“Where did the SEO hide the dead body? On page two of Google.” Yes - SEO in 2022 will still play a huge role in eComm success. With ad costs going up it’s a great time to learn how to drive quality organic traffic with smart SEO tactics. 

John Murphy is the CEO of Ebike Generation and an eCommerce SEO expert. 

In this episode, we talk about John’s journey, and how he went from being an executive at GE to starting his own eCommerce company. John’s eComm success has largely come from SEO after he was banned from Google Ads and Facebook ads in the early days of his business. 

He shares his tips on how he drives $2 million a year from just SEO and what SEO in 2022 will look like (yes - free traffic still exists). 

Note: John is offering his course How I Generate $2M+ Per Year in Sales from Organic Traffic in the membership in March. If you’re a member you can register here. Or if you’d like to join to take the course you can find more information here. 

Episode Highlights:

• 5:47 How John started selling online 
• 8:09 Finding the right product 
• 12:03 Getting the first sale 
• 13:58 Supply chain issues & COVID 
• 16:20 Finding the right niche and not being scared to narrow down 
• 22:28 Getting banned from Google and Facebook ads 
• 24:49 Shifting to SEO for a majority of traffic 
• 29:09 SEO in 2022 
• 31:24 How much content do you actually need to be successful in SEO
• 36:58 External linking & its relevance today 
• 39:46 What’s working now in SEO backlinks 
• 45:27 Getting organic traffic when you’re too reliant on paid traffic 

Resources:

• EcomSEOFormula.com
• ebikegeneration.com
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

The path to massive success is often through failure. This episode's guest went from Forbes 30 under 30 to bankruptcy in the same year and reflects on lessons learned. 

Josh Durham co-founded Weighted Comforts, one of the first weighted blanket brands, with his mom in 2015. They took off like a rocket, hitting 8-figures in 4 years. 

But - they hit some snags, the market shifted and at age 24 Josh went from almost $10 million in sales to bankruptcy in a period of less than a year. 

In this episode, he goes through what it was like to grow, how they did it, and then what it was like when it all unraveled. Josh is very transparent in his experience of where and how things went wrong in a way you’re not going to hear in many places. There’s a lot to learn here. 

Josh has gone on to have success with another brand and now his own agency, Aligned Growth, and he shares a bunch of learnings from having worked with a lot of different brands now. 

Episode Highlights:

• 3:56 How Josh got involved with eCommerce growth marketing 
• 5:44 Josh’s first Shopify store in 2015 and how it came to be
• 7:53 The downfall of Josh’s business 
• 10:39 Dealing with limited cash and coping with the stress of a business in trouble 
• 11:47 What the strategy and business looked like in the end 
• 14:01 Closing out in an asset sale 
• 16:28 Filing for bankruptcy at 24 years old 
• 18:10 Biggest takeaways from a failing business
• 21:58 The dangers of scaling a single product business 
• 26:54 Josh’s next venture & hitting 35 million
• 28:51 Starting marketing at product development
• 30:24 How to stand out after competitors come it 
• 34:22 Starting an agency 
• 36:16 The importance of creative refresh on brand growth 
• 38:01 Managing creative at an agency 
• 43:09 Current eCommerce requires a higher level of execution on creative 

Resources:

• Aligned Growth 
• @JoshJDurham on Twitter
• Book: Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree
• Book: The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss 
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

“Systems run your business, people run your systems.” Learn how to grow your business and unlock hidden profit using virtual assistants. 

Barbara Turley is the founder of The Virtual Hub, an agency that pairs businesses with virtual assistants, and she's an expert at delegation. Barbara has paired over 500 virtual assistants with companies and her team is over 240+ in the Philippines. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on how it's worked for her, and how it might work for you in your own business.

This episode is very helpful if you are building a remote company, are thinking about using virtual assistants, or have tried and failed to use VA’s in the past. 

Episode Highlights:

• 8:38 How Barbara started her virtual assistants business 
• 11:38 Roles for VAs that often get overlooked 
• 13:10 Managing teams in different time zones 
• 16:12 Where to start when hiring virtual assistants
• 19:20 Tools used to manage communication 
• 20:32 The importance of having a process before hiring 
• 22:07 Becoming a good delegator 
• 26:55 Barbara’s team structure 
• 27:19 Is there importance in connecting with a remote team in person?
• 28:46 Building culture for a remote virtual assistant team
• 31:40 How to not get burned from a VA experience 
• 34:24 Paying virtual assistants and economic considerations 
• 39:30 Where people get burned when building a company 
• 42:34 Why you need an operating system
• 44:25 Hiring virtual assistants through word of mouth vs hiring process 

Resources:

• thevirtualhub.com
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

This Is A Special Episode – The Recording Of A Live 'Ask Me Anything' With Joe Valley On How To Sell Your Online Business, Recently Offered Inside The Brand Growth Membership.

Joe is the author of The EXITPreneur's Playbook. He's a buyer and seller of many online businesses and the president of Quiet Light Brokerage. He’s an expert on how to sell for max profit. 

If you listened to my earlier episode with Joe this AMA session takes those concepts and goes deeper, which is what we do in the Membership. The podcast is just a glimpse into what we cover in the Brand Growth Membership.

We’re giving you a sneak peek inside the Brand Growth Membership with access to this Ask Me Anything session because we just launched a brand new version of our membership and it’s KILLER - check it out here. 

I hope you enjoy this session and if you want to check out more of the Ask Me Anything sessions and trainings we have in the membership...

we’re offering a 21 day trial for just $1.  Go here to sign up. (only available until Dec 12, 2021)

Episode Highlights:

• 3:37 Introduction to Joe Valley 
• 5:19 The valuation formula
• 8:33 What multiple ranges to expect for valuations
• 8:49 The different types of add-backs and examples of how they are applied
• 10:08 The 4 things buyers are looking for (and the surprising 5th)
• 38:34 Q&A – Is there anything different about a sale of a minority stake?
• 40:53 Q&A – Should we build a brand that is targeting a different demographic as a separate brand or sub-brand?
• 45:09 Q&A – What are the differences in this process for Canadian companies?
• 46:17 Q&A – How long does it take for a deal to close?
• 48:18 Q&A – Are there any hidden fees to be aware of?
• 51:01 Q&A – How are multiples different between different types of businesses?
• 54:47 Q&A – What is the smallest SDE that a private equity firm will look at?
• 56:39 Q&A – Is there a different approach to building a business for sale to a strategic acquirer vs a typical buyer?
• 58:16 Q&A – Can agency marketing spend that has been replaced by in-house work be considered an add-back?
• 59:40 Q&A – What kind of multiples are there for wholesale businesses?
• 01:07:22 Q&A – What are the options to sell for a Shopify site vs. an FBA?

Resources:

• The Brand Growth Membership
• Podcast 322: Building To Sell: How To Get The Maximum Value For Your Online Business
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Launching a first-of-its-kind product comes with challenges, but Pela has always been a creative first-mover. They’ve had massive success and fun educating consumers and keeping their mission to combat climate change positive. 

This episode’s guest is Pela CEO Matthew Bertulli. Pela makes compostable phone cases and they just launched a new product called Lomi that went viral on Kickstarter. 

Matt and his team at Pela are forward thinkers and Matt share’s how that’s led them to success, what it was like to go from bootstrapped to venture-backed, as well as what he’s excited about for the future of eCommerce and environmental products.  

This is an excellent episode with somebody who is in the arena building things and very passionate about his work. 

Episode Highlights:

• 3:56 How the Lomi Kickstarter went viral 
• 5:15 What exactly Lomi is 
• 10:17 Educating consumers about environmental products & the problems with Facebook 
• 14:52 Using storytelling to build word of mouth momentum 
• 15:28 What Lomi stands for as a product and way of life 
• 19:36 Is pollution a personal or corporation problem & the mission to combat climate change
• 22:01 Consumer demand for better companies 
• 25:59 Better packaging options for brands 
• 28:45 The power of education: from $5k to $85k in 3 months
• 29:40 Raising money and becoming venture-backed 
• 31:16 Early success and first-mover advantage
• 35:39 The difference between running a bootstrapped brand and a venture-backed brand
• 38:12 Challenges of running an agency in comparison to a D2C
• 40:46 The benefits of launching a new product on top of an established company (even if they’re not directly related) 
• 41:57 Competition when you’re a first of its kind product 
• 43:45 Building a product for the future & being a visionary brand with the mission to combat climate change
• 46:29 Resources that have been helpful to Matt on his journey 
• 48:06 Best in class marketing & messaging tactics 
• 50:30 Identifying what’s wrong with current stories in your niche and changing the narrative for your product 
• 54:30 The intersection of blockchain and climate 
• 58:55 The powerful culture of being a mission-driven company

Resources:

• Pela
• Lomi
• @mbertulli on Twitter
• The Brand Growth Membership
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes