be seen by very few customers. This is the point of critical balance - your product needs to be priced accordingly to not be immediately written off by the client, and it needs to be matched with the right keywords and categories. Product Fuel can help you with this process. For all of the insights on Amazon success, don’t miss this conversation with Khierstyn and Ben. Ben’s best advice for achieving success selling crowdfunding products on Amazon In addition to all of the selling strategies Ben discusses on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, he encourages crowdfunders to always communicate with a campaign’s backers. You want to avoid launching on your website or on Amazon before your most loyal supporters receive their product. You can also use this window of time for feedback - see what your backers like and dislike about the physical product and then make slight adjustments before releasing it to the general public. He and Khierstyn also discuss the importance of always fulfilling sales through Amazon and why you should stay away from Amazon Launchpad. To hear more of Ben’s expert advice don’t miss this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Ben Arneberg, founder of Product Fuel and Amazon seller guru [3:59] Why Amazon and crowdsourcing are delicate partners [7:17] Why Ben was hesitant to use Kickstarter for Terra Mat, and what changed his mind [8:38] The difference between product selection for Kickstarter and Amazon [12:20] Pros of putting an established brand on Amazon [17:45] Ben’s best tips for future Amazon e-commerce sellers and why you should stay away from Amazon Launchpad [20:44] Ben’s suggestions for organizing product fulfillment [22:57] The timeline for creating your e-commerce process [31:21] How to get connected with Ben and Product Fuel Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Ben’s company - Product Fuel Willow & Everett Cube Fit Terra Mat Wilcox Boots Jamstack guitar amplifier Connect with Ben Arneberg Ben’s email Product Fuel’s website Product Fuel and Amazon e-commerce Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

If there’s one area of business all entrepreneurs and crowdfunders need to understand, it’s the art and science of investing in relationships. On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, Khierstyn interviews Jayson Gaignard, founder of Mastermind Talks, about the story behind the Talks, how he maintains influential relationships with his network, and the best questions to ask to spark great conversations. You don’t want to miss Jayson’s passionate insights, and your network will greatly benefit from hearing his advice. The fascinating story behind how Jayson overcame threats of bankruptcy and founded Mastermind Talks After spending the early part of his career building Tickets Canada, traveling the world, and netting $6-7 million per year, Jayson realized that he wasn’t happy with the direction his career was headed. He avoided talking to his clients, started having stress-induced health issues, and wanted to start over and go in a new direction. Rather than sell the company, he decided to downsized and unfortunately was met with debt upwards of a quarter million dollars. That’s when the idea for Mastermind Talks was born. He tapped into a niche market for high-ticket networking and entrepreneur launch events and began working within his passion for connecting people. Mastermind Talks was immediately thrust into success when Jayson purchased a book and speaking engagement package from Tim Ferriss, and Ferriss was in the audience for the first Mastermind Talks event. But how did Jayson manage to purchase this package? He simply made three phone calls. The first two looked promising, but it was the third call to a personal contact that changed the game for Jayson. To hear about how this phone call turned out, and why this contact “invested in Jayson, not the business idea,” be sure to listen to this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. How Jayson selects the participants for Mastermind Talks events and why he refunded over $40,000 in ticket sales for his first event When Jayson switched gears from e-commerce into the art of connecting people, he knew he wanted to be selective in deciding who would be invited to the Mastermind Talks events. The invite-only events that cost upwards of $10,000 per ticket allow Jayson to personally screen interested parties. He explains to Khierstyn that he wants to surround himself with people of integrity that he would personally be friends with - not just any business person who can afford the ticket price. Jayson is so committed to these high standards that for the first event, Mastermind Talks refunded over $40,000 in ticket sales because the fit between the event and the participant just wasn’t right. Mastermind Talks isn’t about event size or revenue, it’s about creating a space where stellar people can share great ideas and make connections that could change the course of their careers. Jayson is passionate about his story, and you don’t want to miss hearing him tell it on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. The importance of investing in relationships and the art of connecting people together Jayson tells Khierstyn that “it’s noisy at the top, and amazing people become increasingly amazing over time.” This is why he stresses the importance of connecting with people as they’re rising in their careers. You never know when someone might need a connection that you can make for them. Crowdfunding and relationships are deeply intertwined, and even the most successful Kickstarter campaigns with 60,000-70,000 backers only have around 100 exceptionally influential backers. This Kickstarter data proves the mantra Jayson lives by, which is “It doesn’t matter how many friends you can count, it matters how many friends you can count on.” The most influential and memorable moments in your life occur because of other people. You can’t afford to miss Jayson’s lessons on the art of investing in relationships, so be sure to listen to this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Khierstyn and Jayson share the best action steps for strengthening your personal relationships and why we’re all in the relationship business There are a few key pieces of advice that Jayson shares in this conversation with Khierstyn. He explains that “You never know the value of your network until you need it,” and “You’re only ever left with two things, the integrity of your word and your relationships.” To continue to invest in your relationships after the initial meeting, Khierstyn and Jayson explain that connecting with them in unexpected ways is key. For example, how many times do people receive a video update email rather than the standard email asking “what’s new with you and how can I help?” You can’t be afraid to be the one initiating contact, and you also have to ask the right questions in order to draw out the right responses from your network. They list many great conversation starters on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut that will dramatically improve your ability to connect to your network, and you don’t want to miss it. Outline of This Episode [0:55] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Jayson Gaignard, founder of Mastermind Talks [5:20] Jayson tells the story of how he worked with UJ Ramdas to launch the Five Minute Journal [9:13] How Jayson selects the entrepreneurs that are invited to Mastermind Talks events [12:07] Khierstyn shares why “clicking” with clients is one of the best motivating factors [14:23] The story behind Jayson’s businesses prior to Mastermind Talks [19:25] How Jayson got connected with Tim Ferriss and the importance of connecting with others [24:40] How do you stay in contact with valuable relationships? [30:00] Jayson shares the best action steps for maintaining your influential connections [34:39] The best questions to ask to build connections within your relationships [39:49] Why we’re all in the relationship business and the slogan Jayson lives by Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Ep. 112 TITLE HERE AND LINK TO UJ’S EPISODE Entrepreneurs’ Organization peer network BOOK: The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life BOOK: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! Ep. 110 Developing Creative Networking, Being a Unique Entrepreneur, and Making Impactful Friends Feat. Sol Orwell ARTICLE: 1,000 True Fans theory Kickstarter statistics Connect with Jayson Jayson’s website Jayson’s podcast website - CommunityMade Connect with Jayson on LinkedIn Follow Jayson on Twitter Follow Jayson on Facebook Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

Many entrepreneurs start their company and launch their products because they want to implement healthy change in the world. Khierstyn’s guest for this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, UJ Ramdas, and his company Intelligent Change is doing just that - encouraging people to embrace healthy change and document positive growth through beautiful personal journals. Their conversation takes you through the company idea formation process, product launch, endorsements, and the importance of infusing excellence into every aspect of doing business. It’s a conversation that you don’t want to miss. The story behind Intelligent Change and the idea of encouraging healthy change through beautiful products UJ recognized the fact that change is inevitable, and he was passionate about wanting to help people make it productive and enjoyable. He created Intelligent Change to make beautiful things that directly guide people through the change process in practical ways. The Five Minute Journal was born out of these core ideas. The six-month journal is based on leading psychology research that discovered expressing daily gratitude leads to a better overall quality of life and higher levels of positive emotions. UJ is passionate about his company and its products, and he tells his story in this interview in such a way that’ll leave you inspired and wanting more. How The Five Minute Journal progressed from a lackluster Kickstarter campaign to an endorsement from Tim Ferriss The Five Minute Journal began as a Kickstarter campaign but unfortunately, funding fell flat. Although their first crowdfunding attempt didn't succeed, UJ and his team successfully launched at Mastermind Talks in front of just 120 people. One of the guests in attendance was famed entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss. UJ explains to Khierstyn that in a stroke of “unbelievable awesomeness” Ferriss loved the idea of the journal and within just a few months ordered over 3,000 copies to be shared with his own followers. UJ exclaims that it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time and a perfect testimony to the power of networking. Ferriss is now one of Intelligent Change’s biggest advocates. For more, be sure to listen to the full episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. UJ shares how his Intelligent Change team balances an external launch with daily operation obligations and combating the #1 problem in business Since The Five Minute Journal was launched, Intelligent Change is now working on a number of different products that continue to encourage healthy change in people’s lives. Khierstyn and UJ spend some time on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut discussing the #1 problem in business - finding good employees. UJ could have never balanced external product launches and daily business operations without solid teammates by his side. But finding quality employees is the hardest struggle. He encourages entrepreneurs to prioritize their needs, seek out and hire the best people you can find, and move forward from there. For more of his advice, be sure to catch this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Why building a great business is all about systematizing excellence and gathering 1,000 true fans Intelligent Change has been met with such great success because of their stellar ways of doing business. Wowing your customers repeatedly within the first 100 days of a launch, gathering and maintaining 1,000 true fans, and systematizing excellence are all methods that UJ lives by. Without these strategies in place, it’s much harder to have a successful product launch. If you’re struggling with your crowdfunding ideas, or just want to hear a great success story, be sure to listen to UJ Ramdas on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, UJ Ramdas, founder of Intelligent Change [3:45] UJ shares the Intelligent Change story and how The Five Minute Journal was launched [8:29] How UJ took his personal system for positivity and healthy change and turned it into a successful product [11:29] The Five Minute Journal’s progress from Mastermind talks to a Tim Ferriss endorsement [13:30] What UJ attributes his Intelligent Change’s growth to and how to wow your customers within the first 100 days [16:50] How the idea behind Productivity Planner got started and the growth of marketing videos for Intelligent Change [21:36] Why UJ and his team chose Kickstarter for the Productivity Planner launch [23:11] The art of balancing an external launch with daily operation obligations [24:42] Why UJ wasn’t 100% pleased with Intelligent Change’s recent Kickstarter project and how they’re troubleshooting the issues for a successful relaunch [32:01] How UJ secured Intelligent Change’s first 1,000 true fans [37:53] Final thoughts on Intelligent Change and the importance of “scratching your own itch” Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” BOOK: The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day Mastermind Talks - launching ground for The Five Minute Journal ARTICLE: '4-Hour Workweek' author Tim Ferriss says this 5-minute daily exercise revolutionized his morning routine VIDEO: Joey Coleman’s First 100 Days Intelligent Change’s Productivity Planner ARTICLE: Productivity 101: A Primer to The Pomodoro Technique ARTICLE: 1,000 True Fans theory Connect with UJ Intelligent Change website Connect with UJ on LinkedIn Follow UJ on Twitter Follow UJ on Facebook Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, Khierstyn interviews crowdfunding success mogul Evan Varsamis, founder and CEO of Gadget Flow. He has built a platform that puts innovative products in front of over 25 million people per month, runs an international team remotely, and has some great advice for aspiring crowdfunding professionals. You don’t want to miss their energetic and informative conversation, so be sure to catch this episode. The story behind crowdfunding platform giant - Gadget Flow What started in 2012 as a part-time project quickly grew into a crowdfunding giant that now hosts over 10,000 products across 140 categories. Gadget Flow is the third largest Indiegogo partner and they have successfully worked with over 6,000 customers thus far. Evan and his team recognized a niche market need for technology and design products that may not get picked up by large platforms such as Amazon and Etsy. They are able to host a wide spectrum of products and give backers exactly what they need to know (tech specs, images, brief descriptions, etc.) in a beautifully simple way. To hear Evan tell his engaging story, be sure to listen to this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. How Evan’s Gadget Flow team gauges the potential crowdfunding success of a campaign Not every campaign or product idea that comes across Evan’s desk will be successful. Gadget Flow currently has an acceptance rate of 78-80%, and the team is highly trained to differentiate the gems from the duds. By using an internal evaluation process they look at the top campaign specs: funding time remaining, the quality of the presentation, and if the product’s team has been following established steps for crowdfunding success. Evan’s employees look for those unique teams that aren’t just shooting in the dark when it comes to marketing and campaign efforts. Their #1 red flag? If a campaign has less than 10% of their goal raised after five days of campaigning. Be sure to hear the full story behind the evaluation process by listening to this episode - your campaign can’t afford to miss it.   How Evan built a global remote team for Gadget Flow and his strategies for overcoming telework challenges The current Gadget Flow team is comprised of 25 people in 8 countries. How does Evan manage to lead such a diverse team? And why did he choose to pursue remote teamwork rather than a traditional office setting? The answer is found in commute time - he was tired of wasting precious productive hours commuting to and from a physical workspace. He found that highly skilled employees and contractors often do their best work in their own environments. By allowing (and even encouraging) his team to remain in their hometowns and countries, and utilizing remote work tools such as Slack, Evan created a global team that is passionate about Gadget Flow. He tackled the issue of creating a strong company culture by implementing weekly video calls with each one of his team members. Evan’s desire was to encourage personal connections, even though miles and time zones separated each individual. It’s such a great story and a testimony to dedicated team members, you don’t want to miss it. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Evan Varsamis, founder and CEO of Gadget Flow [2:29] Evan describes his professional background and the idea behind Gadget Flow [5:10] Gadget Flow’s ideal customer, and how Evan’s team gauges potential campaign success [8:59] The ideal timeframe for submitting a product to Gadget Flow and the biggest red flags Evan’s team looks for [11:24] The 5% and 3-5 day timeline Gadget Flow follows [13:43] The balance between internal and external funding goals [15:31] Khierstyn asks Evan what he would do if a campaign failed to meet its internal goal, but met its external goal [17:31] Khierstyn shares her thoughts on digital marketing for crowdfunding success [20:49] Evan shares his best piece of advice for creators [21:14] How Evan built a successful remote team, and why he chose to go virtual [30:09] The one area in which Evan has seen remote work go wrong Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Remote work tool Slack Connect with Evan Gadget Flow’s About Us website page Evan’s personal website Evan’s portfolio on Huff Post Connect with Evan on LinkedIn Follow Evan on Twitter Follow Evan on Facebook Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

Few entrepreneurs are as unique, engaging, and great at creative networking as Sol Orwell, founder of nutrition advice empire Examine.com. He is also the creator of websites garnering over 200,000 visitors per day and a fanatic chocolate chip cookie enthusiast. On the first official Crowdfunding Uncut episode for 2018, Khierstyn interviews Sol and asks him key questions about his successful empire, why he thought to connect his love of cookies with creative networking events, and his top advice for entrepreneurs who want to do things a little differently. Their conversation will leave you intrigued, laughing, and wanting more so don’t miss this episode. The success story behind Sol’s Examine.com nutrition advice empire What started with a desire to know the facts behind nutrition supplements morphed into an independent analysis company with the sole goal of “reading the research, making sense of it, and putting it online.” From being the sole creator of the company to now being a consensus-building leader and visionary, Sol has built the most trustworthy source for accurate information on supplements - minus any hype, agenda, or ulterior motives. Khierstyn uncovers the human story behind a website giant, and it’s a story sure to inspire. You don’t want to miss it. How Sol’s Examine.com team thoughtfully engages with their market and the most underrated feedback tool on the market Sol’s current position as a leader of Examine.com allows him to have a clear picture of what works (and what doesn’t) when his team connects with their audience. By empowering his employees to do what needs to be done, he can watch them successfully interact with visitors via email and actual phone conversations - a rare phenomenon in today’s digital world. By trusting their niche market and the quality feedback they received over the years, they were able to organically grow into new market segments. They utilized Google Surveys, one of the most versatile and user-friendly tools on the market, to connect with what their audience was actually looking for. He found that if you expose your company’s personality more, people are more likely to engage with your content and communication. Be sure to listen to this episode for more of his stellar advice. What do cookies, creative networking, and ridiculous amounts of fun all have in common? When Sol grew tired of predictable coffee networking meetups, he wanted to create an exciting new way to bring people together. That’s when #CookieLife was born. Rather than buying someone a simple cup of coffee, Sol started inviting people to try the "world's best chocolate chip cookie" with him. In just two years the idea moved from a small Toronto chocolate chip cookie shop to $30,000 fundraising and networking events. Khierstyn talks with Sol about how he discovered that people will come together for any reason that’s new and engaging. By simply encouraging people to follow their own unique passions, he has set a new standard for how people develop a comprehensive personal brand - rather than focusing only on one aspect of themselves. To hear more about #CookieLife, how it gives back to communities, and its expansive reach, give this episode a listen. Sol’s best advice for having clear career end-goals, making influential friends, and living the lifestyle YOU want Being an entrepreneur should be about a few key ideas: intentionally create lifestyle freedom, give back while creating an impact, and pair fun with passionate hard work. In his interview with Khierstyn, Sol explains that there’s no single “right way” to build your career and that you shouldn’t forget to enjoy the steps along the way. When trying to create a network of influential friends, Sol recommends “Actually do something interesting - you don’t connect over business strategies you connect over personal interests.” One of his best pieces of advice is, “Do things that personally drive you forward, and don’t be afraid to let go of a project once it solves the problem you set out to eliminate.” To hear about Sol’s top 3 career tips, you’ll have to check out this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Sol Orwell [4:00] Sol tells his story of he got started as an entrepreneur [8:11] Sol’s current role in Examine.com, and how he empowers his employees [10:30] How Sol expanded Examine beyond one supplement line, and how his team engages with their customers [17:52] The number one thing Sol did with Examine.com that led to its success [19:32] How Sol connected ridiculous fun, chocolate chip cookies, and networking [26:07] The place that #CookieLife has in Sol’s personal and professional universe [28:49] Going beyond the product launch for your company and why planning 3 years in advance is insane [32:02] Khierstyn asks Sol how he illuminated his career end-goals [34:58] Sol’s 3 best habits for making influential friends and a solid network [43:23] The best notebook Sol relies on to capture his ideas Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Sol’s #CookieLife networking movement ARTICLE: “A Young Entrepreneur's Passion For Hacking His Diet Sparks A Seven-Figure Business” by Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes ARTICLE: “How to Build a Million-Dollar, One-Person Business – Case Studies from The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferris, featuring Sol Orwell Sol’s go-to notebooks Connect with Sol Visit Sol’s website and join his email list Connect with Sol on LinkedIn Follow Sol on Twitter Follow Sol on Facebook Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

Insider Lessons Gained from Launching Successful Products   Dale Backus has a story with ups and downs, hard work and wins, and some really amazing entrepreneurial lessons. He’s won crash the doritos contest not once but twice. He used some of these earnings to help fund his startup. That startup is now doing over $20m a year in revenue. That business is  SmallHD, a camera accessories company. Big wins for a young man of 31 years old.   Khierstyn and Dale are working together on a new project and it’s really exciting. Real world experience of taking a company from nothing, self funding, and growing an impressive revenue stream.   That’s why Dale  was invited on to the podcast. To give you a chance to hear from someone who has built from ground up, from 0 to 8 figures, and is now starting at 0 again.   [04:30] 10 Year Journey in a Nutshell   Dale tells us that he had an entrepreneurial spirit from young age. When it came time to graduate high school, he wanted to take his own route. He didn’t want to follow what parent’s desired path. He knew he had skills and that it was just a matter of making money.   “It’s always a matter of money right?” Dale laughs.   He started a production company called 5 Point Productions and shares that it’s not something he would recommend. Products make more sense  and it’s inherently harder to sell services. It was like a weight bearing down. They created some car ad, but he tells us that those are the worst. Then, the super bowl contest came along and they were inspired. It was only 4 days from deadline when they saw it, but they decided to go all in.   It was the first ever consumer sourced ad content contest - and they won. It was a pretty revolutionary marketing strategy at the time. A unique concept. That was the first of 10 years they ran the contest. It was unbelievable.   “We didn’t get a lot of money but we got a lot of credibility and an increase in business.” They leveraged that for 5 Point Productions. “We had some fun making things that WEREN’T local car ads.” Eventually the fame wore down and they were back to the grind. It just wasn’t working for them anymore.     In the process of running that company, they had to keep improving quality as they were getting bigger and working on accounts.  It was during this process that they discovered a need for this display to be able to plug in their HD camera into something they could monitor with. It wasn’t out there at the time, and decided to go out and build it.   Dale loves creating physical products, likes it more than sevices, and edged everyone towards launching the product. They launched SmallHD which was building these displays.   [10:40] Meeting Sales Without Inventory   It can be tough launching  product and meeting sales needs when you don’t yet have a physical product. Dale tells us that they tackled it head on. They threw together a few prototypes and crowdfunded themselves on their own website. Kickstarter wasn’t around because crowdfunding was still a new concept. They ran a 24 hour campaign pre-order and sold 60 units which opened up the possibilities. When they got money, they ordered parts. Orders would trickle in but it was slow. Then they developed a real product, something developed as the next step.   There were many lessons learned in the process. At first, Dale tells us that they fought against MOQ (minimum order quantity) for a new board for which they couldn't afford the MOQ investment. It so happens the Doritos contest popped up again around this time, though the prizes had increased dramatically.   Against wishes and recommendations from those around them, they decided to enter again. Long story short, they created 2 ads and both were selected as finalists.  One became the second best commercial and they won $600,000. This was the boost they needed to meet those MOQs.   It’s a Cinderella story, Dale shares, and it doesn’t always happen, but it did for them. That’s how they launched the company and grown it so much over the past 8 or 9 years.   What they learned is that going and meeting the producers in person, especially in overseas cultures like China, it goes a long way. “They build their sales on relationships” Dale explains. If you make these connections you can often work them down and get the MOQs to something more manageable.   [24:54] Best Decision for SmallHD   Every thriving businesses experience highs and lows. For Dale, the best decision was to stay focused. Along the path there were many opportunities to branch off or expand, but they stayed the course. Dale explains that the displays can work with and touch a lot of other technologies within the same vertical, so it’s natural to want to dabble in different opportunities.   Dale gives us some general advice. “It’s easy to get distracted by perceived opportunity. “ Until you dominate the space you are already in, why would go off and do something else? You must first achieve the primary goal of the primary focus first. That’s what they did.  Dale and his team wanted to make the best countertop displays in the world and they believe they’re almost there.   [27:15] To Swag or Not To Swag   When discussing focus,it stands to reason that the topic of swag comes up, because it can certainly take tame. The thing is, swag works.   You’re not trying to be the world leader in t-shirts, it’s an accessory. There should be limitations though.   There’s not a lot involved in swag like t-shirts. It’s about how much time it will take away from the main project and what resources it will divert. It shouldn’t slow you down from reaching that primary goal, it should be a support feature.   As an entrepreneur you need to, everyday, decide to work on the most impactful things. “I strongly recommend making sure there’s good people around you.“  Dales stress that having the right people around you is how you accomplish those supportive tasks without splitting focus. You are the leader. If you are working on mugs and t-shirts all the time, it may not be a good thing, but if you have someone to do it for you, it’s likely a good deal.   [29:38] Lessons Learned: Part One   Like most entrepreneurs, Dale insists that he has made an enumerable amount of mistakes. Reflecting on those mistakes is something he does frequently. Still, there’s the number one lessons Dale feels we should all learn.   Hire with purpose and have a hiring strategy. There are lots of things that could be problematic, but hiring properly can take care of 80% of those things.  Dale says, “Most of your time should be spent on hiring and developing people.” Only hire when necessary, not because it’s fun.   When they started, hiring was fun. It was a sign of growth, but what he didn’t understand was that you need to hire the right people. This is the number 1 thing. You see (and can clearly hear) that Dale has been burned which is why he is so passionate about it.   As a founder, you need to get people to believe in your vision. The smaller you are, the harder it is to do that. As a result, you hire those that are easy, that you’re comfortable with; friends and family. They know you and it’s easier to hire them as they are already supportive. However, they aren't always the best fits for your company.   Dales shares, “We hired the first 5-0 people and the were all friends or family.” When he hired his first team, he hired fast and hard, and didn’t get the right team. It meant major delays and nearly bankrupted them.   After learning that lesson, they have a great team now, and it’s helped grow the company by leaps and bounds. Bottom line, hire the right people.   [40:21] Lessons Learned: Part Two   Though since we got Dale rolling, we thought his second and third most impactful lessons would be good to dive into.   Dale’s number 2 -Don't over optimize too early. He shares that it’s very easy to want to do things the right way, almost to a fault. You can spend too much on big shiny systems before you need them.   Develop and spend as you need it. You shouldn't be bleeding because of a system. Before you start spending money on a system, you should be desperate for it. Keep your overhead as low as you can as long as you can.   Lesson 3 for Dale, is be more data driven, know your numbers. When they started, they didn’t have any idea what the number really were ever. Often they wondered where the money was. They were making money but there never seemed to be enough when it was needed. Know your margins, your costs of goods, your KPIs. It sounds corporate but it's’ really valuable. You don’t have to be rigid but you need to know what it’s going to cost you to get a customer. This helps you better know where to spend your time.   [42:13] Something Nifty This Way Comes   Before he signed off, Dale helped get us hyped up. He’s getting ready to launch a simple product business. He invented this product, and wants to get it out fast and hard. Dale’s working on learning more about online marketing. It’s time to get back into entrepreneurial side, the startup side.   Dale is launching Oh Snap, a cell phone accessory. Want to know more? We urge you to visit getohsnap.com.Dale can hardly contain his excitement about getting it out to the world.   As part of the new venture, Dale says that they are looking for a marketing person, looking for a marketing strategist so if this is you send email to dale@fornom.com   Nothing beats listening to the episode, so if you're reading this and you haven't tuned in, check it out above.     Episode Outline   Introduction: Insider Lessons Gained from Launching Successful Products   [04:30] 10 Year Journey in a Nutshell [10:40] Meeting Sales Without Inventory [23:42] Backetkit [24:54] Best Decision for SmallHD [27:15] To Swag or Not To Swag [29:38] Lessons Learned: Part One [40:21] Lessons Learned: Part Two [42:13] Something Nifty This Way Comes     Resources and Sponsor SmallHD getohsnap.com Crowdfunding Product Launch Guide Crowdfunding Product Launch Academy   Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services

We’ve been looking forward to this week’s guest for some time. Khierstyn joined James on a panel listening to Amazon sellers. She listened to how he was able to grow organically through influence marketing. Brands can fast-track by doing paid advertising however influence marketing is long term.   Many business owners and entrepreneurs don’t understand how to leverage influencer marketing. Therefore, James is the perfect podcast guest. He’s going to help us better understand his journey, and in turn, yours.   [03:38] Who is James Swanwick?   James didn’t take the shortest path to success, but certainly a colorful one. He worked in Brisbane Australia,  where he stared as a newspaper reporter before moving to the US. James tells us that he tried to start PR company in 2008 during the financial Armageddon. In fact, he had to shut down in 6 months. James ran to South America to lick his wounds for 6 months before returning for round 2.   This time, James started learning about biz and online marketing. Like many, he recants that he struggled for a few years. He didn't’ make much money and that was hard for him. It drove him to get a business mentor, which was his turning point for success.   A couple years ago, he was introduced to the idea of no blue lights at bedtime. He heard that blue light could inhibit production of melatonin. James sought a solution. He knew a friend who had a pair, but they were really ugly, which lead him to develop the stylish Swannies. Now he’s had over 1 million dollars sales in 11 months all grown organically (no paid ads).   [06:20] Riding the Mainstream Curve   When the idea for Swannies first came about, it was ahead of the now mainstream blue light glasses curve. James shares that when he got into the vertical, he was able to catch the wave. Catching the wave means to jump on an idea, not when it’s mainstream, but right before. At a time when people were starting to pay attention and eager to become more educated on the subject. The danger is that, at any time, a bigger company can come along (think a huge sunglasses brand) and come in and crush.   For instance, there was Friendster a before there was Myspace. That was before Facebook eventually took over. You don't want to be a Friendster. James shares, “We might be a Friendster, there's always that danger, but I think it was a good thing to start when we did.”   With Swannies, they utilized a different angle. The company is not Swannies Sunglasses it's Swanwick Sleep. They aren't just glasses, they are a sleep company selling glasses. That differentiation makes an impact. They may not be able to compete against the large glasses companies but they can compete as a sleep company. It allows them to sell glasses as an additional product to support the overall goal. It’s a niche of its own.   [12:43] To Niche or Not to Niche?   James laughed with us, he wanted to tell us that he knocked it out of the park first thing, but that’s not reality.   There’s a lot of stuff James threw at the wall to see what would stick and it was the bio-hacking community that got behind the product. Once he saw that, he doubled down on that community to be the biggest proponents, the cheerleaders, to help spread the message to a larger audience. Free marketing so to speak.   Biohackers are so particular about their health. James stresses that if you get them behind you, they are going to tell their mothers, their friends, anyone who will listen, how great the product is. That’s the real power of influencer marketing and niches - you don’t have to spend money on advertising.   [20:08] Top 3 Ways James Boosted Swannies’ Revenue   Khierstyn asked James what the biggest proponents to boosting initial revenue were. Here’s what he came back with.   Reviews:   When Swannies first launched, they were only on Amazon; No website or online presence. James knew reviews were important to managing the visibility metrics. He did everything he could think of to generate reviews. He tried giving some away for honest reviews. He asked friends, family, anyone, he could think of, to share their feelings online. He was persistent -. Stayed on top of them, pestered them, because getting the reviews were paramount.   Associating with Influencer:   James says he made an effort to ensure that he was associating with influencers already paving the way in his vertical. He connected with Dave Asprey, founder of BulletProof, because he knew that Dave’s audience of bio-hackers would love the glasses. James sent Dave a message and offered to help educate listeners about dangers of blue light. James gave him benefits for his viewers, for his audience, in his field of interest. Dave responded by text and was all over it.   It wasn’t without work though. James waited 2-3 months for the interview. He ended up scheduling the interview while in midtown, at a conference. They managed it though, Dave interviewed James over Skype in this hotel room. 2 months after that, Dave published the episode on YouTube. [Watch it here]   Sales quadrupled overnight. Within 3 days, Swannies they went from selling 15 pairs a day to 50 or 60 pairs a day. This truly opened James eyes to the benefit of being on a show with influencers in the right market. James reached out to other podcasts, got interviews, and continues to do so now.   The Selfie Ask:   James tells us that he would ask customers to take selfie photos of themselves using the product. He asked that they send them and post/tag on Instagram. It’s the ultimate marketing tool because customers would wear and share and talk, and it grew. That’s free marketing.   [26:47] Influence Marketing When you Don’t Have a Product   Don’t have a physical product to give away? That’s OKAY! Do as many videos as you can. Cool, fun, demo videos and get influencers to use the product. If you only have one prototype, have them use it and then return it, the point is to capture the experience visually.   Show people, not tell. People are well known to need to see before believing, so make videos and give them something to believe in. If they can’t touch, at least let them see.   [29:26] Hot or Cold - James’ talks Media   James shares that he did both warm and cold connections, but NEVER cold pitches. He had folks like Dave Asprey who he was friends and felt comfortable with. He showed anyone who had a podcast or platform using existing relationships to build conversations. He always talked in their benefit and made it about their listeners.   There were times when James tells us he had to reach out to cold media contacts. His strategy was to talk about their interest. No mass emails though. He made sure to research first and made the pitch about them, their work, and how he could support their growth.   From his experience, cold, impersonalized pitches didn’t work. He made sure to tell us that he throws them out all the time. James recommends that you Google the media person you're pitching to. Read the last three articles they published and then connect your pitch to them. Craft the pitch around their interests and why they should be interested.   [34:00] Growing Pains   Like any other business owner, James has dealt with his fair share of challenges. For Swannies, it’s growing pains.   "The first few months, everything is moving up, growing and expanding. Then, you get to 1 million and you realize you don’t have systems and process in place." James had to hire because, all of a sudden, he was managing people. He had to work with staff, customers, and more. They've experience plateaus, inventory shortages, as well as a host of other complications.   There are all these little things that, in the beginning, you’re not worried about because you’re trying new things. If you don’t have systems, and things like KPIs for staff, you end up putting out fires.   As the CEO, James feels what he did poorly was not prioritize processes and systems enough. Swannies had to slow down, put out fires, add systems and processes, to pick up and start moving forward again.   [42:13] The Future Starts Now   Where is James headed? He shares that he has 2 distinct visions in the coming years.   Swanwick Sleep he intends to grow to a 100 million dollar business while on track to selling. He’d like to see it grow to be something big and the sell and walk away with a great payout.   James shares that with his 30 Day No Alcohol Challenge business, he wants to grow forever, so that it can be his perpetual income machine. It’s the lifeblood, something that will always support him.     Episode Outline   Introduction: Influence Marketing; Expert Secrets to Fast, Inexpensive Growth   [03:38] Who is James Swanwick? [06:20] Riding the Mainstream Curve [12:43] To Niche or Not to Niche? [20:08] Top 3 Ways James Boosted Swannies’ Revenue [25:40] Backetkit [26:47] Influence Marketing When you Don’t Have a Product [29:26] Hot or Cold - James’ talks Media [34:00] Growing Pains [42:13] The Future Starts Now     Resources and Sponsor James Swanwick James’ Inner Circle 30 Day No Alcohol Challenge Swanwick Sleep James Swanwick on iTunes   Follow James on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube   Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services

Unsure where to start?   Too many email marketing platforms to choose from?   Then this podcast is for you. This week I’m joined by Chris Davis who is the Educational Director of Content of Active Campaign. We’re going to take a deep dive into what active campaign is doing behind the scenes, how you can go about selecting an email service to provide, and how to get started with email marketing and automation.   Where You Were and Where You End Up Might not be so Different   It’s important to understand where you came from and why. Chris tell us, “A lot of times you’re doing something and just don’t know how important, or know how what you’re doing now can be impactful, perhaps in another area or industry.”   You see, Chris started out as an engineer, studied formally, and worked for 7 years programming microprocessors. The nitty gritty 1’s and 0’s coding in a laboratory with no windows.   Before long, he found himself asking, “What am I here for?” That’s when he left to start a web development firm. It was short-lived, but he came to understand that the magic wasn’t in the website but what was behind the website. That’s when Chris was introduced email marketing and soon after email automation.   He mentions learning a tool many small businesses were using but struggling with. The goal was to take this difficult and hard to manage tool and make it easier on clients by managing it for them. The tool? InfusionSoft   Chris quickly learned that InfusionSoft wasn’t catered for SaaS companies but learned how to use it. It was that knowledge that lead him to dominate the space.   It was then that it hit him, “I’ve been in the automation space the whole time, but never connected the two.” When the opportunity came to take on the role of education and building out content came up with Active Campaign, he shares that he jumped on it and hasn’t looked back   What Is Marketing Automation?   Chris defines marketing automation as the process of employing technology to continually execute your marketing strategy. It’s not new, but it’s new to the small business owner. Technology replacing human beings hadn’t been available to small business to this scale, but big businesses have been using automation a long time.   With the advancement of technology, it makes it more accessible to all levels of business ownership. A small business owner can operate as an enterprise and thus dawns a new day for the small business. Instead of hiring staff to do your marketing, employ technology to do it for you.   Chris explains that there comes a point where you pay the price for ignorance. How realistic is it that every business owner can respond to every customer inquiry manually within 5 minutes? As business increases, it becomes a near-impossible task. Therefore, Chris counsels that you want to use the platform, a marketing tool like Active campaign, to alleviate some of that.   If you want to have an email go out within 5 minutes of someone signing up, it’s as easy as a  checkbox using Active Campaign. That’s how easy it becomes to ensure it happens.   Most business owners don’t have that box to check, and they simply don’t know how much money they are leaving on the table.   Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Platform   Did you know that there is an invisible ceiling with most platforms? Chris explains that there is a point to where you can’t go any further. To where you'll have to adopt a new technology or platform to move forward. If you are just starting out, it’s all synonymous to you.   Don’t read reviews, it’s specific to that situation. If you aren’t using it like they do, then it's worthless. Best thing is to try it yourself.   As found in Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Chris says you need to “Begin with the end in mind”. You know, at some point, you want to be profitable. You want your business to have growth.   Active Campaign is a platform that allows you to come in, as a beginner, and grow with the tool; no need to convert to a new platform with each growth spurt.   For example, if you are a Mailchimp user, there will be limitations. It’s designed for the beginner to intermediate user. Then you used to jump to Infusionsoft which is advanced level . Very few make that jump successfully. Active Campaign can stretch the entire spectrum. Now you don’t have to make the leap, you take gradual growth path.   Top 3 Automations Every Business Owner Should Start With   If you follow Chris’s training on Active Campaign, or if you pop into his office hours, you’ll hear he constantly tell people to reduce the audience and cater the message. Instead of building one giant, fancy automaton on one page, he likes to break them up.     Chris’ favorite? When a user submits a form, and the automation sends out an email 3 or 4 times, spread a few days apart, always leading them to the bottom goal. If they buy at email two, it automatically cuts off the rest of the emails and moves them into a paid subscriber list.   If you understand the buyer process, you know right after purchase the buyer's remorse kicks in. After a big purchase, we first become emotional. This is when we feel the most unsure. Later we become rational, and we’re walking through the rationalizations to ease our minds. You don’t want to send your message at the wrong point.   Engagement automation; Watches what you do, sees if you’re engaged, and if not, it checks in when unengaged at 30 days. Those 30, 60, 90 day engagement tags can be helpful because it can help isolate where the hot leads are.   Khierstyn mentions that she uses a system that automatically unsubscribes folks when they haven't interacted within a period of time. It keeps the list clean from inactive users.   Chris agrees that if you need to do something, adapt Khierstyn’s approach. Popular teachings go that you need a huge list, and how to get your next huge chunk of leads. What they don’t tell you is that maybe 1200 are engaging. Since you pay to do every seat, why would you pay for dead leads?   The bigger your list, the higher the chance people will not be engaging. 25-30% open rate is the target. An open rate below that says your messaging isn’t aligned with your audience.   Chris proclaims he is a champion of the idea that,  “we don’t send broadcast emails, ever. We make it easy to send a targeted message to your audience.” When you send targeted messaging, your open rate jumps 10%.   Example, let’s say you sell apparel for both men and women. You have a new fall line and you want to show it to your customer base. Instead of sending one blast to all individuals in one list, he recommends you separate them into 2 emails and target to each gender specifically. It’s easier to create and email for women that they will like, and another for men which will appeal to them, rather than an email that has to appeal to both simultaneously.   Segmenting, How Do We Do It?   Chris explains that there are a few different ways to implement your segmenting. For starters, when you import your pre-existing subscribers you can map each column to a custom field. This gives you control right at the point of importing. Now that all the contacts are in, you can use the custom fields to segment your messaging.   Many don’t know the power of speaking to smaller groups. We’re not saying discriminate or ostracize any section of your viewership, just tailor your message to smaller audiences to increase engagement.   If you have to spend 5 minutes to create a few more segments and send targeted messages to get a higher open rate, it’s worth it. It’s more mature automation.   Templates are Starting Points not Solutions   Clickfunnels, and other such software, have pre-built funnels, but you still need to customize them. There is a lot of customization that has to happen.   Chris advises, “A template is a starting point, a light frame-work for you to work within.” When you don’t have them, it becomes overwhelming, you have unanswered questions, and you're prone to analysis paralysis kicks in, and you don’t do anything.   Templates are necessary but some people have taken it too far. It’s not just plug and play and BOOM success. When you do best practices, you are always going to win. That’s the hardest thing for people to understand. Marketing automation isn’t the solution, you are the solution and automation is the strategy.   You are the business owner. It’s up to you to know your audience and to know what offer to place in front of them. Chris says, “We (Active Campaign) will support you, help you, and get that message out, but we don’t do it for you.”   Going in, you need to watch your numbers and edit your message until it hits the mark. Watch the results, tweak the words and images, so that it continues to be more and more appealing to your specific audience.   Up Your Split-Testing Game   Khierstyn asked a golden question - How can you use split testing to up your game? Chris breaks it down.   If you want to send a broadcast, or campaign, with a message to your list or group of people, you can split test the headline. After 2 hours, once one of the titles has a higher open rate, it resends the winner to the other 50% automatically. However, it’s not just headlines Active Campaign lets you split test.   Let’s say you want to implement this into an email series. You can use the automation builder to split paths. You can monitor and track send times. Set one run up for every day, the other for every 3 days, and the read-open rate winner automatically takes over the process. It’s next level awesome.   Split path is a recent launch and you can do so may things. You can split paths for promotions too. Such an automation that delivers a coupon until Friday and you don't’ have to worry about turning it off. It becomes set it and forget it.   Where do Most People get Stuck Starting Up?   Chris warns, “Not realizing how much they already know. Technology introduces a barrier.” Everyone knows how to write on paper. Take that and put it onto an iPad Pro with that new pen… writing with the Pro is totally different than writing on paper. Technology ads a layer of complexity to make it uncomfortable.   Many business owners understand marketing and know what to do, but add the technology and they lose their way. Once you know what you want to achieve, you can build a blueprint to achieve it. “That’s what I spend most of my time working with business owners on” Chris shares.   You need a blueprint. Most already have the blueprint though don't’ know how to convert that into a working process. Some don’t even know how to get it down. I recommend you get to the point where you have your blueprint and you’re positioned for success. Then it's all about execution. Episode Outline   Introduction: Expert Secrets to Leverage Email Automation and See Results   [04:23] Where You Were and Where You End Up Might not be so Different [08:40] What IS Marketing Automation? [14:20] Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Platform [20:15] Backerkit [21:20] Top 3 Automations Every Business Owner Should Start With [28:54] Segmenting, How Do We Do It? [33:43] Templates are Starting Points not Solutions [38:15] Up Your Split-Testing Game [41:25] Where do Most People get Stuck Starting Up?       Resources and Sponsor Active Campaign Guides Active Campaign Training Free 14-Day Active Campaign Trial (Special for UNCUT listeners ONLY!) Clickfunnels 14-Day Trial Dot Com Secrets - Russell Bronson Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services

They met at Tropical think tank in the Philippines and now they are ready to sit down to podcast 12 months in the making!   Who is Janet Murray   Janet Murray is the founder of soulful PR specializing in helping small business owners sculpt and pitch their ideas and stories to the media. She’s a freelance writer/editor who runs a successful Paid web group called Soulful PR Studio. Alongside a booming podcast and masterfully written blog, Janet is always on the go. I must also mention she has an amazing book called Your Press Release is Breaking my Heart. Let's not forget her Facebook group Soulful PR going almost 10,000 strong.   "I guess the most important thing about my story is that I teach PR but I have never worked in PR," Janet explains.   From The Guardian to The Independent and The National posts, Janet has spent the last 16 years freelance writing and editing for some of the biggest publications in the UK. Never mind the handfuls of magazines; Janet has been there and edited that!   One thing that Janet learned early on in her freelance years is that bad pitchers are everywhere. She began to grow sick of a number of bad pitch emails filling her daily inbox; Hard working people throwing their money into PR firms that just don't get it.   She was inspired to take a stand. It was time for a change, and Janet decides to set out to teach others how to get noticed.   Janet runs the event Your Year in PR, where she takes 8 national journalists and roughly 80 small business owners, stuffs them in a room, and teachers. They learn what it is that consumers look for in a pitch and what sets a good pitch apart from a bad one. Janet says, “You don't need a big budget or fancy PR firm to get top Notch media coverage. The importance of standing out.   Khierstyn cleverly asked which pitches Janet had heard over the years that she still remembers being the worst. Janet skillfully responds that she really can’t recall any terrible pitches. Instead, the ones that that stand out she said are the good ones. Here are the 3 criteria to use to get noticed!   First, you need to show evidence that you actually read or listen to a publication. If it's radio or the newspapers take the time to do your basic research. Journalists have such a small area they can fill and endless crap to sift through.   Second, you must have really strong header/subject. It is important to be direct and to the point, Journalists work fast and read even faster. Avoid trying to be witty or the use of puns in your header. You want to keep the body of the text short and to the point as well adding strong visuals or audio clips. Janet gives us the tip of trying to picture yourself in the shoes of the journalist you are trying to reach.   " In Journalism, we have a term called the 10-word top line." Janet explains that this means if you can't summarize your story in 10 words or less you are not ready for launch.   Third, knowing the different types of media content is very important as well.   News: Reporting on something new that is happening. Opinion article: Published in a newspaper or magazine, that reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Personal article: A story that leads to the point, can be the reason for why you made what you are pitching.   Janet tells us that, rather than starting with your story, tailor each outreach to every different publication.   What advice would you give to the first time entrepreneur trying to find their pitch?   " First off! Anyone that owns a business can get media coverage."   One tool that reigns supreme is HARO, Help A Reporter Out, a place where journalists go to find stories to write about.   Janet takes the time to recant a story of a current client that is working on a app for people with food intolerance. Now, the App is not quite finished but that has not stopped her client from being all over media publications for the last year. Even if you can't get the coverage you want, get any coverage you can! By the time you are ready to launch you have made the bridges and started your following.   Be where the journalists are. There are always events going on; Find a way to be apart of them, set up booths, ask for coffee meetings. You need to find ways of getting into the public eye.   Above all else don't write a press release! You are basically saying you have already sent this story to every other publication you could find. Journalists want a scoop, tailor, tailor, tailor every email you send. Continue listing as Janet teaches you some simple steps to follow when tailoring your pitches.   Episode Outline   Introduction: Pitch Perfect; How to Get Media Coverage at Any Stage   [02:25] Who is Janet Murray [13:12] The importance of standing out [23:00] BackerKit [24:00] What advice do you have for new business owners   Resources and Sponsor Tropical Think tank Janet’s book: Your press release is breaking my heart A Soulful PR Studio HARO http://www.janetmurray.co.uk/ Crowdfunding uncut Jan_Murray Twitter Soulful PR Facebook   Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services

For episode 100, Khierstyn wanted to do something big. Bigger, better, and cooler than ever! What’s better than bringing back the podcast’s most downloaded guest? Nothing, that’s what. Especially when the guest is  Max Temkin of Cards Against Humanity!   Max and his team, they aren’t like everyone else, nor do they want to be.  They wear their honesty and integrity on their sleeve. It's about good products selling, no matter how you market them.   Sit back and enjoy as Max shares his unique views and opinions - ones that rocketed him to the top.   Marketing Strategies? We made a damn good product.   Max doesn't believe in hack or tricks or guarantees.  In his mind, when someone markets a magic hack for something, it's like selling lies.   People are hungry for shortcuts. What they want is the easiest way to get the biggest payout. Life isn't like that. There IS no magic secret way to achieve your dreams.   Cards Against Humanity didn't use tactics like "artificial scarcity".  It's about having a great product that people want, selling at a steady rate, and spending less than you make. Max says it's that simple.   Staying top of mind and marketing on a limited budget.   Traditionally, a marketing budget is the monetary sum you intend to you to advertise. Traditional marketing is something Max states they avoided. They don't spend money on Facebook advertising, or radio adverts.   They do spend money on doing cool and unique things. Things that people would enjoy and would want to watch and share. In this way, they do spend money to market, but it's not where others might first turn.   Cards Against Humanity, and Max, have developed a cult following. People identify with and embrace the alternative means of marketing they use.   Max quotes, "If you want people to talk about you, it's on you to do something worth talking about." If Obama was our CEO...   Speaking of doing something people want to talk about, Max shared his experiences. Specifically, he told us about an ad they ran on Craigslist in January 2017.   Max said that while enjoying a brainstorming session, they came up with an idea. Wouldn't it be amazing if Barack Obama was our new CEO?   Many of the ideas they throw around don't make it to public consumption, but this one did! It's a perfect example of the power of alternative advertising. They made a post on Craigslist and it got loads of attention.   You know what that cost them to run? Nothing. Sure, they haven't picked up Obama yet, but there is still hope!   (Note to Barack Obama, if you're reading this, give Max a shout, he'd love to hear from you!  mail@cardsagainsthumanity.com )   Blackbox - Our not-so-secret new business for crowd funders!   Blackbox, ever heard of it? It’s a new shipping company from the creators of Cards Against Humanity.  Max tells us that they had to go through the motions when it came to shipping the game. They ended up having to build and infrastructure to do it.   It's now spinning off as it's own service. Blackbox takes their existing experience and connections to make it accessible. It's geared at crowd funders too.   Max tells of how he made a critical shipping mistake that ended up costing him. With certain campaigns, you need to know an exact shipping cost up front, or you're charged for it. That's why they want to make it safe, easy and fast. Enter the details online and get an accurate, guaranteed shipping price.   Oh, and they take care of everything so that you don't have to; Customer service, shipping, storage, returns, exchanges you name it.   The strategy behind marketing Secret Hitler   Let's talk about something else that Max Temkin knocked out of the park. Have you ever played Secret Hitler? It's a brilliantly marketed board game of hidden identities.   The website describes it as:   " Secret Hitler is a dramatic game of political intrigue and betrayal set in 1930's Germany. Players are secretly divided into two teams - liberals and fascists. Known only to each other, the fascists coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader. The liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it’s too late."   It was also wildly successful on Kickstarter. We asked Max what drove the success of this game, and he imparted some real gems.   He's done design for more than 15 years professionally. He works with and designs branding for political campaigns. He insists there is a visual database in his head of styles and ideas that he can pull out on command, a benefit of experience.   Secret Hitler was a dream project, one that he had the money to fund. He had money to put into testing and it became a balance of art and science.   Max made sure to emphasize that, despite money, there is never a guarantee on return. Sometimes not having money can make for a better product because you have to work harder to achieve it.   Ever heard Max talk about Star Wars and the reason that they became a classic? You should tune in to the podcast to hear more.   If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?   Khierstyn prepared a few questions in advance for Max. The first being from Zach Smith, founder of Funded.Today. He asked - "if you had to do it all again, what would you do differently?"   He tells of how he charged only for the cards and not shipping at first. While it was during a time when that was more common, he said it was a nightmare. This nightmare was part of what fed into Blackbox.   He did mention one regret - that he let inexperience push him away from the design he truly wanted. Everything worked in the end, but he wishes he had the courage to make the choice that felt right.   Max warns listeners, "Fail because you make it too good, not because you made it too bad."   Where’s the line? Let’s talk being offensive.   There is no line per say, but there are rules. The goal is to make people laugh and feel good when they play. It's not to make anyone feel bad. Sometimes the enveloped gets puts but Max tries his best to ensure it's within these rules.   There was a time, Max recants when he was young and in college. There was a cheap transsexual joke he still regrets. It came about after he saw a post on Tumblr. Someone expressed feelings of being bullied. They said when the card came up, the transsexual player was bullied, and it was no longer a fun time.   "It's all fun and games... until we become bullies." Max explains "We have a social responsibility."   Super Happy Fun Time Uncensored Bonus Content   Fun and games you say? It's about that time! Max chats with Khierstyn about crowdfunding platforms. At the same time, they chat about (and dissect) campaigns seen on Funded.Today.   **Warning - This is uncut for your listening pleasures! Max Temkin in full swing!**       Episode Outline   Introduction: Max against Humanity; I did it my way. [08:28] Marketing Strategies? We made a damn good product.   [14:28] Staying top of mind and marketing on a limited budget. [21:50] If Obama was our CEO...   [30:42] Blackbox - Our not-so-secret new business for crowd funders!       [35:58] Backerkit    [37:05] The strategy behind marketing Secret Hitler [43:03] If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?       [48:46] Where’s the line? Let’s talk being offensive. [52:30] Super Happy Fun Time Uncensored Bonus Content              Resources and Sponsor   Cards Against Humanity Secret Hitler Prototyping Secret Hitler (Blog) Funded.Today Khierstyn’s Product Launch Checklist Crowdfunding Product Launch Academy Khierstyn’s e-mail Best of Craigslist - Cards Against Humanity CEO Ad Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services

How to Harness the Power of Your Story   Have you ever met a travel digital nomad? Have you ever wanted to be one? Have you ever wanted to use your life experience to shape your e-commerce future? Chris Rawlings joins Khierstyn on a deep dive into his experiences. A tale which leads him to San Francisco in search of new VC (venture capital) investors for his next big idea.   The Spice of Life; Using Story to Elevate Products   Three years ago, Chris was working in the solar industry as an employee. He started as a scientist though he felt like he needed to know business to control his destiny. He found himself gravitating towards roles that were more and more business related.   Business tired Chris and left him wanting more. In a rush of adrenaline he looked up the most beautiful country in the world. At that time, with that search feature, New Zealand topped the charts. Like that, he booked a one way trip.   The journey began, and what a story! 2 and a half years ago he sold all his possessions, quit his job, shifted into a minimalist lifestyle. Chris moved to New Zealand, bought a motorcycle and started wandering.   Traveling Digital Nomads   Chris captivates with his stories of the network of traveling digital nomads. He met individuals who operated mobile businesses like him, going from coffee shop to coffee shop. People running digital marketing, e-commerce, SEO and Amazon business like his.   The Philippines, Bali, Indonesia and other areas see a high volume of these digital nomads. Individuals who enjoy traveling and working for themselves. A network of experiences waiting to happen.   "Is this your thing?" Chris asks of the audience, "Then book it and just go."   Luck + Hard Work = Success   From humble and alone to capitalizing on a network of knowledge Chris began to build his team. His first business went from nothing to a two million dollar evaluation, nothing to snort at.   It was captivating to see this new and unique market that he hadn't before. Small, niched, fast growing businesses that cater to small to medium sized businesses. The same niche he was in.   He tells us about the amazing diversity and ingenuity. Nearly anything you could think of had it's own niche and service.   It was the process of building his business and expanding abroad that lead to his most well-known venture - Judolaunch.com   Judolaunch.com - The launch platform for e-based brands.   Chris explained that there are generally 2 ways to expand your business.   Horizontally By releasing product after product to continually generate new income. Globally When you have a channel that works, it's easier to recreate the same platform in other markets. Fundamentally, JudoLaunch gets your product into the hands of customers in the global Amazon market to jumpstart your products' rankings.   Would Judolaunch.com be a SaaS (software as a service) or an Agency?   Chris indicated that his intention with Judolaunch.com was to offer a full service agency. By starting out with this model they were able to get business and fill quotas.   They began investing in the systems and processes needed to automate and improve. Chris ventured into San Francisco and software development as Judolaunch.com developed into an SaaS tool.   "That's where all the real growth is!" Chris exclaimed.   What to give up to raise what you need.   In San Francisco,starting from scratch, Chris has been working to get as many meetings as possible. He explains that it comes down to only a few things.   Do whatever the #$%& you want - you make the rules. You have to set the rules. You will run into the occasionally VC or Angel investor who argues. However you are more likely to get those who just jump all in. Set a time-period to raise funds. Setting a goal with limits makes things feel more achievable. Get together a proposal, ideas and figures to help your presentation. Chris shared that in his opinion, you can calculate evaluations 3 ways: Revenue/Net Profit Review What was another company at a similar stage evaluated at? Pulling it out of your ass. In fact, number 3, was the one he sees most often.   How Much Equity Do You Give?   Chris really breaks this down in a great way. As a general rule, each time you raise investments, you hand out 20-30%   (Give a listen to the podcast to hear him explain this!)   Round 1 Fundraising Collecting money from friends and family and your own personal savings. Generally you raise between $0 -$100,000 Round 2 Fundraising The seed round. Generally you raise from $100,000 to over $2 million dollars. This is the first real round. From there you can have as many series as you want though it dilutes each individual's holdings each time.   The Spinal Tap   While he doesn't divulge, it's mentioned that a spinal injury is actually what sparked one of his most recent successes.   Chris started working with his father on a new way to meditate comfortably for longer periods of time. It's an amazing posture pillow which re-invent the meditating position. He's ventured into an area he almost praises as a sweet spot in his story. A product that builds off of his spinal injury which also fills a need.   He validated his product.He liked that it was in a boring category and it wasn't sexy. There was much room to improve and impress.   Your products should resonate and tell a story.   Chris says he had a basic, flat white label product for a while. It didn't take long to learn that the best campaigns have the best stories behind them.   How does he know his new posture pillow will sell? A leg up; His dad is a meditation instructor and travels around with the product testing on his students. The reactions have been very positive. (Pop in right about now in the podcast and Chris will start sharing how he easily validates a product. Tap into that experience!) Episode Outline Introduction: How to Harness the Power of Your Story [06:15] The Spice of Life; Using Story to Elevate Products      [08:50] Travelling Digital Nomads      [11:53] Luck + Hard Work = Success   [13:51] Judolaunch.com - The launch platform for e-based brands.        [18:34] What to give up to raise what you need.    [21:28] How Much Equity Do You Give?     [22:54] Backerkit [24:00] The Spinal Tap       [32:35] Your products should resonate and tell a story.           Resources and Sponsor   JudoLaunch.com Hello@JudoLaunch.com Noah the Bullmastiff Khierstyn’s Product Launch Checklist Crowdfunding Product Launch Academy Khierstyn’s e-mail   Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services

  When Jason Tafler switched from the world of corporate start-ups to designing his own product, he purchased technology and an e-mail list from a company who had a product similar to what he wanted to create. But rather than just move forward to design his product the way he wanted it, he did a survey of the customer base to find out what was important to them, and let their feedback influence his product design. On this episode, Jason shares the fascinating story of his journey toward creating an interactive meditation product and the role that his customer base played in both the design and the launch of Unyte.   Using NPS (Net Promoter Score) to help you fine tune your product When Jason Tafler was developing the Unyte interactive meditation product, he found that using NPS (Net Promoter Score) helped him figure out where to improve and where to focus. On this episode, he explains what NPS is and how he used a single question survey of his customer base to get the feedback that he needed, including real time transactional NPS. List to today’s interview to learn about this tool that can provide the feedback you need for successful product development. What is the best source of traffic and sales for your crowdfunding campaign? There are many online sources for traffic and sales for your crowdfunding campaign. Jason Tafler was surprised by some of the sources that did better, or not as well, as he expected. On this episode, he shares the percentages of his backers that came from various sources. Listen to find out how the percentage that came from his existing customer base was the biggest surprise of all.   Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo - Which should you choose? For those who are new to crowdfunding, it can be difficult to choose which platform to use. In today’s interview, Jason Tafler explains why he chose the platform he did, what he likes about it, and what makes him wonder whether he made the right decision. Listen in for an honest discussion about the pros and cons of Kickstarter and Indiegogo.   Jason Tafler’s advice for entrepreneurs new to crowdfunding Jason Tafler has had a successful Kickstarter campaign for his Unyte interactive meditation product. On this episode, Jason shares a couple of warnings for others who are looking to do the same. A Kickstarter campaign doesn’t necessarily result in a successful, sustainable business. Listen in to find out how much work it took for Jason to launch his product, and what he needed to do outside of the Kickstarter platform to achieve success.   Outline of This Episode [0:16] Introduction to our sponsor, BackerKit, and today’s guest, Jason Tafler. [3:06] Jason’s story - how he decided to focus on an interactive meditation device? [10:38] How the ability to calm your mind can help you in other areas. [12:58] How Jason acquired technology from another company and developed it into a new product. [17:09] Using your customer base to get the feedback that you need. [20:26] What is the Net Promoter Score, and how did Jason Tafler use a survey to figure it out?   [24:10] Thank you to our sponsor, Backer Kit. [25:13] Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo. [28:16] What is the best source of traffic and sales for your crowdfunding campaign? [35:49] Jason Tafler’s advice for entrepreneurs new to crowdfunding. [41:02] Jason’s plans and Khierstyn’s advice for the last three days of the campaign. [46:35] Using Indiegogo In Demand for passive income. [48:54] What crowdfunding can do for your brand launch. Resources Mentioned Unyte Google AdWords Book: The Ultimate Question, by Fred Reichheld Funded Today Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes   Sponsor BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off set-up services

Would you like to rise above your fears to live a life without limits? In today's podcast, Khierstyn talks with Joel Runyon, of Impossible HQ, about how you can conquer those fears and achieve what seems impossible.   Joel shares his inspiring story of how he turned his “can’ts” into “cans”. He stopped clinging to excuses and acted; Started running. Joel trained for and ran marathons, triathlons, and eventually, an ultra-marathon in Antarctica! The tough physical discipline required to master these tasks led him to develop a winning mindset that can be applied to any area of life. In this episode, we will learn how he did it so we too can go beyond what we thought was impossible. We can go limitless!   The First Step: Accept NO excuses and Act     Joel candidly tells the story of how he was at rock bottom in his life. Everything seemed impossible to him. His first step was to allow no more excuses in his life. He was finally sick of his own excuses, and that's what it took. Sick enough to be motivated. His second step was to find something he could do. Then he did it. He took control of his physical accomplishment. He did not choose what most would deem a reasonable goal. No, Joel went for the impossible. He knew he could run so he set his sights on running a triathlon. Then he started running. and did what others are afraid to and went for it. He trained, did it, accomplished it, and then set the next goal higher. Along the way, he developed a winning mindset that now allows him to live without limits in every area of his life.  You can too... if you ditch excuses, go limitless and determine to do the impossible.    If You Can't Do This, You Don't Have What It Takes to Go Limitless Joel fills us in on his 30 Day Cold Therapy Challenge. It is a challenging feat for most, though not impossible for anyone. It is, however, highly uncomfortable. That is the key to how it works its magic. The cold therapy gives you daily practice at “cowboying up”, taking a deep breath, and doing that which you REALLY do not want to do. What is the challenge? It’s simple. You intentionally take a five-minute-long cold shower, daily, for thirty days. The purpose is to learn to discipline yourself to do the things you naturally don't want to do. You are purposefully creating discomfort, then working through it. That's empowering. That conquers fear by helping you realize the head mess you experience beforehand is the worst of it. No more need to fear. Without fear, you don't need limits. You can live a limitless life of your dreams. It could be just a few cold showers away!   Joel Applied These Same Strategies to GO LIMITLESS and Compete in an Ultra-Marathon, in Antarctica!        Here, Joel tells the tale of how he applied the strategy of doing the impossible to eventually compete in an ultra-marathon. That is a total of 100K… 10K, ten times. Also, it was in Antarctica, where it is so cold, there is no wildlife. It's a fascinating story of how anyone can go limitless and make their dreams come true.   How Does Choosing the Challenge Train Your Mind to be Limitless? The real value in the cold challenge is in how it trains your brain to ignore fears and persevere until you have done the impossible. The battleground, in those moments before you turn on the cold water, is in your mind. You're scared. You don't want to do it. More than that, you REALLY don't want to do it. It’s easy to come up with dozens of reasons not to. In that moment of no turning back, you decide to fear not and go for it. WOW! Yes, it is shocking, but you did it. You did not die and you can do it again. The wonderful thing is, the next time, conquering those fears will be a little bit easier. You tested your mental capabilities and won! That is how Joel did the impossible over and over again. You can go limitless too, if you accept the challenge.   How Adding Hours a Day of Workouts to His Schedule Increased Joel's Productivity Joel tells how adding intense physical training to his schedule made his him more efficient and productive. It forces you to step up and get serious about how you manage your time because it pushes your limits.   It develops character, consistency, and self-discipline. When you learn to push yourself physically and exceed your own limits, nothing seems impossible anymore. In the process of all the physical training, you find you have disciplined your mind to give you the edge you need to go limitless in every area of your life.   Do You Need Help to Keep Moving? There’s an App for That! The Move Well App will help you to stay mobile, increase mobility after injuries, and undo some of the damage sitting at a desk all day long can do. Each simple 5-10-minute routine is almost as good as having a physical therapist at your beck and call. If you are going limitless and need help to start moving more, this app is for you.   What is YOUR impossible goal? Khierstyn would love to hear about your impossible goal. You don't have one yet? Throw out the box, forget having limits, and reach for your dreams. When you have it...that one special, impossible thing you will do.... please, email her at [ obviously, insert it]. She can celebrate your commitment to a limitless life and doing the impossible with you! Episode Outline Introduction: How to Conquer Fears and Live a Limitless Life [04:46] Joel shares his inspiring story of how he turned his “can'ts” into “cans”.      [08:37] The First Step: Accept NO excuses and Act      [11:28] If You Can't Do This, You Don't Have What It Takes to Go Limitless    [25:07] Joel Applied These Same Strategies to GO LIMITLESS and Compete in an Ultra-Marathon, in Antarctica!        [30:08] How Does Choosing the Challenge Train Your Mind to be Limitless?      [35:49] How Adding Hours a Day of Workouts to His Schedule Increased Joel's Productivity      [40:30] Do You Need Help to Keep Moving? There’s an App For That!       [42:04] What is YOUR impossible goal?   Resources and Sponsor impossibleHQ.com Impossible.org Movewellapp.com Khierstyn’s Product Launch Checklist Khierstyn’s e-mail Leave a review on iTunes   Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services           

Do you have a great Kickstarter product and a small budget? Many people don’t realize that you can be successful on Kickstarter even if your project isn’t huge. It is like a video game, and you get to set the difficulty level based on your goals. Tyler James, of ComixLaunch, has worked with projects of many sizes. On this episode, he provides insights into how to build your Kickstarter audience, regardless of the size of your budget. Listen in to learn how to activate your existing power base, effectively use giveaways, and use storytelling to keep people engaged in your project. Why you should become a part of the Kickstarter community before attempting a product launch If you want to be successful on Kickstarter, it is important to become part of the community first. On this episode, Tyler James explains why backing other projects is essential to launching your own, and how other projects can be your best assets instead of your competition. Listen to this podcast episode to find out how to build your credibility on Kickstarter so that your launch has a better chance of being successful. Activate your existing power base to begin building your Kickstarter audience Your existing power base is the people already in your world who know, like, and trust you. These people provide the foundation for building your Kickstarter audience. On this episode, Tyler James describes how to activate your existing power base so that you can build an audience of people who want you to succeed and who want the product you are offering. Listen in to learn how the people you already know are some of your best assets for your Kickstarter launch. Provide value in advance of your Kickstarter to grow your audience and create excitement A pre-launch that gets people excited about your product is just as important as the launch itself. The bigger your pre-launch, the bigger your launch will be. On this episode, Tyler James explains how you can effectively use a giveaway to build your Kickstarter audience during your pre-launch, even on a limited budget. Listen to learn about starting early, how the giveaway works to create energy and excitement, and the crucial role of storytelling in this stage of your project. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. The value of interacting with others and getting coaching cannot be underestimated. On this episode, Tyler James provides a bit of live coaching for a specific project, and the result is a great example of how working together with others is a great benefit to creators. Listen in as Tyler gives Khierstyn some great insights on a specific project, and discover how the principles he employs can give you insights into how to build an energized and excited Kickstarter audience for your own project. Outline of This Episode [2:03] Welcome to the Crowdfunding Uncut podcast!  Intro to Tyler James and this episode. [8:20] Kickstarter is like a video game. [9:16] How you can be successful on Kickstarter even if your project isn’t huge. [15:04] How sharing other people’s projects can help build your audience. [19:55] Thank you to our sponsor: BackerKit [20:59] Start by activating your existing power base. [25:18] Pre-launch viral giveaway contest.Why you should become a part of the Kickstarter community before attempting a product launch [27:07] Understand the power of storytelling in communicating with your audience. [30:34] Live coaching: How to get people to engage with your product and offer. [42:25] Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. Resources Mentioned ComixLaunch.com ComixTribe King Sumo Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Crowdfunding Product Launch Academy Leave a review on iTunes Sponsor: BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off of set-up services

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, a book of short stories about extraordinary women,  surpassed one million in preorders, in spite of the small budget that was available for advertising. Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo did not expect the success that came their way. But, looking back, they have realized the steps they took that all worked together for their project to become the most funded book in crowdfunding history. Listen to this interview with Elena Favilli to hear the story of their campaign and learn the secrets to their success. How to know if there is a market for your product Testing the market for Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls began with Elena and Francesca’s newsletter audience. In this episode, Elena details how they entered into open dialogue with their readers and how that dialogue informed the decisions they made and eventually led to the launch of their book. Listen to this conversation to learn how you can engage your audience early in your project and ensure that you are creating something they really want. Taking orders before your product goes live - Does it help or hurt your campaign? Once Elena knew that there was a market for her product, she sent out a Google doc with a link to purchase. While it might seem that this could be a mistake and hurt her campaign, the result was quite the opposite. In this interview, Elena discusses how they went about choosing the people who would receive the Google doc, and how the response to it drove the success of their campaign and helped them exceed their goals even with their small marketing budget.   How to keep the community energized throughout your campaign  Keeping the community #engaged and energized throughout their# campaign was important to Elena and Francesca of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. In this episode, Elena explains how they managed their updates and stretch goals in such a way that their community became their ambassadors for their campaign. The engaged community was a major factor in allowing their launch to succeed with a small advertising budget. Listen in to find out what you can do to keep your community energized! Elena Favilli’s top two marketing tips for people on a budget with a great product Elena Favilli has two marketing tips for anyone who has a great product and a tight budget. First, do a lot of research for journalists who might be interested in covering your campaign. Second, make your video great. In this episode, Elena shares details about both strategies. She clarifies when and how to establish relationships with journalists that can help your campaign succeed, and describes the most important qualities for your video, which don’t include spending a lot of money on it. Listen to this interview to get the details on these two tips that can lead to a successful campaign on a small budget! Outline of This Episode  [0:18] Why Khierstyn loves Backerkit (sponsor Info). [1:58] Introducing Elena Favilli and the surprising success of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls [5:56] Elena’s first steps in discovering that there was a market for her product. [8:48] Elena’s story of testing the market and starting preorders before the campaign. [13:04] The process and effect of taking pre-orders before the Goodnight Stories campaign. [15:13] How Elena chose the people for the preorder release   [16:01] Break: BackerKit - How to keep organized after your campaign (sponsor info). [17:04] The value of validating your product and educating yourself on the crowdfunding process. [20:59] How Goodnight Stories kept building and avoided the mid-campaign slump. [22:34] Keeping the community energized through updates and stretch goals. [23:38] How Elena and Francesca used their small advertising budget. [25:03] Elena’s top two marketing tips for people on a budget with a great product. [29:28] How Elena pitched her project to journalists. [32:20] How Elena and Francesca completed their launch without outside help. [36:58] Khierstyn’s similar experience with validation, and your invitation to Crowdfunding Product Launch Academy. Resources Mentioned  Elena’s Rebel Girls website Launch, byJeff Walker   Ask, by Ryan Levesque   Brian Harris (10K Subs) Friezen (printer in Canada) The Crowdfunding Product Academy Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off setup services Gadget Flow

Rachel Pedersen is a Facebook marketing strategy specialist. In this episode, she helps you dig deeper into Facebook advertising and shares her most helpful tips and insights into how to do it well. Rachel provides solid answers to detailed questions. Listen to this interview to learn how to use Facebook ads in a way that will stand out, engage your audience, and lead to a successful product launch. Targeting: Who is your potential market, and what message will resonate with them? The first step in preparing for your product launch is to identify your potential audience and find out what message will resonate with them. In this episode, Rachel Pedersen explains how vital this step is to your entire Facebook marketing strategy, and details the ways you can test your market so that you don’t spend money on ads that may be ineffective. Listen to this interview to find out how to set yourself up for success by knowing ahead of time what is going to attract your market. How to write good copy for Facebook ads Good copy is essential to effective Facebook marketing strategy. As Rachel Pedersen says, “If your copy isn’t explaining the benefits of your product very well it doesn’t matter what audience you send it to.” In this episode, Rachel provides instruction on what good copy includes, how to find examples to base your copy on, and how to then test your copy to be sure it resonates with your market. Listen to this podcast to get a head start on writing great copy for your Facebook ads! How e-mails and Facebook ads work together for a successful product launch Your e-mail audience is your warmest audience. They have already indicated interest in your product. In this episode, Rachel Pederson talks about the importance of communicating with them, and gives tips for targeting Facebook ads to your e-mail audience so that they see your product launch everywhere and don’t forget to be part of it. Listen in to learn about using your e-mail audience as a vital part of your Facebook marketing strategy. Tips for creating a lookalike audience on Facebook Is the best Facebook audience a lookalike audience based on your e-mail list? The answer to that question depends on several factors, including the size of your e-mail list. In this interview, Rachel Pederson explains what is needed to create an accurate lookalike audience, and how to make adjustments as you gather more data. Listen in to learn about creating a lookalike audience and to gain other helpful tips and insights from this Facebook marketing strategy expert. Outline of This Episode [1:56] Introduction to Rachel Pedersen and this episode on Facebook marketing strategy [5:02] Figuring out who your market is and how your message resonates. [6:50] Why is the testing and validation part so important to not skip? [8:36] Defining online sales funnels. [9:05] How and when to test your audience, copy, and creatives.   [11:42] How to write good copy for Facebook ads. [13:40] Taking into consideration the flow of how someone reads a Facebook ad. [15:55] How and when is the right time to boost a post when you might get more traction with it, based on having social proof already? [17:55] The relationship between engagement and social proof. [19:32] Is there a default objective that people should start with? [21:02] Thank you to our sponsor: BackerKit [22:06] How can we apply re-marketing to future campaigns? [24:10] How e-mails and Facebook ads work together for a successful product launch. [26:14] The importance of communicating with your crowdfunding audience. [26:55] Driving a cold audience to your Kickstarter campaign. [28:12] Remember to use gifting holidays that fall into your campaign dates. [28:35] Tips for creating a lookalike audience on Facebook. [32:16] Is there any easy way to import Kickstarter conversion data into FB or a third party tool to make it easy to calculate cost per acquisition? [34:30] What Rachel Pedersen looks for when people want to work with her for their product launch. [36:40] What’s your favorite product you have ever worked on? Wish I had worked on. Travel purse. My favorite is Pavlock. Cool to be part of that and see how it progressed. Maniche. I like taking on innovative mommy products. Resources Mentioned Crowdfunding Uncut Episode 47 - Social Media Strategy with Rachel Pederson Nicholas Kuzmich Rachelpedersen.com TheMrsPedersen (handle for all social media platforms) Luxilitarian travel bag Pavlock Khierstyn’s e-mail: K@crowdfundinguncut.com Khierstyn’s Physical Product Launch Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsor  BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off of startup services

At what point in my project is it best to work on the product manufacturing and fulfillment side of things? Shouldn’t I wait until after I have funding? Actually, quite the opposite is true. If you get funded and can’t fulfill products, your campaign will fail. It is important to know what your manufacturing process, supply chain, and costing look like, all before you launch, so you can set an appropriate funding amount. Listen to this episode to get all the information you need about manufacturing and fulfillment from today’s guest, Filip Valica, founder of The Product Startup. The prototyping process: when and how to do it  Having the prototyping conversation before your product launch gives you the advantage of being able to accurately set pricing and know that you can fulfill your orders. On today’s episode, Filip Valica explains the prototyping process, how to do it cost-effectively, and why customer feedback is crucial at this point in product development. Listen in to get all the details you need for prototyping and product manufacturing, so that you can stay ahead of the game and be well-prepared for a successful launch! Avoiding the #1 pitfall in the early stages of product development  Want to avoid making significant mistakes in the early stages of product development? Today’s guest, Filip Valica, provides the insights you need and talks about the number one pitfall in the early stages of product development, and how to avoid it. You will also hear key tips about product design, keeping your brand consistent, and how to prevent having your product ripped off by an overseas manufacturer. Listen in to get valuable information that will set you up for successful product manufacturing and fulfillment! How to choose a domestic or international manufacturer  Choosing a qualified manufacturer is essential to the success of your product. On this episode, Filip Valica explains the differences between domestic and international manufacturers and the benefits of each. He also details important criteria to consider, the best ways to find and vet a potential manufacturer, and why you need to be personally involved in the process. Listen in to get all the information you need to choose a product manufacturer that will enable you to successfully fulfill your product. How to design appropriate packaging for your product When is the right time to design packaging for your product? What are the important considerations? In this episode, Filip Valica provides valuable details and insights about image, branding, safety, and cost-effectiveness for product packaging. He also discusses why knowing your audience is a key factor in package design. Listen in to hear all of this and more on this deep dive into product manufacturing and fulfillment best practices. Outline of This Episode [0:21] Thank you to our sponsor, BackerKit. [2:02] Introduction to Philip Filip Valica and this episode on product manufacturing and fulfillment. [4:54] When to start getting into the manufacturing and fulfillment side of your project. [6:43] Why have the prototyping conversation before launch? [8:37] What does the prototyping process look like? [11:34] Simplifying your product for the best result. [13:57] The #1  pitfall during the early stage of development. [15:21] How to choose a domestic or international manufacturer. [18:07] Thanks to our sponsor, BackerKit. [19:11] How to find and vet a manufacturer you can depend on. [25:23] Key differences between manufacturers in the US and China. [26:12] Top criteria for choosing your manufacturer. [30:23] How to prevent having your product idea ripped off by an unscrupulous manufacturer. [34:52] How to design appropriate packaging for your product. [40:01] How do you determine when to call it quits on an entrepreneur’s idea? [45:43] How does 3D printing relate to prototyping and manufacturing and how do I learn it? [48:04] Personal qualities Filip Valica looks for in entrepreneurs who work with him. [49:37] Filip’s one piece of advice for the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. Resources Mentioned Philip Valica’s The Product Startup website Canton Fair Trade Show in China TSNN.com (trade show news network) AliBaba Global Sources China Checkup GloBis Freakonomics Radio “The Upside of Quitting” 3DHubs.com Crowdfunding Hustlers (6-month online crowdfunding accelerator) Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% of of set-up services

Gareth Everard ran a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign when he launched the first product that led to the founding of Rockwell Razors. He used that first campaign to launch several other successful product lines and made the transition to make it a sustainable brand. But his road to success was not an easy one. In today’s episode, Gareth shares his story of the manufacturing problems he ran into and what he did to keep those troubles from causing his product to fail. If you’re launching a product, or even thinking about it,  you’ll want to join us and learn all you can from Gareth’s experience. What made Gareth Everard’s crowdfunding campaign so successful? Gareth Everard’s first crowdfunding campaign exceeded its goal the first day and made 12 times that goal by the end of the campaign! In this episode, Gareth talks about how he chose his product, how an online community made a huge difference in the success of his campaign, and how he navigated the challenges that came his way. Listen in to gain some great tips and ideas for a successful crowdfunding campaign. When your crowdfunding campaign becomes a series of unfortunate events As Gareth Everard describes it, his crowdfunding campaign became a series of unfortunate events when he discovered that his manufacturer had massively misled him regarding their capability for producing a quality product. In this episode, Gareth tells me about how he overcame this huge obstacle in a way that allowed him to keep his backers and customers and successfully launch additional products. It wasn’t easy. Listen in and learn from Gareth’s experience how you can prevent your crowdfunding campaign from ruining your life.  The one factor that made Gareth Everard successful turning his campaign into an actual business Are you wondering how to create a business out of your crowdfunding campaign? Do you want to learn from someone who did it well? Gareth Everard was successful in turning his campaign into an actual business. In this episode, he talks about the one factor that played the biggest part in his success. And it’s not what you might think. Listen to this interview to learn what you need to do to keep your backers and customers receptive to new products. Is Kickstarter or Indiegogo the better creator for my crowdfunding campaign? Are you trying to decide which creator would be the best for you to use for your crowdfunding campaign? In this episode, Gareth Everard provides some insight into Kickstarter and Indiegogo and which one will likely best serve your needs, based on where you are in your product development. Listen in for some great advice that will help you make a good decision about the platform you want for your campaign. Outline of This Episode [1:57] Introducing one of my favorite humans, Gareth Everard, founder of Rockwell Razors. [3:22] How Rockwell got started, in Gareth’s senior year of college. [4:55] How Gareth chose what product to go after. [6:46] To what did Gareth Everard attribute his overnight success? [9:03] When your crowdfunding campaign becomes a series of unfortunate events. [12:08] What Gareth did with the new manufacturer to make sure the same problems didn’t happen again. [14:04] Gareth’s advice on manufacturing and fulfillment. [18:13] Setting pricing and shipping and customer perception. [24:28] The one factor that made Gareth Everard successful turning his campaign into an actual business. [26:27] How Backer Kit helped Gareth decide on new products. [30:24] Using backerKit to recover transactions that are lost due to Kickstarter. [33:07] Is Kickstarter or Indiegogo the best creator for my crowdfunding campaign? [37:20] Two words of advice for anyone launching a campaign. Resources Mentioned RockwellRazors.com Gareth’s E-mail - Include “Crowdfunding Uncut” in the subject line Tech Crunch: How to fail at Kickstarter even if you get funded Venture beat: How my Kickstarter blew up my life Shipfusion Episode #60:  Reversing the Manufacturing Death Spiral Wicked Edge Reddit community Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off set-up charges Gadget Flow

87 - How to Crowdfund for a Digital Course | feat. Julien Brault   Julien Brault successfully used a crowdfunding campaign to launch his digital course, “Not Another Boring Course About Investing.” In this episode, Julien talks about how he decided to use crowdfunding for the course, and the process that he went through. Listen in to find out where he got verbiage for his ads, how he developed his e-mail list, and how he raised an additional $20,000 in the last few hours of his campaign. If you want to know how to crowdfund for a digital course, you’ll want to listen to this episode! Julien Brault’s story: How he decided to crowdfund for a digital course: Crowdfunding is primarily thought of in relationship to physical products. But Julien Brault decided to try it for his digital course. In this episode, he relates his transition from developing an app to creating a course instead of a book to go with it, and then deciding to try crowdfunding for the course. The story of his success is one you will want to hear, especially if you are wondering about crowdfunding for a digital product.  How customer interviews impacted Julien Brault’s course development and advertising Julien Brault spent a lot of time, both in person and on the phone, interviewing potential customers to find out what they were looking for. In this episode on how to crowdfund a digital course, Julien shares where he found the people to interview and the kinds of questions he asked. Listen in to find out how the answers he got helped him not only to develop his course and app, but also to craft effective advertising. How Julien Brault built his audience and structured his campaign to crowdfund a digital course Julien Brault’s crowdfunding campaign for his digital course was hugely successful. In this episode, Julien talks about the process he used to build his audience over a six-month period before launching. He also gives details about structuring the campaign, determining his target audience, and the difference between a campaign for a digital product and a physical product. Regardless of your product type, you’ll want to hear this insightful conversation about crafting a successful campaign. How Julien Brault converted his critics into contributors Like most entrepreneurs, Julien Brault received a lot of negative, and sometimes rude, feedback from his e-mails. In this episode, he shares how he replied to these people, and how a number of them ended up actually providing valuable contributions to his content! Julien’s response to negative people is inspiring. Listen in and learn from his insights on how to respond to your critics on the journey to crowdfunding your digital product. Outline of This Episode [0:23] Intro to this episode about crowdfunding for a course [2:41] Julien Brault’s story of how he decided to crowdfund for a digital course. [10:07] How customer interviews impacted Julien Brault’s course development and advertising. [18:09] How Julien Brault developed and used his e-mail list. [20:59] How Julien developed his audience and turned critics into contributors [23:40] The difference between structuring campaigns for physical and digital products. [25:33] How Julien determined the price for his course. [26:14] How Julien narrowed the scope of his target audience. [28:44]  How Julien raised $20,000 in the last few hours of his campaign. [33:59] What Julien would do differently if he could do it again. [35:17] How to see your audience as real people. Resources Mentioned Julien’s website Book: The Lean Startup, By Eric Ries CrowdfundingUncut.com/podcast/87 workbook for scoping out your avatar If you have an angle you think would make a great show, send a pitch to k@crowdfundinguncut.com. Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get your discount Gadget Flow

If you want to learn about Facebook advertising strategy, Michael Mataluni is someone you want to listen to. In this episode he talks about what you can do to be effective with Facebook advertising, and also gives some great tips about e-mails and Kickstarter. Listen to his story and his insights to get inspired to get working on the launch or the ongoing success of your product. Why Michael Mataluni recommends Kickstarter instead of crowdfunding on your own website Thinking to save some money by doing crowdfunding on your own website?  You might want to think again. Michael Mataluni has done it both ways and, in today’s episode, shares his insights on why using Kickstarter is the best choice. After crowdfunding, effective Facebook ads were the key to growing his business. If you are debating how to get your launch started, you’ll want to listen to this conversation and learn from Michael’s experience. What Michael Mataluni did to raise $500K in 5 hours Michael Mataluni had a wildly successful product launch, raising a half a million dollars in just five hours. In this episode, he shares the tools that he used to accomplish this. Listen in to find out how he used his e-mail list, the questions he asked his audience, and how he then followed up with an effective Facebook advertising strategy. Using lookalike audiences to advertise on Facebook Did you know that you can use your existing list to create a lookalike audience on Facebook and exponentially grow the reach of your ads? You can do this with any size audience and even add extra layers of targeting. Listen to today’s Facebook advertising strategy episode with Michael Mataluni to find out how.  If you don’t yet have a list, you’ll find out how to identify your core demographic and create a target audience from there. Michael Mataluni’s favorite offer to get people to opt in You want to bait people to opt in on the first day. Will you offer discounts or free products? In today’s episode, Michael Mataluni tells us about his favorite offer and a tip for how to make it so easy for people that they don’t even have to leave Facebook to sign up. You definitely want to include this in your Facebook marketing strategy! Outline of This Episode [0:21] Michael Mataluni’s story about the launch of Thing Charger and what has happened since then. [5:28] Why Michael Mataluni recommends Kickstarter instead of hosting on your own website   [8:7] What Michael did that raised $500K in 5 hours. [13:45] Using lookalike audiences to advertise on Facebook. [19:15] How to discover your core demographic and use their language in your copy. [26:26] The second you think you’ve arrived, just stop. And listen to other people. [28:14] How to address objections in your campaign. [29:13] Infotainment as advertising. [31:21] Michael’s favorite offer to get people to opt in. [36:15] Michael Mataluni’s favorite people and products to work with. [39:14] Building a strategy for your crowdfunding campaign. [39:54] How are Kickstarter backers and regular consumers different? [42:51] Famous last words. A few last words of advice from Michael Mataluni. Resources Mentioned Magfast.com Bryan Moran - to teach you to overcome objections Jeff Walker - Product Launch Formula Mike’s free 5-day video course on Facebook ads Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get your discount Gadget Flow

Nico Moreno is an internet marketing expert who helped a client make over $500,000 during a 2-week email sequence! In today’s episode, Nico shares his own story along with what he has found to be the most effective strategies in sales emails. You don’t want to miss this conversation full of helpful information and tips for internet marketing. What is a sales funnel? A sales funnel is essential to effective internet marketing. But what, exactly, is a sales funnel? And what do email strategies have to do with them? In this episode, Nico Moreno gives a clear explanation of the sales funnel and how it helps you be more effective in the sale of your product or service. Listen in to learn to design a sales funnel that will increase your profits! Nico Moreno’s Story: How he got so good at internet marketing Nico Moreno was stuck in a typical day job and wanted to get free from it. In this episode, he tells his story, from the first online course he took to the success and freedom that he is enjoying now. Listen to this conversation to hear about the ups and downs of Nico’s journey, to discover the resources he found most helpful along the way, and hear how he developed the email strategies he currently uses to help people successfully launch their products. Effective email strategies - The 2-week sequence A 2-week email sequence can help generate a lot of income as you are launching your product. One of Nico Moreno’s clients made over $500,000 in 2 weeks marketing an online course! In this episode, Nico describes the strategy for this e-mail sequence -- how many emails to send, what to write about, and how to call people to action. You won’t want to miss this valuable information! Effective email strategies - getting social proof Your happy customers can write your headlines and copy for you! Social proof is one of the most effective strategies in sales emails. In this episode, Neil Moreno talks about social proof and the various ways you can obtain it, even before your product has launched. You won’t want to miss this interview full of expert tips for getting your product out there and bringing in highly satisfied customers! Outline of This Episode   [0:17] Intro to the podcast email strategies in internet marketing, with Nico Moreno. [5:06] What is a sales funnel?   [6:55] Nico’s backstory - How he got started. [10:47]  Nico’s journey into internet marketing -  The best ways to learn, and his favorite resources. [18:08] Creating a highly effective 2-week email launch sequence. Getting social proof that taps into the right emotions. [41:58] “Famous Last Words” - Nico’s final word of advice. Resources Mentioned Nico Moreno's website Nico’s Facebook page DotComSecrets - Russell Brunson ClickFunnels - Russell Brunson Clickbank.com The Purple Pillow Kickstarter page Leadpages.net Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist Leave a review on iTunes Sponsors BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get your discount Gadget Flow

Crowdfunding has a huge presence and influence in the startup marketplace. There are so many headlines that tell of the overnight success of product campaigns on sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. This seems like a perfect platform to integrate your product into. On this episode of The Amazing Seller, Scott sits down with Khierstyn Ross a specialist in helping entrepreneurs launch their products on crowdfunding sites and beyond. You’ll hear her take on product validation, building a prelaunch audience, and seeing crowdfunding as more than a “One-time event.” Get ready for some powerful insights! Validating a product for crowdfunding The key to a successful crowdfunding campaign is momentum. You need to drive a lot of people to make pledges toward your product. How do you know a product will be a hit with a lot of people? Khierstyn Ross shares a few insights she has gathered as she consults with people trying to launch a product via crowdfunding. She encourages business leaders to get out and talk with everyday people about their product. Does it strike a nerve? Does it solve a problem that resonates? She doesn’t pretend to know the ins and outs of every industry or niche that a product will address but she knows how to help an entrepreneur ask the right questions. Get more helpful insights from Khierstyn on this episode of The Amazing Seller. What is the best way to build a prelaunch audience for your product? So you’ve done the research and you know your product is solving a problem that will resonate with people. How do you get people fired up about this product? How do you ensure that your launch day goes off with a BANG? Khierstyn Ross has a few ideas that will help you optimize your efforts to build a prelaunch audience. She has found that running Facebook ads with video is extremely successful in building that audience. This strategy is effective when you also include a special promotion to give ad viewers a discount percentage off of the item on launch day. To hear more tips from Khierstyn, listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! Is crowdfunding right for you and your product? It seems like there is no end to the variety of products available on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. But is this method of product promotion and audience gathering right for you? The truth is you don’t have to have a completely new original idea for a product to be successful on a crowdfunding site. It is a great place for original product ideas but you can also have a familiar product that has been repurposed for a specific demographic or with features that no one else is providing. One fact remains, you need to have a physical product. If you are considering leveraging crowdfunding for your product launch, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! Don’t think of crowdfunding as a one-time event Most people think of crowdfunding as a one-time event. You promote and publicize a product, gain the funding needed, then ship the item to the backers. Done. But is that thinking shortsighted? Could you leverage crowdfunding as part of a larger business model? Khierstyn Ross has built a business assisting entrepreneurs who are just getting their product on the market. She is convinced that crowdfunding can be utilized as a tool to launch into even greater success. Find out how you might be able to use crowdfunding with your product on this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [3:30] Scott welcomes Khierstyn Ross to the show. [4:40] Khierstyn talks about her background in business. [10:00] How does crowdfunding a product work? [14:15] What happens to the funds raised if you don’t reach the stated goal? [18:00] A Kickstarter page ranks high on Google right? Does that page stay up? [20:00] What crowdfunding site is best? [21:30] How would rolling out a product on one of these sites look like? [23:30] What is the first step once you’ve done your product and market research? [25:40] How would Khierstyn validate a product? [30:00] What is the best strategy to build a prelaunch audience? [33:30] Creating an appealing crowdfunding page. [36:30] Who should use crowdfunding? [40:00] What about patents? [41:00] Don’t think of crowdfunding as a one time event. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Khierstyn’s email address: k[at]crowdfundinguncut.com Khierstyn’s Facebook page: facebook.com/khierstyn.ross Khierstyn’s Twitter page: twitter.com/khierstynross Khierstyn’s website: crowdfundinguncut.com John Lee Dumas’ website: eofire.com Kickstarter Indiegogo Read the North Aware article on qz.com - HERE

On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, Khierstyn chats with the co-founders of Funded Today, one of the most successful crowdfunding consultancies in existence. The Funded Today guys believe smart entrepreneurs and business owners who want to raise LOTS of money on Kickstarter or Indiegogo must become master marketers, sales experts, and direct response gurus. But the reality is that most of them are so busy building a world-class product that they can’t do any of those things, which are full-time jobs in their own right. That’s why Funded Today exists. They’ve built a company that specializes in those things so you don’t have to. On this episode, you’ll hear from Josh and Thomas, the co-founders of Funded Today. When you don’t need a marketing budget.   One of the things Josh and Thomas from Funded Today have discovered is that when you are using paid advertising - whether on the Google ads platform, Facebook ads, or even direct mail - there can often come a time when you don’t have to worry about your marketing budget and can freely keep on spending money. What’s the scenario where that can happen? It’s when your ad-spend is less than the revenue you’re making minus all your expenses. In that case, you’ve got the green light to keep advertising because your net gain is going up as long as you do. It’s an obvious mindset to some people and a mindset shift for others. You can hear how it works in this situation, on this episode.   How the Funded Today team validates products before moving forward with them.   If you were to reach out to the Funded Today team to find out what it would take for them to come alongside your product to make it a crowdfunding success, what you’d find is a process that takes you through a handful of phases. At the front end, you’ll be required to go through a validation process where your product idea and current resources will be analyzed and evaluated for both potential and ability to succeed. It’s one of the ways the Funded Today guys have found that they are able to increase the success of those who partner with them - by only moving forward with those who have the greatest chance of success. It’s an intriguing idea that will give you lots ideas for how you can increase YOUR product's chances of success, so don't miss it!   Crowdfunding is really about two things: Funding and validation.   Though the word “funding” is a part of the name and the fundraising aspect is what most of us think of, Crowdfunding is about more than raising money. The crowdfunding model also enables you to validate a product idea. Is it truly driven by market demands? Is there enough interest by a large enough demographic to warrant a reasonable expectation of success? Is your marketing message dialed-in and effective? These and other questions are answered by the crowdfunding process. Through the many crowdfunding campaigns the team at Funded Today has managed, they’ve taken the time to analyze and understand the data so that they can best advise their clients and make every campaign a success. Thomas and Zach share a ton of great information on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, so be sure you make the time to listen.   There’s a lot of value in telling someone their crowdfunding baby isn’t as cute as they think.   The main reason the Funded Today crowdfunding management process has been so successful is that they validate every potential client at the front end of their relationship. It’s a lengthy, in-depth assessment of the probability of success the product might enjoy. Sometimes the numbers and facts don’t come out looking very hopeful. That’s when Thomas and Zach of the Funded Today team say that it’s better to tell the product developer that their dream product - their baby - is not as beautiful as they think it is. The way Zach says it is this: If they can’t raise the funds for your product, nobody can. That means you probably need to rethink your product. Get insights from these two guys on this episode. They know the crowdfunding business.   Outline of This Episode   [2:25] How the Funded Today company came about. [7:25] When do you need a marketing budget, and when do you not? [11:44] The services Funded Today offers to crowdfunding campaigns. [14:00] How the team uses their email list for clients. [16:29] The product validation and due diligence phase for every client. [19:01] How the team handles a product/company that fails due diligence. [29:55] Why the Funded Today team says projections are impossible to make. [34:00] What is different in how Funded Today markets a campaign? [46:03] The variety of things that go into a crowdfunding marketing success. [50:25] The Funded Today founders offer advice to serial creators. [53:03] At what point should creators reach out to the Funded Today team? [1:00:10] The “7 Ps” the Funded Today team analyzes to gauge potential success. [1:08:29] Why it all comes down to belief and desire: don’t give up! Resources Mentioned   https://www.funded.today/ BOOK: Scientific Advertising   Sponsors   BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get your discount Gadget Flow

Our brains are wired for story. That's the reason you, a founder who is doing a crowdfunding campaign - have got to learn how to sell your story, not your product. On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, Khierstyn chats with Mark Evans, a brand storyteller who helps startups craft and distribute their company stories to great effect. You’ll learn a lot about what a brand story is, how to craft one, and how to get the story out in a way that others will share it. What does it mean to “sell your story?” Every company, every product has a story. It’s the story behind what you’re doing that people will engage with. You can’t just talk about the great features your product has, you’ve got to let people know the reason behind it and how it will benefit them in the day to day life they lead. Mark Evans is on this episode of the podcast to share how you can learn to sell your story rather than selling the product. He’s got great insight from his career as a writer and startup advisor. You’d pay a lot of money to get this kind of advice one-on-one, so take advantage of this opportunity to hear Khierstyn pick Mark’s brain. Having a great product is not the key to success. The product experience is what matters. There are many incredibly useful and innovative products that never make it in the marketplace. In many cases, the lack of success is because the ones running the marketing campaign didn’t understand that the great features of the product are NOTt what sell products. Potential buyers are looking for what the product will DO for them. In other words, how will buying the product enrich their experience? If you want to learn how to amplify the product experience so that your product launch or crowdfunding campaign doesn’t fail, you need to hear this conversation with Mark Evans, brand storyteller. Your brand story will morph over time, and that’s a good thing. Nobody creates an amazing product with their product or brand story fully formed. It’s an iterative process that grows over time. That’s because you, the founder will grow in your own understanding of what the product is, what it does, and how it helps people. And... the testimonials you receive from buyers along the way will help you see the benefits of your product in ways you haven’t seen before. So keep at it, notice what people are saying, and recraft your story every chance you get in order to connect with more and more people. This episode with Mark Evans gives you more suggestions like that, so be sure you listen. Use your brand story to attract influencers and media for greater exposure. Every founder who starts a crowdfunding campaign wants to get as many eyes on their launch as possible. One of the ways that has proven effective for many successful campaigns is to get the attention of media figures and other influencers who could help you promote the launch. But it’s not so easy to do so if you’ve never done it before. That’s why Mark Evans is Khierstyn’s guest on this episode of the podcast. He’s got lots of tips for how you can genuinely connect with bloggers, media outlets, and podcasters about your product - and to do so in a way that gets responses. You’ll want to hear this! Outline of This Episode [1:41] Who IS Mark Evans? [3:53] How Mark got interested in startups and VC funding. [7:51] The first startup Mark was involved in: Right product, wrong time. [9:53] How a company can be too product focused and not enough customer focused. [11:50] Does your product or company have a story? [17:15] The differences Mark sees between the stories of early stage startups and older companies. [19:02] Tips for founders about building their story. [25:19] How stories are used to attract people who will spread the story. [27:55] Suggestions for how you can make your story appealing to an influencer. [33:00] Know the kind of marketing you want to do. Resources & People Mentioned www.MarkEvans.ca BOOK: Storytelling for Startups www.BackerKit.com - use “uncut” at checkout GadgetFlow

There is lots of crowdfunding advice out there - and a good deal of it comes from reputable, trustworthy sources. But as with any approach to business you also have the upstarts who haven’t had enough experience yet to really know what they are talking about. That’s why you need to be careful. Khierstyn Ross has I helped many people - entrepreneurs, startup founders, and small business owners - launch awesome products online through crowdfunding engines like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, to the tune of $1.5 million. On this episode, Khierstyn answers the most commonly asked question she receives, “Is crowdfunding for me?” What is the best crowdfunding advice? Know who you are marketing to. Launching a product via Kickstarter or Indiegogo isn’t just about putting something out there - it’s about approaching people where they are at, and most of the people who visit crowdfunding platforms are interested in new, innovative, and surprising products. Your spatula with one little tweak that makes it different from a normal Wal-Mart spatula may not do so well if you don’t know how to appeal to the people who are on the platform. Khierstyn has some great advice about knowing the crowdfunding audience, on this episode. What kind of products work best on crowdfunding sites? If you have an amazing product that you’re super passionate about, crowdfunding may be the right approach for you to use to launch it. But there’s a lot more than that initial assessment to knowing if your product is worth the risk of a crowdfunding campaign. Khierstyn Ross has seen many, many crowdfunding campaigns, both successful and not so successful. She’s and her team have managed many of the successful ones and have discovered the things that make or break the launch. On this episode, Khierstyn chats about the things that go into a good crowdfunding product, how you should think about the crowdfunding audience, and how to know if crowdfunding is right for you. Crowdfunding is about more than the launch. It’s the beginning of a successful business. If you aren’t thinking of crowdfunding as the beginning of a long haul to business success, you’re thinking about it all wrong. While crowdfunding campaigns that are successful CAN see lots of cash come in over a short period of time, you’ve got to know how to manage the project well to ensure that you can actually get your product to market after the campaign is finished and continue to do well. Don’t be fooled - crowdfunding is just as risky as any other form of startup. To be successful you’ve got to look at it through the eyes of an ongoing business, not just an initial launch. Get Khierstyn’s physical products crowdfunding checklist. If you want the best crowdfunding advice, you need to listen to someone who has been there and come out successful. Khierstyn Ross and her team are crowdfunding experts who manage campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo from start to finish with great success. Khierstyn has put together a checklist of things you need to do in order to ensure that your physical products are optimized for crowdfunding success. You can find out how to get your free copy on this episode, so be sure you take the time to listen.   Outline of This Episode   [0:16] How you can better market and fulfill your products more effectively. [2:15] The question Khierstyn is asked more often than any other. [4:00] KEY: How do people visiting crowdfunding websites think? [6:22] How crowdfunding is an event-based approach. [7:50] How to crowdfund a “me too” product that isn’t truly innovative. [10:19] The kind of products that do NOT work well on crowdfunding. [10:55] Using crowdfunding as a long-term game. [15:32] How to avoid the errors most startup companies make. [18:35] Get the physical products checklist. Resources & People Mentioned   www.GadgetFlow.com/submit BackerKit - use the code “uncut” to get 50% off. Kickstarter Indiegogo Shopify BOOK: Will It Fly?

Raising money for building a prototype vs raising money for the full production run. An early crowdfunding failure - getting the positioning wrong, and how Khierstyn corrected this to have a $600k funding success.

Khierstyn Ross, of Crowdfunding Uncut, is a crowdfunding strategist, working on campaigns that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars on Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Khierstyn didn’t start there of course, but discovered what she was best at and most enjoyed while working through client projects. Once she decided to niche down, she became one of the highest in-demand crowdfunding experts. Khierstyn shares how she went from a generalist to a specialist, what that did for her business, how she built authority in this space, how she finds clients, and how she prices herself for a service where the results are so uncertain. http://freelancetransformation.com/episode94

Physical products are purchased by real people, people who have to become aware of the product in order to purchase it. That may sound like an obvious statement but too often those who create brands around physical products imagine all these buyers out there but don't take the time to think through how they are going to find those actual people. On this episode of Freedom Fast Lane, Ryan chats with Khierstyn Ross about how she's used crowdfunding multiple times to not only fund the creation of a physical product but also to build an audience of people interested in the product. You'll get some great ideas from this conversation. Crowdfunding is powerful but it's not easy. Many people think that crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are no-brainer ways to raise money to start a company. But the reality is that for every successful crowdfunding campaign there are many that fail. It takes hard work, market research, and a great campaign strategy to get your brand off the ground using crowdfunding. Khierstyn Ross has learned her lessons the hard way and through that process has built a business responsible for over $1.2 million in crowdfunding success for her clients. On this episode Ryan picks her brain about the strategies and approaches that have worked well to build sustainable physical product brands, so be sure you listen. How crowdfunding can help you build your audience. One of the most difficult aspects of any business is the marketing. You've got to find effective and appealing ways to get your products in front of the people who are most likely to need and buy them. Khierstyn Ross has discovered that though they weren't originally intended for building an audience, crowdfunding platforms are excellent ways to find those raving fans. Just think about it: Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns are raising funds from people who are excited to see the product created so that THEY can use it. What better audience could you have? Khierstyn shares how she advises companies to make the most of the crowdfunding audience, on this episode. You've got that great email list. How can it help your crowdfunding campaign? When Ryan asked Khierstyn Ross how successful crowdfunding campaigns are using existing lists of customers or prospects she was quick to say that one of the biggest mistakes she sees is that though someone may have a large list, they often have let it go cold. In other words, they haven't been staying in front of their list members often enough, providing good and helpful content all along. So when they suddenly show up in inboxes with an ask (like a crowdfunding campaign), people tend to view it unfavorably even though they did sign up to be on the list once upon a time. On this episode, Khierstyn shares the best ways to avoid that kind of response and get your list fired up about your campaign. Is a crowdfunding campaign a good option for your next physical product? What might it be like if you had all the money you needed to purchase, develop, brand, and establish your physical product line? Crowdfunding can do that for you. But you've got have the right product and the right approach. Khierstyn Ross has walked alongside many campaign managers to help them navigate the ins and outs of a successful product launch and on this episode she shares what she's learned about good and bad products for crowdfunding, and how you can do your best to optimize your product line for a successful crowdfunding launch. Outline Of This Great Episode [0:05] Ryan's introduction to this episode with Khierstyn Ross, crowdfunding expert. [2:25] How Khierstyn has gotten to be a great crowdfunding consultant and expert. [6:00] The types of products that do well in crowdfunding. [12:26] The elements that go into a good launch strategy. [18:23] What Khierstyn considers to be a successful campaign, and what should expectations be for a crowdfunding campaign? [24:04] The things you should be doing with your email list if you want to do a crowdfunding campaign. [29:58] Using crowdfunding to build an audience. [29:50] The step by step bootcamp we provide for you to build your business. Action Steps From This Episode FOR GETTING STARTED: Start building your email list YESTERDAY. If you can gather a crowd of people who are excited about your products and brand, any crowdfunding campaign will be that much easier to make successful. FOR GREATER SUCCESS: Create and use Facebook groups to invite people into a private access club where people can get swag, discounts, etc. - then use those people to promote the products as a street team. Connect With Today's guest: Khierstyn Ross Website: http://www.crowdfundinguncut.com/ K(at)CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter On Facebook On LinkedIn Resources Mentioned On This Episode www.FreedomFastLane.com/bootcamp - get into the bootcamp training Kickstarter Indiegogo Pavlok The Freedom Journal Ravean Heated Jackets

Sometimes it takes money to get your message or product out into the world. Crowdfunding through Kickstarter and Indiegogo have become a popular way to raise money from a crowd. When it comes to launching a Kickstarter campaign, the Field of Dreams principle does not apply. Just because you build it does not mean people will come. When you launch your campaign, people do not just show up and fund it. Just like people don't show up and listen to your podcast because you recorded it. On this episode of The Jody Maberry Show, I am joined by a Product Launch Expert, a Copy On this episode of The Jody Maberry Show, I am joined by a Product Launch Expert, a Copywriter, and a Musician teach us how to launch a successful Kickstarter Campaign. Khierstyn Ross offers her expertise on launching a successful crowdfunding campaign. Khierstyn has helped creators and entrepreneurs raise more than $1 million dollars through crowdfunding. Ray Edwards gives us advice on writing copy for a campaign. Jason Harrod shares what he learned from running a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise money to record a new album. Here are the five things I learned from these experts about running a successful Kickstarter campaign; Build your following before you launch a campaign. If you have to spend too much time explaining your product, you are already in trouble. Make sure you have a $25 reward level. Reach out to people in your network so they know about your campaign. Deliver everything you promise you will deliver.

For any crowdfunding campaign, connecting with the target market early is essential to getting backers and achieving your goals. Peter Li of Atlas Wearables shares the pre-campaign process and the value of building an email list early in order to achieve the goals of his campaign. He shares with Khierstyn many tips and strategies that truly set his brand apart from others and allowed Atlas to well exceed their goals. Peter offers advice to new funders who are ready to tackle their goals. Peter Li launched a high-tech product and understood his market from the beginning. The first product launched by Altas Wearables was the Atlas Wristband, a high-tech fitness tracker that leaves its competitors in the dust. The mind-boggling capabilities of this one-of-a-kind tracker sets it apart from the rest, which Peter knew would give him the edge when it came to crowdfunding. The key was to start spreading the word early and gain the attention of the target market in order to get the backers they needed. Peter shares the timeline leading up to the campaign and how he approached building his email list. Because of the unique nature of his product, it was all about connecting with the people who were looking for a solution to the problem the Atlas Wristband solves. Using events and networking to build your list. Peter Li believes in keeping your foot on the gas throughout the campaign when it comes to networking. In the 9 months prior to the campaign, the Atlas team attended events, meetups and conferences where their audience would be. This allowed them to build their list, network, and connect with people who could propel the campaign forward. The most important part of building an email list? Understanding the problem and how your product solves it. Peter also shares why they chose crowdfunding instead of going straight to retail, knowing how unique the product was. How did you maintain momentum throughout the campaign? Maintaining momentum is key to the long-term success of your campaign. Altas Wearables started off strong, hitting their goal early in the game. But, how did they maintain this momentum? According to Peter, it’s all about continuing to network even after your campaign has started. He shares the importance of continuing to get the word out and how it really lies on the shoulders of the funder to make sure that happens. For Altas, that meant going to gyms, races, and fitness events because that’s where they would find people who needed their product. Peter goes on to share the role of PR and paid marketing in the Atlas campaign. Peter’s biggest tips for crowdfunders as they approach their campaign. The Atlas Wearables campaign was a huge success and Peter offers his advice to crowdfunders who are approaching their first campaign: Underpromise and Overdeliver. He explains the importance of this in the long-term success of the company and the satisfaction of the backers. Peter also explains why they chose Indiegogo and if they would go with Indiegogo again for a future campaign. This chat with Peter Li is filled with valuable insight into the pre-campaign process you can implement into your own strategy. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE: [0:59] Khierstyn’s introduction of Peter Li of Atlas Wearables, who shares insight into building an email list before you begin your campaign. [3:15] How Atlas Wearables came about. [5:30] What Atlas is. [6:23] How a customer will use the information the activity band tracks. [7:38] The importance of user experience and overall product quality to Atlas. [8:55] The process from working prototype to crowdfunding. [9:18] The goal when they came into Techstars [10:03] The pre-sale strategy prior to the Indiegogo Campaign. [10:49] Why you should start building your list months before your campaign and how Atlas approached this. [12:24] The timeline approaching their first campaign. [13:12] Why did you choose to go the Crowdfunding route versus going directly to retail. [15:00] Why Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter? [16:43] Would they go with Indiegogo again or Kickstarter for a future campaign? [17:13] Understanding the first week after the launch of the Atlas campaign. [17:49] Peter’s goal and how quickly they hit the mark. [19:05] Where the initial backers came from. [21:11] The #1 strategy that helped keep the momentum going after the first month. [24:40] The types of events for founders to get involved with pre-campaign. [26:06] Aside from events, what was the second thing you did really well to maintain momentum? [27:51] The role of PR and paid marketing in the Atlas campaign. [29:09] For startup funders who want to do a campaign but don’t have a huge budget, what advice do you have? [30:34] What to look for in a good PR company. [32:12] The one piece of advice Peter has for other crowdfunders. [34:16] Details on how to purchase the Atlas Wristband. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Atlas Wearables Techstars Kickstarter Indiegogo CONNECT WITH KHIERSTYN: K(at)crowdfundinguncut(dot)com

We hear a lot about how to build successful crowdfunding campaigns. But, what we don’t hear a lot about is what to do after your campaign. In this chat with Netta Shalgi of G-RO, Khierstyn investigates the importance of understanding how to maintain momentum beyond your crowdfunding campaign. Netta explains that crowdfunding isn’t just a product launch; it’s also the creation of an online business. Dubbed by Khierstyn as “The James Bond of Luggage”, Netta headed a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for his business G-RO. Along with his co-founder, Netta was able to launch a unique, innovative product, which saw huge success in gaining backers. This conversation is filled with practical tips that can transform your next campaign. Netta Shalgi approached crowdfunding with an eye on the future. Netta Shalgi and his partner approached crowdfunding with great care, paying attention to every detail along the way. They understood the value of refining the product before launch and ensuring that they were offering something that backers would love. The pre-launch process was lengthy – with many months of preparation. Netta explains the role of PR companies as they moved towards product launch and how this paved the way for a fast start. After meeting their original goal in a mere few hours, it’s clear G-RO was well-received by backers. Netta shares with us how they made sure they would launch with a bang. From marketing to planning – every detail must be attended to. Netta shares with Khierstyn one of the most important aspects of his campaign – being prepared for anything. Before they even considered starting the campaign, they knew they had to have a fully functional product with every kink worked out beforehand. This was an integral component of finding footing early in the campaign. From PR to marketing efforts, the G-RO reached out to friends, family, and their extended network to spread the word about the product pre-launch. This helped them gain a significant amount of referral traffic in the early days, which made a big impact on the early success they saw. Why G-RO chose a 60-day campaign versus a 30-day campaign. As the start date of the campaign grew closer, Netta wanted to make sure they did everything right. The team considered a 30-day versus a 60-day campaign, landing on the latter because they felt it was the right choice for the product. Early momentum ensured success, but maintaining that momentum would be a greater challenge. Netta shares a “secret” to his success: revealing new sides of the project throughout the campaign. This helped them keep backers interested, and attracted new backers as the project moved forward. In retrospect, Netta says he would be more diligent about setting stretch goals to improve the project, but overall the G-RO campaign is certainly a success. What comes after a successful crowdfunding campaign? Netta Shalgi shared many useful tips and tricks to help fellow crowdfunders launch with confidence. With over 7000 backers to date, G-RO is poised to move to the next stage at the top of its game. Netta shares with Khierstyn some tips on what comes after crowdfunding, offering ideas that can take any business to the next level. This episode is filled with inspiration on how to prepare for and manage a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign. Netta Shalgi gives us a new perspective on how to approach crowdfunding with long-term goals in mind. If you’re ready to think beyond crowdfunding, you don’t want to miss this week’s episode. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE: [0:51] Khierstyn’s introduction of Netta Shalgi, who is a successful crowdfunder and business owner. [3:11] Understanding who Netta Shalgi is and how this project came about. [5:16] The timeline from teaming up with co-founder of G-RO to today. [6:25] What did G-RO look before meeting the co-founder and moving forward? [9:03] Explaining how far along the project was before going to Kickstarter. [10:50] The delivery deadline for the campaign. [12:21] Did they have any funding before going to Kickstarter? [14:37] How they gained momentum instantly and hit their original goal in just a few hours. [20:08] The role of PR in a successful crowdfunding campaign. [21:19] Other marketing techniques that support a successful campaign. [23:20] The role of organic traffic in gaining backers. [27:14] The number of backers G-RO has to date and why it’s important to maintain momentum. [28:17] The #1 thing Netta did to maintain momentum throughout the campaign. [31:38] Why they chose a 60-day campaign versus a 30-day campaign. [33:30] The #1 thing he would change if he could re-do this campaign. [38:27] What is next for G-RO?  

**Update, the Pozible campaign is live here!** Next week we will be launching our crowdfunding campaign via Pozible. We’ll be aiming to be the first Aussie brewery to launch via crowd funding. This week on the podcast we chat with Alan from Pozible, Khierstyn from Crowdfunding Uncut and we make final preparations for launch. Access the campaign Click here to access ... Read More The post OPERATION BREWERY EP7 – Crowdfunding Black Hops (part 1 of 2) appeared first on Black Hops Brewing.

This week I'm speaking with crowdfunding expert Khierstyn Ross from Crowdfunding Uncut about how to launch your new product using Kickstarter or Indiegogo. You might think crowdfunding is just for physical products, but in today's conversation you'll discover how you can use crowdfunding to launch almost anything – from digital products, to films, to books, to apps. Khierstyn also shares her favorite ways to build an audience quickly, crowdfunding pitfalls, and key marketing steps that will work for launching anything, not just a crowdfunding campaign!This episode originally aired on The Wellpreneur Podcast.Get the full show notes with links: https://wellpreneur.com/crowdfunding-in-wellness-business-with-khierstyn-ross/Copyright 2012-2020 Wellpreneur Ltd. All Rights Reserved.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands