My Biggest Lessons with Chris Meade

By DTCX

Chris Meade Hosts My Biggest Lessons, talking to other merchants and founders about the mistakes they made. In a year with supply chain questions, and reliability you can't afford you mess up. Thankfully for you, these founders have so you don't have to.

Listen on Spotify Send voice message

Available on

Report content on Spotify

Drive retail sales with performance marketing - Shray Joshi

My Biggest Lessons with Chris MeadeMay 03, 2022

00:00

21:11

BFCM Prep and Lessons Learned with Shray Joshi

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Shray Joshi joins Chris to share big mistakes they've made during BFCM in years past.

Chris Meade is the co-founder & CMO of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. Chris was honored with Forbes 30U30 for the 2021 Sports category. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at 3000+ retail stores such as Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Sam’s Club and 20+ other retailers.

Nov 08, 202221:13

Baseball Lifestyle started as a community, now it's a thriving band | Josh Shapiro

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

After starting an Instagram account about the life of a baseball player. It grew into a community, and before he knew it a brand. This is his story, and the lessons learned along the way.

Key moments in this episode of My Biggest Lessons

4:35 Professional athletes who have made it to the big leagues

5:30 Waiting until 1M in sales before spending money on advertising

7:00 Founder dynamics with a large age gap and working with your wife

8:00 College World Series the fire Marshall set up.

10:00 Business never escapes us Chris audiogram

10:30 Hiring a fractional CEO, and what you get from hiring them. When you need to spend more money.

17:00 getting into stores like Sheilds

18:00 Driving retail sales and sell through

19:45 Generating $5000 a day in sales from a single pop-up

Nov 01, 202228:09

What happened when Birddogs advertised on Pornhub? Cael Schwartz

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Cael Schwartz is head of product at Birddogs, he stopped by the DTCX studio in NYC to talk about their growth, Shark Tank, and advertising on platforms like Pornhub and Grinder.

Key lessons in this episode.

5:00 The Impact Chubbies had on two ecommerce founders

6:13 Backlash from marketing emails

7:45 Funny stories

11:13 Day in the life of a head of product at an ecommerce company.

14:00 Inventory fuck ups

16:00 Begging suppliers to slow down after Shark Tank

21:00 Ordering 6 months of back inventory by accident

22:00 TV ads and alternative advertising networks including Pornhub and Grinder

28:00 Why Birddogs keeps everything in house

Oct 25, 202231:04

Living your (family) dream of living and working in Bali | Kenny Flowers

Learn how Chris closed over $1M in wholesale business through Gorgias, and you can too. https://www.gorgias.com/customers/crossnet

Kenny Flowers is run by Kenny Haisfield, who founded the brand in 2015 when he quit his corporate consulting job in NYC to move in with his grandma in Bali and start making Hawaiian shirts for his friends.

Key moments in this episode

3:24 Going to College and Coming out as an entrepreneur, and telling your friends and family you’re starting a business.

4:03 Visiting a family member living in Bali as a nomad before it was popularized.

6:25 Making connections with manufacturers.

7:38 Fuck ups early on in building a clothing and apparel business

9:18 Being deep in SKUs as a modern resort brand.11:32 The power of friend and family support

14:20 Tips for working remote - you have to be disciplined. You don’t think of the founder working behind a computer.

16:10 Separating working relationships

19:16 There are fires every day

20:14 Fighting iOS 14 issues and working with A list influencers.

26:41 what would you tell your younger self

Oct 18, 202229:15

Don't underestimate yourself - Emanuel Storch Blackbird Foods

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Emanuel Storch is the founder of Blackbird foods, based out of NYC the OG plant protein and frozen pizza. Based Now the fastest growing pizza brand. Prior to this, he was the founder of Simpli gum.

Key moments in this episode

0:00 Intro and how Blackbird Foods became the best plant based pizza and fastest growing pizza brand in the world.

3:00 Getting started with plant based meats to restaurants for plant based meat. 60% of the business is selling into food distributors.

5:00 Increasing sell-thru instores through sampling, and allocating budget into in-store samples and trade spending and going up to 20% trade spend.

9:00 Horror stories rolling up into retail. Bad promotions like individual slides and trying to get new ideas to shop.

11:15 How Blackbird Foods has changed from their first iteration, and growing from a plant based audience to a more wide appeal for flexitarians and adventurous foodies.

12:45 Selling on platforms like getter and Uber Eats.

14:30 How they were able to get into Whole Foods with regional and national buying. Emanuel started regional focusing on the North East including their home town of New York. They also launched in the South West region including Texas where the Whole Foods headquarters is.

16:30 Lessons learned from bringing Simply gum into Wal-Mart, Target, and Whole Foods. 17:00 Funding the business and keeping things simple including the best things being done in-house, and finding the right hires early on.

21:00 Lessons learned from product line expansion. Just because something is good for restaurants, doesn’t mean that it will be a great fit for a restaurant.

Oct 11, 202221:40

Cashflow is king when it comes to growth - Pete Senna

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Pete Sena is a creative entrepreneur and forward-obsessed business builder and founder of Digital Surgeons. He brings over 20 years of experience with him, working on brands like Lego and Hershey to American Express and SalesforceTopics and Lessons.

Lessons Pete has learned, and shares with the audience.

Get your contract signed before giving away work. (Working with two major celebrities created a breakthrough campaign but had to chase the money)

You have to start by defining success. Success isn't just working with great clients and making financial gains. How i've leaned into frameworks to shift and evolve my thinking.

Where our focus goes our energy flows. It took me 15 years to realize that speed comes with systems and smart workflows. Now I lean into automations and frameworks to grow. DON’T build a business AROUND you.

Key Moments in this episode:

2:30 Getting qualified to work with brands from someone who knows how to design and code from first iteration to going public and big names like Kanye West and Lady Gaga.

4:00 Choosing the right agency partner is about working on what the agency is best at. If they’re a PR agency, focus on PR, not website design.

7:30 When a $100,000,000 digital turnaround strategy doesn’t go as planned.

9:30 Lessons from Nik Sharma on branding through different tactical lenses. Branding is always happening. It’s easier to brand first then to go back and try to overhaul and fix things.

12:30 Measuring brand vs other aspects like conversion, and how those investments early on make a difference.

14:00 The first advice Pete would give to someone starting an agency is don’t start an agency. Sometimes it just happens, but other times it’s a way to work on your craft. You don’t need to start an agency to do what you want to do.

16:00 Working at an agency is a great way to work on a few different things without bouncing around jobs. Starting an agency is starting a service based business.

18:30 The world of instant gratification and ease of getting started leading to a lack of patience. Diversification helps, but it won’t help you chase passion. Knowing yourself is the most important thing when it comes to waiting for an overnight success.

22:00 The green zone, or the zone of genius is where you can be motivated to work and you’re good at. Some people might love data entry whereas others love more creative work.

24:00 Staying motivated and thinking beyond the metrics when there are other things to think of. Crossnet is more than daily sales, it’s creating memories and beautiful days with friends and family.

30:00 Finding your purpose and making it easier to have the genius zone.

Sep 27, 202230:41

It's easier your second time around - Dan Demsky Unbound Merino

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Dan Demsky is a co-founder of Unbound Merino. A premium apparel company made for travel.

3:45 Getting started and positioning a premium brand online 9:35 How do customers understand about Merino and the properties.

11:35 Do customers come back or buy more.

13:25 The skills from a video production company that helped to launch an ecommerce brand with customers instead of clients.

15:20 Biggest lessons and mistakes, including hiring much faster than they could keep up with.

Sep 20, 202225:20

Mike Fata lost 120lbs AND sold his hemp company Manitoba Harvest for $419,000,000

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Mike Fata is the founder of Manitoba Harvest. A company that makes natural hemp foods sold online and in-store. Get in contact with him, and learn more about mentoring here.

2:00 Thoughts on college and university and educating yourself. There are more ways to educate yourself than traditional channels.

4:30 How Mike funded the original iteration of Manitoba Harvest. Now as an investor, Mike shares what types of investments he makes in products, and founders he'd like to have in his house, and singing high praise for Jake at Mid Day Squares.

7:30 It's a much more competitive world now, but there are more tools you can use.

9:00 Lessons learned the hard way, including not trying to fight the government. Even if you win the battle, you could be paying a lot more down the road.

10:30 Being an entrepreneur is a competitive sport, and you have to eat and train like an athlete. Chris shares the benefits of doing yoga or Pilates twice a week.

13:30 Bootstraping, putting in your own capital, and building out your own board of advisors. Mike shares resources for setting up an advisory board without being taken advantage of.

16:00 The race to profitability with lowering valuations and the importance of making money. The journey from $5-$10M and then to $50M requires a ton of capital. A true 50% gross margin with discounts and overhead gives you the ability to tap into growth.

Sep 13, 202221:28

Feeling good - Ryan Gresh Founder of The Feel Good Lab

Chris Meade used Gorgias to generate over $1,000,000 in retail sales, learn how he did, and you can too.

Athletes treat pain with many different remedies, but many have side effects or other bad stuff. That's why Ryan Gresh started the Feel Good Lab.

2:37 Mark Cuban tackling pharmaceuticals.

3:46 Creating products without bad ingredients for transdermal delivery, but keeping the ingredients that work.

5:20 Getting customers to trial a new product when you're in chronic pain through authoritative

8:30 Selling on QVC and making the claims around brand level natural messaging.

13:00 Learning how to use fund raising to drive retail sales in stores like Target vs bootstrapping and then raising money when you need it.

19:30 The mistake of paying part time employees full time wages.

21:00 Ryan's biggest lesson of treating the business like a family and not a sports team. Not everyone will treat the business the same way as you.

Sep 06, 202224:27

You Gotta Have Faith! Vitafive CoFounder Nik Hall

Nik Hall is a follower of Christ, husband to the best wife, and the cofounder of vitafive, an emerging gummy vitamin brand with high quality ingredients and now a lower sugar gummy vitamin alternative that we have launched into Target and HEB (while previously scaling our sugar gummy into over 7,000 retail doors.

Key times in this episode

3:30 Why people stop taking their vitamins after a few weeks and lifetime value drops.

5:30 Managing regulations and following best practices.

9:30 Good vs bad partners. Stay away from drug stores like CVS and Walgreens.

15:30 Breaking down the math of increasing LTV

17:00 Go slow and build methodically vs trying to do everything all the time.

20:00 Changes in marketing spend now vs 12 months ago, and mastering Amazon ad buying budget.

23:27 Nik’s biggest lesson is to have faith that the process and everything will work out.

Aug 30, 202222:24

Be where the chicken is - Ross Mackay Daring Foods

Ross Mackay is the CEO and Co-founder of Daring, a chicken alternative available in 10,000 grocery stores and 1000 restaurants around America. He chats with Chris about scaling retail sales, and taking a be where chicken is approaching.

Key Moments in this episode

0:30 How Adam started Daring getting into grocery stores and restaurants.

4:15 Identifying their ideal customer for profitable distribution.

7:00 Being where people buy chicken which is rarely online.

10:16 Driving retail sales through

12:46 How a carnist like Chris Meade can enjoy plant based chicken.

16:00 Hiring for aptitude vs experience.

Aug 23, 202220:02

Kanga Coolers from Shark Tank to Tik Tok - Austin Maxwell My Biggest Lessons

Engineer turned Entreprenur Austin Maxwell started out on Shark Tank, and now he's selling coolers around the country.

Austin shares his secrets to:

Generating his first $100K in sales to get on Shark Tank

Dominating trade shows as a sales channel and form of lead generation

The Shark Tank impact on a growing business

All ships sink eventually, including the partnerships you launched your business with.

How Austin is currently finding high ROI on Tik Tok.

Aug 16, 202227:18

Tiffany Krumins shares the lessons she's learned since the pilot episode of Shark Tank

Tiffany Krumis auditioned for the first ever episode of Shark Tank – and struck a deal with Barbara! Hear how she grew and sold her first business, and the lessons she’s taking into her next one

2:00 Intro and be coming an accidental entrepreneur, and casting for the first ever episode of Shark Tank and making a deal with Barbara.

4:00 Convincing a shark to make an investment with no prior experience.

5:00 What’s it like working with a shark, up to selling the company.

6:45 How has Shark Tank changed? There are very few inventions now, it’s all established businesses. If it weren’t for Shark Tank, Tiffany wouldn’t have made it.

10:00 Discounting is fine as long as it’s part of the marketing strategy, and growing aggressively month over month through organic growth. Turning television opportunities into sales opportunities. The power of keeping relationships. 14:00 Not being taken advantage of as a new brand.

16:00 Lessons that may have worked at the first company.

18:00 Getting smart about managing inventory.

22:00 What’s the biggest lesson you’ve taken away? Be extremely passionate about something related to what you do. It’s a long road that if you’re only doing it for the money, and being able to talk about it day in and day out.

Aug 09, 202221:27

Growing from a novel print on demand store to a Real business with Crown and Paw Founder Adam Reed

Adam is the founder of Crown & Paw, a brand that sells totally unique products to every single customer. He scaled from Zero to $10 Million in 9 months in a space where serious scaling appears to be impossible.

Key moments in this episode.

0:22 Going to 10 million in revenue through print on demand

4:30 Print on demand is not dropshipping.

6:00 Keeping customers happy while automating the entire process.

7:00 Dealing with payment processors and credit cards amid delayed orders.

8:30 Dealing with customer service going into the holiday season

10:00 Pivoting to a pet lifestyle brand versus a novelty brand.

11:40 Planning for an exit with a healthy business versus a one time lift in sales.

15:00 Dealing with 2000 back orders, and overloading Zapier with automations.

19:00 The uncomfortable conversation around letting people go.

Aug 02, 202223:09

UBall Founder Tim Shields drops major networking secret he wished he knew sooner

Tim Sheilds invented a sport! He joins Chris to share his biggest lessons, along with his journey of inventing and launching a sport!

1:00 Recent success of UBall, and what it is.

2:00 What if James Nasmith invented basketball today?

3:30 The painpoint that lead to the product being invented.

4:45 Growing the sport and learning lessons the hard way

6:30 Manufacturing issues.

8:30 Quality testing to make sure the product can survive, and not testing in extreme heat.

11:10 Working with big names like Lonzo ball, and motivating them to continue to post.

16:00 Importance of email marketing to be able to tell your story.

19:30 Messaging and availability for your customers

21:47 Afterpay and other payment options, and sneaking it into the abandoned cart flow

23:00 The Biggest Lesson - not following up and staying in touch with personal relationships. Pick 5 relationships to foster and talk to them on a weekly basis, and what to talk about when you’re hanging out with friends

Jul 26, 202226:24

This DUDE did over $702,000 in sales on Amazon Prime Day | Sean Riley Dude Wipes

Sean Riley has gone from being on Shark Tank to millions of dollars a year in sales.

Clean your butt. https://dudeproducts.com/

1:17 with the story of how it was created, and launching a company while having full time jobs.

4:50 Going from some cool learnings to making it a full time with less than 100K in sales by going through an incubator, and taking part time jobs to make ends meet.

6:00 Getting into more retail stores and sections, and launching complimentary products that grow bigger and faster.

7:30 Raising capital and working with Mark Cuban. They used the money toward inventory, and that’s the best place to put capital early on if you can. This let them build relationships with banks to open up lines of credit based on sales and accounts receivable. ivan@hoski.ca This is a good audiogram.

10:20 Be patient and let the capital come.

10:50 $702,000 in Amazon Prime sales. Using previous data to place bets for home runs and use the inventory for future orders.

13:10 Mark Cuban’s best advice early on was don’t drown in opportunity. Spend your time with what’s working. They learned during COVID how to prioritize their loyal retailers who reordered and slotted in toilet paper isles.

15:00 Most of the budget is spent putting towards getting new trials. Their NASCAR was a partnership with Wal-Mart. This means looking at ROAS less directly for direct sales through the website.

17:35 Sean is unapologetic about sharing wins and addressing competition from big brands of toilet paper players like Royal and Charmin.

20:00 Sean loves getting involved with billboards and out of home, including the virality of online presence.

Jul 19, 202222:53

Connor Renton Sold Into Loblaws (and ended up with 20,000 extra units)

Connor Renton is a 3x founder and has been featured across Canadian Media platforms including BlogTO, Global News, and Sixbuzz. He runs one of Canada’s Largest Men’s basketball leagues - Brodie Rec League - with over 10,000 annual players and is cofounder at Boostbear. The worlds first better for you protein candy which has amassed over 75,000 followers in under a month all from organic content. Visit boostbear.com to join the waitlist.

Key moments in this episode.

1:00 How Chris and Connor go connected via cold email

2:45 The history of Booster Bear

4:00 The struggles of going through various food manufacturers

8:00 Power of learning from the mistakes they’ve made.

9:00 Learning Tik Tok and growing through documenting what they’re doing. Even if it’s content that was filmed 3 years ago.

12:00 Dealing with supply chain issues when sourcing protein.

13:00 building an audience os 20,000 emails, and over 75,000 followers on Tik Tok

15:45 Wholesale strategy early on, but not before owning an audience.

18:00 Ability to get your products to your customers early on.

19:36 The Biggest Lesson screwing up forecasting when working with Loblaws

Jul 12, 202221:37

Bala Bangles Cofounder Max talks Shark Tank, big PO's and mixing business with pleasure.

Connect with Max, Cofounder of Bala Bangles on LinkedIn. Bala Bangles reinvented the way people work out by wearing the weights, and looking at how people work out at home.

4:30 Talking about the first iterations of the product and messaging, and blurring the lines of fashion and fitness.

7:45 Not relying on performance marketing and discounts earlier.

11:30 Almost being bankrupted with large orders from big box retailers, and lessons from Mark Cuban.

14:30 Working with retailers where you stand out vs blend in.

17:45 Being burned by retailers and influencers that rip you off or don't perform.

21:00 Finding your swim lanes when working with your significant other, including adding a safeword and reminding people that they're doing a good job.

Jul 05, 202224:09

An LTL Showed up to their SF Residence! Nikki Elliot and Michelle Razavi cofounders of Evali

Michelle and Nikki started Elavi to fulfil their own need for Functional, shelf-stable snacks designed to go with you anywhere and help with cognitive focus, balanced mood, athletic recovery, and overall vitality in a delicious, convenient way.

4:00 Starting by bootstrapping, which is amazingly hard to

5:20 Balancing full time focus form one co-founder without both having to deplete their safety nets and the importance of having a co-founder. Making contribution of both sweat equity and capital equity and managing the dynamics.

9:30 Starting their retail strategy local to keep acquisition costs down, and find out what their sales and follow up strategy looks like.

12:00 What types of sales collateral do you need? What unexpected customers did you get.

15:00 Working with distributors to work into big box retail

18:00 Hard lessons learned including shipping LTL truck loads to residential SF addresses, and working with retailers.

20:00 Discussing DTC or retail sales strategy and creative marketing strategies to connect with customers.

Jun 28, 202223:16

$30,000,000 in sales through community led growth and partnerships

Ash Melwani is cofounder and CMO at Obvi, a health and wellness supplement brand. He joins Chris Meade to talk about the growth of their brand to over $30M in sales over the last 30 months.

3:30 Setting up partnerships with legacy brands like Entenmann's and Reese's for partner and customer value and understanding.

9:00 Advanced marketing and collaborating with other brands.

12:00 Ash shares his biggest lessons which include not testing enough, bad flavours.

15:00 Keeping it simple with unanimous approval in house for flavouring.

17:00 Power of their Facebook community for R&D.

19:00 How the 3 co-founders came together to play to each other's strengths.

Jun 15, 202222:22

Launching a medical device company leads to some big lessons learned

Sweating is hard to stop unless you are always wearing deodorant or spend money on Botox. Mathieu Mireault is the co-founder and marketing director at Dermadry. The world's leading manufacturer of iontophoresis machines for the treatment of hyperhidrosis, a medical condition characterized by excessive sweating that affects approximately 1 in 20 people worldwide.

Key moments in this episode

3:00 Figuring out how to start a business when you have no experience

6:00 Knowing your competition's weakness (that can be your strength). Especially in older industries

7:30 Dealing with the microchip shortage.

10:30 Self financing a medical device company through banks and government grants

11:30 Working with Health Canada to be able to sell the devices on the website and through retailers like Costco.

13:00 Finding loopholes that allow you to sell and expand.

16:00 Focusing on organic vs paid Tik Tok content

17:50 What Matt would do differently (setting more realistic goals)

Jun 14, 202219:15

Michael Uy Shares lessons on generating 1.6B Views

Michael Uy is a retired content creator who has built Tik Tok houses and generating 1.6B views.

What it's like setting up and living in a Tik Tok house.
Lessons learned from the creatives and the brands buying.
Focusing on one platform first and using that to grow other platforms.
Why some influencers make it, and others don't.
The hardest lesson he learned - taking off more than he could chew.

Jun 07, 202220:07

You can't grow to 8 figures of revenue working in your business | Chelsea Moore BOXFOX

Chelsea Moore is the Founder and CEO of BOXFOX -- whose goals make it easy to build custom gifts and keep in touch with your friends, thy've grown to 47 employees and 8 figures in revenue.

Key moments in this episode.

4:20 The choice to keep fulfilment in house even with higher costs to keep presentation and flexibility to their high standards.
6:50 Working with other online retailers and what the deal structure looks like.
12:30 Covid-19 refocusing what investments matter most versus doing every trade show they can do, and the importance of unplugging.
13:50 Working on the business vs in the business keeping things high level (and coming back in when you need to).
17:30 Accurate projecting and forecasting amid pandemic and iOS changes and how to save them through other channels.

May 31, 202224:59

Working with your husband, and first hires in an iOS world | My Biggest Lessons

In 2015 my husband, Colby, and I founded Thread Wallets. Through our venture, we have found an irreplaceable sense of freedom and happiness as we see our vision unfold. I love coming up with creative ways to market a product or idea and I enjoy brainstorming ways to build long-lasting brands.

I believe in the power of surrounding yourself with smart and talented people who are dedicated to creating and building. I love helping others achieve success for themselves and I feel passionate about helping them find the same freedom I have found in my entrepreneurial and creative pursuits.

1:00 Proof of concept and get to market. Replacing everything after losing it. In 2015 my husband, Colby, and I founded Thread Wallets. Through our venture, we have found an irreplaceable sense of freedom and happiness as we see our vision unfold. I love coming up with creative ways to market a product or idea and I enjoy brainstorming ways to build long-lasting brands.

5:02 Running a business with your significant other. Getting to know each other and setting healthy boundaies.

10:25 Who the first hire would be now compared to before iOS changes.

14:30 Scaling a regional sales team and pay structure

18:45 Rising all channels together as a strategy

22:00 Putting your foot on the gas when you’re ROI positive.

May 24, 202225:42

Lessons learned buying into a family business and selling CBD chocolates.

Patsy's Candy is a confectionary business with over 100 years of experience. They also make CBD chocolates that almost landed him in jail.

2:30 Starting by selling CBD tinctures at farmers markets and trade shows before selling a couple of businesses to focus on CBD chocolates.

4:45 Scaling taboo brands when you can't market on Facebook and you have to rely on word of mouth and community.

8:22 Buying into a family business and updating an old assembly line.

13:30 Looking at the legal challenges of selling a product derived from cannabis.

May 17, 202220:20

Bootstrapping Outway Socks to $10M in sales | Rob Fraser | My Biggest Lessons

Rob Fraser is a 5X national team professional cyclist! Now he's spending his time growing Outway, a sock brand which he's bootstrapped up to $10M in sales. Now it's time to scale to $100M.

After wearing his cycling socks all day, he realized that they could be a bit better in quality.

2:45 Getting people to buy $15 - $20 socks on the internet that they can't feel before buying. Rob started in person to get people to buy, try, and build trust. They also told the story for cyclists, runners, and other athletes.

8:30 Combating iOS changes by going back to trade shows and other creative strategies. They're also promoting at events like marathons to give all runners a pair of socks.

12:25 Staying focused on not adding too many line items like shirts and hoodies.

18:00 Working with a team to keep egos and big personalities focused on the goal.

May 09, 202223:43

Drive retail sales with performance marketing - Shray Joshi

Shray Joshi is the founder of Good Peeps. He’s run performance marketing at brands like Health Aide, and Nuggs. If you’re a CPG marketer, this episode is a must watch.

5:45 How CPG entrepreneurs can plan for profitable marketing using data. You have to know your LTV for it to be profitable.

8:25 Finding undiscovered platforms that are more appropriate for your brands, and balancing the blend of offline and online advertising. Online targeting can translate to offline sales.

11:30 Keeping content production in-house (and what tasks are better outsourced), and keeping focus on more than just output.

16:45 Understanding the relationship between brand and product. Your brand is more than your product and packaging, and not every product needs to be a brand.

19:00 Why Shray is starting his own startup.

May 03, 202221:11

Steve O'Dell, Tenzo Tea Founder Shares His Biggest Lessons

Steve O'Dell joins Chris Meade to share the biggest lessons he's learned while building Tenzo Tea, a CPG brand who makes the best matcha tea. Steve shares with Chris.

How they got their first retail accounts by knocking on doors and cold calling.
Dealing with knock offs and me too products especially on Amazon.
Building trust for taste when selling online, and the products have a hard reputation.
Building out a successful subscription program without breaking the bank.
Making your first hires. Steve says to go uncomfortably long with as few people as possible.
Having boundaries with your cofounder
Setting milestones that are clear to understand and easy to follow to keep your staff focused and your company growing.

Apr 26, 202222:01

Hush sold for $50M! Here's how.

Started in 2018 to fill the market for weighted blankets, Aaron Spivak and Lior Ohayon launched a business that grew to $40M in less than 5 years.

Starting with their first product, Aaron shares how they manufactured their first run, and the lessons they learned about communicating and figuring out what they had to pay, and when they had to pay it.

Canada is a unique market. Instead of trying to spread everywhere, Aaron stayed in Canada vs going international and expanding in the US first.

Forecasting future sales is tricky. One lesson Aaron shares is to negotiate paying terms to free up cash flow, including where the most ROI positive channels including Tik Tok being adopted by more consumers.

Hush doesn’t compete directly with competition. The mattress and sleep space is big enough

Selling a business is one of the hardest things you’ll do. Aaron wasn’t originally planning on selling, but thanks to a special relationship with the acquiring company CEO.

Apr 19, 202225:47

World's fastest growing luxury hot sauce brand! My Biggest Lessons with Nick Guillen Truff CoFounder.

Since working from a young age, both Chris Meade and Nick Guillen have had part time jobs and side hustles. One of those for Nick was picking up Instagram handles. When @sauce was available, he had to scoop it up.

He never thought he'd be the co-founder of the worlds largest, and fastest growing luxury hot sauce brand.

The importance of patience when it came to growing wholesale, increasing leverage with
Hiring from customer bases because your employees understand your brand.
Working close to customers in store where the details matter. Using Truff at a grocery store deli, or to make sure the product is facing properly.

Apr 12, 202223:13

This Rainmaker has a business therapist!

Jake Karls, Co-founder & "Rainmaker" of Mid-Day Squares joins Chris Meade in this episode to explain what a Rainmaker title is all about - in other words, he builds relationships and makes noise. Jake wanted to be able to have the freedom of exploring different passions. To be unapologetically himself. Growing up surrounded by other ambitious and hardworking entrepreneurs in his family, going through challenging times, uncertainty and resilience is what inspired Jake to build something of his own.

Mid-Day Squares manufactures functional chocolate bars: Everything a chocolate bar isn't, everything a protein bar wishes it was.

In this episode Jake talks about:

Why having a business therapist helps strengthen relationships with his family

Planting seeds for the future

Viewing competition, including a lawsuit with Hershey’s

Building a community of moms

Understanding how your customers actually use your products

Hiring challenges and obstacles, including letting the wrong employees go

Apr 05, 202220:58

Why did this CEO wait until $20M to start hiring?

BrüMate Founder, Dylan Jacob grew the company to $20M relying only on freelancers, but wishes he hired a full time CFO much sooner.

Through his entrepreneurial journey, Dylan had a few quick wins but no major achievements. He was focused on constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and was motivated to create a product and a brand that people would love. From BrüMate’s inception to getting to $20M in revenue, Dylan focused on outsourcing everything from finance to shipping.

A few lessons from Dylan covered in this episode:

Find team players and experts in their field (ie. operations, and warehouse fulfillment). Hire the right people as soon as finances allow you so that you can focus on keeping the company moving forward.

iOS changes - From 2016-2019, Dylan focused on omnichannel - including building their retail footprint to nearly 10,000 stores. It’s imperative to understand what channels impact which part of the funnel.

As BrüMate grows, the team is always focused on innovation, product launches, and continued growth.

Tune in to hear about the many obstacles Dylan had to overcome to achieve the accolades he has today, and to learn the secrets to real growth and success.

Mar 29, 202230:37

Patrick Schwarzenegger - Behind the scenes of a celebrity-led CPG brand

Chris sits down with Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger, co-founder of Mosh — a better-for-you protein bar designed to provide clear fuel for your brain. Learn how his celebrity status and influence impacted the launch of his brand, and hear about the challenges he still faced in spite of those benefits. In this episode, Patrick shares secrets, mistakes, and a few things he wishes he would have done differently when launching MOSH. "It’s amazing to be sold out. It's another to not have inventory for months at a time." You won’t want to miss this episode and learn about the struggles behind a celebrity-led CPG brand.

Mar 22, 202218:56

Chase Dimond

Chris sits down with email guru Chase Dimond to talk about the biggest mistakes brands are making in the world of email & sms marketing. You won't want to miss this.

Mar 15, 202230:60

Chris Meade shares The Biggest Lessons he's learned (and a new series)

Chris and Lucas share some of the biggest lessons they've made from nearly catastrophic events. They've both messed up big time, so listen closely, and avoid costly mistakes.

Make sure you're subscribed, because Chris will be bringing you big lessons each week from other entrepreneurs.

Lucas is going to be talking to vendors and tech partners in the ecommerce ecosystem to keep your store fine tuned and winning.

Chris Meade woke up to a big box retailer definitely know of discounting Crossnet 50% at the end of season. Which is totally reasonable.

What hurt was when 35 new sellers were competing with us on Amazon for the buy box. We had no choice but to buy them all back.

Lesson learned - always negotiate buy backs with your retail buyers.

The second lesson he share is the first time Greg and I ordered a container. Nobody told us you had to have protective packaging.

Turns out weeks at sea isn’t the greatest thing for your product’s packaging. When we got our shipment, everything was damaged and destroyed.

We had no choice but to pay retail for new boxes and stickers and redo everything ourselves.

Lesson learned - Use one company that can get the products across borders and to your doorstep.

After the big retail summer season, comes our BFCM season, which is great for us when we make sales directly through the website. Especially when we’ve already collected the POs from all the retailers.

What isn’t so great, is when our Black Friday deals over discounted what the retailers were able to do.

Buying ads to send traffic to retailers isn’t fun. It’s low ROI, but it’s a great way to build rapport and relationships with buyers.

Lesson Learned - Have a special package for retailers or your website to avoid the feeling of competition.

Lucas Walker is a serial entrepreneur founding Venngage, Treats Happen, and Rolled Up. Connect with him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Mar 10, 202221:16