We’re on to part 2 of our scaling series, where we talk about the stage from launch to traction, when you’re on track for, or surpassed, the $100K mark.

At this stage in the business, you’re moving from selling something to having consistent sales. Today we’ll talk about some of the common problems people run into during this stage, critical questions to answer before you can start scaling up, and where to seek out support.

We’re bringing you our knowledge and experience from working with brands that have successfully scaled up, and seeing others that haven’t.

In part three, we're going to be talking about traction to scaling. So enjoy this week and stay tuned!

Episode Highlights

• 4:42 How to know when you’re in the traction stage of your business growth.
• 7:59 Your goal during this stage of scaling up your business.
• 8:45 Places you can turn to when you’re looking for guidance.
• 10:31 Focus on customer acquisition in the early stages of growth.
• 11:26 Why you have to distinguish between signal vs. noise and listen to a diverse set of sources.
• 13:06 One question you have to ask yourself before you continue to scale up.
• 14:48 You must become a channel expert before you outsource.
• 17:13 The minimum AOV you need if you want to acquire new customers via paid ads.
• 20:33 Great opportunities for you if you’re in this stage of growth.

Links And Resources

• Zero To Launch: The Scaling Series, Part 1
• The Coalition
• Foxwell Digital Courses
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

If you want to run your business successfully, you need to have a deep understanding of how everything works.

Today we’re talking with Helen Guo, co-founder of The Cereal School about how she took her business from zero to well over 7 figures in just eight months.

One of the key components of the business’ success is that Helen and her co-founder, Dylan, started by learning and running every aspect of the business themselves, before hiring agencies to take things over.

They also put a lot of initial time into building the brand organically, which made it easier to amplify with paid efforts as they’re scaling up.

Helen shares her amazing journey with us, as well as her tips for finding the right agency, and how to build a partnership that will last.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:06 Helen’s entrance into the world of entrepreneurship.
• 9:06 The Cereal School’s insanely rapid growth.
• 10:06 Pre-launch efforts to build an audience before the product was ready to officially launch. 
• 13:25 How Helen built a 20,000+ person email list without running paid ads.
• 15:29 Helen’s philosophical approach to Facebook ads and scaling up.
• 18:58 Lessons learned from working with different advertising agencies.
• 23:10 The importance of actually learning how to run your own marketing, and the creative approach that sets the Cereal School apart.
• 27:57 How Helen successfully onboarded an ad agency to take over for her.
• 31:33 Questions to ask your agency upfront to build a better relationship.
• 32:41 Where Helen goes for new ideas and advice.
• 34:29 How implementing email marketing helped the Cereal School go from 0% to over 25% of revenue from email.
• 36:56 What Helen’s looking at to the future to stay ahead of the game.
• 38:49 Apps that Helen is excited about right now.
• 41:57 The thing about the Cereal School’s business that can’t be easily replicated.

Links And Resources

• The Cereal School
• helen@thecerealschool.com
• Asana
• Dropbox
• Klaviyo
• PostScript
• Enquire
• Private Intensive
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Profit Summit
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

On today's special BONUS episode we're talking about CBO.

That's Campaign Budget Optimization. Andrew sat down with expert digital advertisers Molly Pittman and Depesh Mandalia to talk about what's happening with CBO, how it's working, why it's working the way that it is, and some tips to improve your campaigns.

They discuss:

• Why you can't treat CBO campaigns the same way as you were treating ABO campaigns
• CBO misconceptions
• When CBO works best
• How to think about your budget when setting up CBO
• CBO and Dynamic Creative
• CBO best practices

Enjoy!

Links And Resources

• Foxwell Digital Course - CBO: All You Need to Know
• andrew@foxwelldigital.com
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Andrew and I have worked with hundreds of different companies at various stages of growth, from pre-launch to multi-million dollar acquisition.

Today we’re kicking off our scaling series, where we’ll talk about each stage of growth and the challenges you're going to face as you scale up your business from zero to 8-figures.

We’re starting off with a “zero to launch” episode where we’ll address some of the questions you’ll face when you’re determining how to launch and going from an idea for a product to actually getting sales.

We’ll be sharing core lessons through each of these episodes that will give you value whether you're at the beginning, already making 7-figures, or somewhere in the middle.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 4:30 Why we decided to do a scaling series.
• 9:07 The most important thing when you’re just starting out? Feedback.
• 10:24 Knowing what your community looks like is critical for scaling.
• 13:40 Once you know your community, identify their buying power and your market potential.
• 15:38 A zero to launch case study.
• 18:16 Common missteps at this stage.
• 19:40 Creating a “talk trigger” product.

Links And Resources

• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

One of the keys to successful growth is hiring a team that keeps the business running, whether the founder is there or not.

Over the last 14 years, Cory Bower, founder of Aviator Gear, has built a multi-million dollar business with a team of 48 full-time employees.

When Cory was in the Air Force, he saw a need, launched a company, and to this day uses some of his military systems and structure to keep things running smoothly.

It’s always a pleasure to chat with Cory, and I hope you enjoy our conversation about growth, hiring, and critical tools for success.

Episode Highlights

• 5:55 Introducing Cory Bower and the birth of Aviator Gear.
• 8:12 The unique custom nature of Cory’s products.
• 10:20 Cory’s journey to becoming a fighter pilot.
• 13:53 Transitioning from fighter jets to ecommerce.
• 16:05 How Cory applies lessons learned in the military to his business.
• 18:42 The team structure Cory’s built that lets his business run even when he’s not around.
• 23:55 Engines for Aviator Gear’s growth over the last year and how they communicate about the custom nature of their products through different parts of the funnel.
• 26:43 The role Cory wishes he would have gotten off his own plate sooner, but why you have to have balance as you grow so the wheels don’t fall off.
• 29:18 Tools Aviator Gear uses to keep things running smoothly.
• 35:07 What it looks like to hire and manage a 50-person team.
• 39:29 Cory’s learning process and how he finds useful information to help his growth.
• 42:07 Do this simple thing right now to be more productive.

Links And Resources

• Aviator Gear
• Klaviyo
• Dropbox
• OnSite by Shopworks
• Pipedrive
• Cory on Twitter - @TrapBower
• trap@aviatorgear.com
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Profit Summit
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Review or subscribe on iTunes