We're going to talk about why your Shopify store isn't growing, and how you can fix it.If you're serious about growing your Shopify store, then listen to this episode! We'll discuss the different factors that can affect your store's growth, and how you can fix them. 

We're going to talk about why your Shopify store isn't growing, and how you can fix it.If you're serious about growing your Shopify store, then listen to this episode! We'll discuss the different factors that can affect your store's growth, and how you can fix them.

90 - Why Your Shopify Store Isn't Growing

Are you tired of all the hassle and headache that comes with crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo?If so, then you'll love this simple method for crowdfunding on your own Shopify website! This method is easy to use and doesn't require any special skills or knowledge. So if you're looking for a way to get your project funded without all the hassle, then this is the way to do it!Hire Our Expert Team To Launch And/Or Scale Your E-Commerce Product Brand ➡️ https://launchandscale.co/apply=============About Kurt Elster:============One of the most highly regarded independent consultants in his industry, Kurt Elster is a Senior Ecommerce Consultant who helps Shopify merchants like Jay Leno’s Garage uncover hidden profits in their websites through his e-commerce agency Ethercycle. With two million downloads, Kurt is best known for hosting The Unofficial Shopify Podcast.Get the Crowdfunder Shopify App: https://apps.shopify.com/crowdfunder-...

Are you tired of all the hassle and headache that comes with crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo?If so, then you'll love this simple method for crowdfunding on your own Shopify website! This method is easy to use and doesn't require any special skills or knowledge. So if you're looking for a way to get your project funded without all the hassle, then this is the way to do it! Hire Our Expert Team To Launch And/Or Scale Your E-Commerce Product Brand ➡️ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&amp;redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3BISGNtekY4UVoya29BSG53cFpPQy1FZnp3Z3xBQ3Jtc0tsOWVhS3k1M3hpLU12NjJLdjdWRmowaXFxV1dFUl9VUlpFQnFEMWp4SVlWMUdNMXFhSF9ZLTJzS0JkY09iUlhEUUMyY3QwWnV3Z0g2MkhjYnNHd19OemNVd0h2MzlIU3dqSDAxWFllQkpWMVB5U1FQcw&amp;q=https%3A%2F%2Flaunchandscale.co%2Fapply&amp;v=aq12CyATBkA" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://launchandscale.co/apply</a> =============About Kurt Elster:============One of the most highly regarded independent consultants in his industry, Kurt Elster is a Senior Ecommerce Consultant who helps Shopify merchants like Jay Leno’s Garage uncover hidden profits in their websites through his e-commerce agency Ethercycle. With two million downloads, Kurt is best known for hosting The Unofficial Shopify Podcast. Get the Crowdfunder Shopify App: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&amp;redir_token=QUFFLUhqay1iTTBUR0JKTDI0UlB0bUtDOEdCTldZV1lGZ3xBQ3Jtc0tublhQQjVYbDJmS1VCalBmd0ducWg2aElLUjVnWldSN3JUaE51RE5TdE9pTmJkU1V2anZTV3VnSk9mN1RRaGktM3pHQ0RaeFJLZXpPRkcxd25mZi1lWnFkcHUwcTlueThwcjdyUkoxVnh1ZTdIWFdCQQ&amp;q=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.shopify.com%2Fcrowdfunder-diy-pre-order-crowdfunding-campaigns-for-shopify&amp;v=aq12CyATBkA" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://apps.shopify.com/crowdfunder-...</a>

89 - Crowdfunding On Your Shopify Store vs Kickstarter?

Mastering Conversion Rate Optimization is crucial for e-commerce success. By dispelling misconceptions and understanding the true essence of CRO, you can implement strategies that improve your website's conversion rate and overall performance. With the guidance of industry experts like Chase Clymer, you can take your e-commerce brand to new heights. 

Mastering Conversion Rate Optimization is crucial for e-commerce success. By dispelling misconceptions and understanding the true essence of CRO, you can implement strategies that improve your website's conversion rate and overall performance. With the guidance of industry experts like Chase Clymer, you can take your e-commerce brand to new heights.

88 - Expert-Approved Tips to Increase Your Shopify Conversion Rate

Are you a Shopify Seller that's got some organic traction for your product, but you aren't sure if you're ready for paid ads, what platform to use, or even where to start?Watch to learn if your store is ready for traffic, some common pitfalls to avoid, and how to get started.Work With Us For As Little As $1 With Our Product Launchpad Accelerator ➡️ https://launchandscale.co/product-launchpadHire Our Expert Team To Launch And/Or Scale Your E-Commerce Product Brand ➡️ https://launchandscale.co/apply

Are you a Shopify Seller that's got some organic traction for your product, but you aren't sure if you're ready for paid ads, what platform to use, or even where to start?Watch to learn if your store is ready for traffic, some common pitfalls to avoid, and how to get started.Work With Us For As Little As $1 With Our Product Launchpad Accelerator ➡️ <a href="https://launchandscale.co/product-launchpad" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://launchandscale.co/product-launchpad</a>Hire Our Expert Team To Launch And/Or Scale Your E-Commerce Product Brand ➡️ <a href="https://launchandscale.co/apply" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://launchandscale.co/apply</a>

87 - Is My Shopify Store Ready For Paid Ads?

In this video, I'm sharing with you how Suzy Weeks hit $20K in her first month on Shopify with a new baby brand [with just one product].If you're thinking of starting your own business and you're not sure where to start, then you should watch this video! Suzy Weeks is a successful e-commerce entrepreneur who shares her secrets with you in this video. In just one month, Suzy Weeks managed to hit $20,000 in sales with a new baby brand with just one product!So if you're looking for tips on starting your own e-commerce business, then you should watch this video! It's packed with valuable information that will help you succeed in the online marketplace. Visit them at: https://www.movifamily.com/

In this video, I'm sharing with you how Suzy Weeks hit $20K in her first month on Shopify with a new baby brand [with just one product].If you're thinking of starting your own business and you're not sure where to start, then you should watch this video! Suzy Weeks is a successful e-commerce entrepreneur who shares her secrets with you in this video. In just one month, Suzy Weeks managed to hit $20,000 in sales with a new baby brand with just one product! So if you're looking for tips on starting your own e-commerce business, then you should watch this video! It's packed with valuable information that will help you succeed in the online marketplace. Visit them at: <a href="https://www.movifamily.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.movifamily.com/</a>

86 - How Suzy Went From Zero to $20K In 30 Days With Shopify For Her Baby Brand

In this video, I'm going to show you how to unlock your brand's growth potential with cash flow financing. This is an important video for anyone who is looking to start or grow their business.We interview 8Fig.co to understand their inventory cash flow financing options better for Amazon and Shopify Sellers.By using cash flow financing, you can get the funding you need to grow your business without having to take on large credit risks. With access to a range of funding options, you can find the right option for your business and reach your goals faster!

In this video, I'm going to show you how to unlock your brand's growth potential with cash flow financing. This is an important video for anyone who is looking to start or grow their business.We interview <a href="http://8Fig.co" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">8Fig.co</a> to understand their inventory cash flow financing options better for Amazon and Shopify Sellers.By using cash flow financing, you can get the funding you need to grow your business without having to take on large credit risks. With access to a range of funding options, you can find the right option for your business and reach your goals faster!

85 - Unlock Your Brand's Growth Potential with Cash Flow Financing | 8Fig.co

In this video, I'm going to show you how to validate your product. This is an essential step in the product development process and it can help you make sure that your product is ready for launch.Validation is the process of determining whether a product or idea is sound and meets the requirements specified by a customer or client. By validating your product, you can ensure that it is quality-checked and meets the needs of your target market. This video will teach you everything you need to know about validation and help you get started on the road to launching a successful product!

In this video, I'm going to show you how to validate your product. This is an essential step in the product development process and it can help you make sure that your product is ready for launch.Validation is the process of determining whether a product or idea is sound and meets the requirements specified by a customer or client. By validating your product, you can ensure that it is quality-checked and meets the needs of your target market. This video will teach you everything you need to know about validation and help you get started on the road to launching a successful product!

84 - How Do I Validate My Product?

TikTok ads are a great way to promote your e-commerce brand on the popular app. In this video, we'll show you how to run TikTok ads for your brand and increase your traffic and conversion rates!If you're looking to take your e-commerce business to the next level, then watch this video interview with TikTok's own Ryan Rali!

TikTok ads are a great way to promote your e-commerce brand on the popular app. In this video, we'll show you how to run TikTok ads for your brand and increase your traffic and conversion rates!If you're looking to take your e-commerce business to the next level, then watch this video interview with TikTok's own Ryan Rali!

83 - Discover How to 10X Your E-Commerce Brand with TikTok Ads

In this video, we share the story of how BigSpoonPillow.com hit $4,000 in revenue from zero in just 30 days. If you're looking for a blueprint for starting your own online e-commerce business, then you need to watch this video! I'll show you how our Product Launchpad member, Brodie Wilkinson of BigSpoonPillow.com launched in 30 days from scratch. This video is full of valuable information that you can use to start or grow your own e-commerce Shopify brand.

In this video, we share the story of how <a href="http://BigSpoonPillow.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BigSpoonPillow.com</a> hit $4,000 in revenue from zero in just 30 days. If you're looking for a blueprint for starting your own online e-commerce business, then you need to watch this video! I'll show you how our Product Launchpad member, Brodie Wilkinson of <a href="http://BigSpoonPillow.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BigSpoonPillow.com</a> launched in 30 days from scratch. This video is full of valuable information that you can use to start or grow your own e-commerce Shopify brand.

82 - The 30-Day Launch: How BigSpoonPillow.com Hit $4K In Revenue Starting From Zero

In this video, I'm going to talk about the hidden danger of Kickstarter campaigns. Kickstarter is a great way to get your products into the hands of consumers, but be aware of the dangers of running a campaign.This video will give you a sneak peek into the dangers of running a Kickstarter campaign and help you avoid some of the common mistakes made by entrepreneurs. By watching this video, you'll be well-equipped to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign

In this video, I'm going to talk about the hidden danger of Kickstarter campaigns. Kickstarter is a great way to get your products into the hands of consumers, but be aware of the dangers of running a campaign.This video will give you a sneak peek into the dangers of running a Kickstarter campaign and help you avoid some of the common mistakes made by entrepreneurs. By watching this video, you'll be well-equipped to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign

81 - The Hidden Danger of Kickstarter Campaigns

Launch and Scale™ founder, Khierstyn Ross covers proven strategies to launch and scale a product successfully online through a mix of actionable content, business challenges, and interviews with industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Giving you the tools you need to succeed where others have failed in the E-commerce business.

Love this podcast. Well done, great length episodes with such valuable insight from someone who has real world experience. Would love to know more about defining a product. I for instance have a wine educational concept. So I am really selling knowledge knowledge and hopefully will develop into a brand that I can sell me too products with. So would love an episode about defining a non tradition product or selling a service and creating a brand around that!

Start-up Basics overview!

Wow! This is the podcast I’ve been searching for. I’m in the beginning stages of product development and I feel overwhelmed by all my questions. Khierstyn’s podcast is encouraging, entertaining, and very informative. I look forward to every episode because I know I will gain valuable knowledge in a short, easy to understand format.

Perfection

Launch and Scale™

Stephen Key

In today's episode, we bring on one of the world's top product licensing specialists, Stephen Key, to discuss this route to market. In this episode, we cover the ins and outs of product licensing, whether it's right for you, as well as how to protect your product IP from knockoffs.

In today's episode, we bring on one of the world's top product licensing specialists, Stephen Key, to discuss this route to market. In this episode, we cover the ins and outs of product licensing, whether it's right for you, as well as how to protect your product IP from knockoffs.

LS10 - The art of product licensing, with Stephen Key

Lisa Myers

All the free advice on the interwebs can't compare to the actual experience you'll go through while bringing a product to market. Lisa Myers recently launched Ceres Chill on Indiegogo. She hit her launch goal of $15K in the first 12 hours of her campaign, and how she did it was extremely impressive. Ceres Chill is the world's first breastmilk cooler. As a full-time lawyer with two young kids at home, she had to completely bootstrap the tooling, development, and manufacturing. And as you can imagine, this wasn't a cheap project. Because her budget and time was tight, she had to think outside of the box for ways to get support for her campaign without breaking the bank. Instead of throwing thousands of dollars at Facebook ads to build up her audience, she decided to focus on a resource she already had -- her network. The weeks leading up to her campaign she focused on building up awareness and support through people that knew her and would help if she needed it. In this interview, we go through: * EXACTLY when and how she communicated with her network ahead of time * HOW she got their verbal commitment for a certain $ amount to pledge on the first day of her launch * How she treated this launch as if she were raising money for a political campaign ... And how she brought all of these things together to raise $15K in 12 hours. What I absolutely LOVE about this conversation is that she systemized a way to do one of the most uncomfortable things: ask for help.

All the free advice on the interwebs can't compare to the actual experience you'll go through while bringing a product to market. Lisa Myers recently launched Ceres Chill on Indiegogo. She hit her launch goal of $15K in the first 12 hours of her campaign, and how she did it was extremely impressive. Ceres Chill is the world's first breastmilk cooler. As a full-time lawyer with two young kids at home, she had to completely bootstrap the tooling, development, and manufacturing. And as you can imagine, this wasn't a cheap project. Because her budget and time was tight, she had to think outside of the box for ways to get support for her campaign without breaking the bank. Instead of throwing thousands of dollars at Facebook ads to build up her audience, she decided to focus on a resource she already had -- her network. The weeks leading up to her campaign she focused on building up awareness and support through people that knew her and would help if she needed it. In this interview, we go through: * EXACTLY when and how she communicated with her network ahead of time * HOW she got their verbal commitment for a certain $ amount to pledge on the first day of her launch * How she treated this launch as if she were raising money for a political campaign ... And how she brought all of these things together to raise $15K in 12 hours. What I absolutely LOVE about this conversation is that she systemized a way to do one of the most uncomfortable things: ask for help.

LS17 - Treating your audience building like a political campaign, with Lisa Myers

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.

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 <a href="http://Khierstyn.com/LS03" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Khierstyn.com/LS03</a> 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 <a href="http://Khierstyn.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Khierstyn.com/schedule</a> 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 <a href="http://K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com/schedule</a>. Apart from that, we will talk to you next time.

LS03 - Going it alone: When (and who) to bring onboard

Oren Klaff

Bestselling author of Pitch Anything, and sales master Oren Klaff uses his decades of pitching, presenting, and closing long-shot, high stakes deals to create a new playbook on persuasion in  Flip the Script: Getting People to Think Your Idea is Their Idea.   No one likes being told what to think, but everyone trusts their own ideas. Rather than pushing your idea on the buyer, in this interview, Oren will show you how to guide them to discover it on their own. Then they’ll feel more confident and enthusiastic about working with you.  Oren Klaff is one of the world's leading experts on sales, raising capital and negotiation.  His first book, Pitch Anything, is required reading throughout Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the Fortune 500, with more than 1,000,000 copies in print worldwide.    In this interview, we uncover a series of actionable steps including:   How to achieve Status Alignment: Make sure that your potential buyer or investor recognizes you as a peer on the dominance hierarchy by using a status tip-off, a strategically placed remark that identifies you as an insider who can relate to your client’s concerns   Close the Certainty Gap: Lessen your buyer’s fears about going into business with you by delivering a flash roll, a practiced display of mastery that proves your expertise in the domain Present your idea as Plain Vanilla: Don’t go overboard trying to present your product as cutting-edge, first-of-its-kind solution. The more you emphasize the familiar, reliable elements of your product, showing that it’s just “plain vanilla”, the easier you make it for your buyer to say yes   The sales landscape has changed and it’s not enough to just make a great pitch. This conversation and Oren’s latest  Flip the Script will equip you with the tools to stand out and close more deals.

Bestselling author of Pitch Anything, and sales master Oren Klaff uses his decades of pitching, presenting, and closing long-shot, high stakes deals to create a new playbook on persuasion in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flip-Script-Getting-People-Think/dp/052553394X" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Flip the Script: Getting People to Think Your Idea is Their Idea</a>. No one likes being told what to think, but everyone trusts their own ideas. Rather than pushing your idea on the buyer, in this interview, Oren will show you how to guide them to discover it on their own. Then they’ll feel more confident and enthusiastic about working with you.  Oren Klaff is one of the world's leading experts on sales, raising capital and negotiation.  His first book, Pitch Anything, is required reading throughout Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the Fortune 500, with more than 1,000,000 copies in print worldwide.  In this interview, we uncover a series of actionable steps including: <ul> <li>How to achieve Status Alignment: Make sure that your potential buyer or investor recognizes you as a peer on the dominance hierarchy by using a status tip-off, a strategically placed remark that identifies you as an insider who can relate to your client’s concerns</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Close the Certainty Gap: Lessen your buyer’s fears about going into business with you by delivering a flash roll, a practiced display of mastery that proves your expertise in the domain</li> <li>Present your idea as Plain Vanilla: Don’t go overboard trying to present your product as cutting-edge, first-of-its-kind solution. The more you emphasize the familiar, reliable elements of your product, showing that it’s just “plain vanilla”, the easier you make it for your buyer to say yes</li> </ul> The sales landscape has changed and it’s not enough to just make a great pitch. This conversation and Oren’s latest <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flip-Script-Getting-People-Think/dp/052553394X" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Flip the Script</a> will equip you with the tools to stand out and close more deals.

LS15 - Flip the Script: Getting other people to think your idea is their idea, with Oren Klaff

Hey guys, welcome to the Launch and Scale podcast, I'm Khierstyn, this is episode two and this episode is covering how the heck do you know if someone really wants to buy your product before you sink thousands of dollars into it. Which is going into, how do you validate your ideas quickly and move on to ones that are actually going to sell for you? This is a question that was posed by Brett Buxton, so this is a question that he emailed into me after I asked everyone on our email list, really, what is the question you want me to cover in the new podcast? And so I broke his question into two episodes where we covered the first part of the question in episode one. So, if you missed that in terms of the debate between do you develop a Me-too, or a brand type product, head over to episode one and grab that. Today's episode is going to be focusing on how to really validate and give you confidence in your idea, prior to sinking thousands of dollars into it. As a recap, here is the question that Brett asked. "If we're all hoping to avoid the price wars on Amazon as a seller, how can we be sure people will want what we decide to make? I know myself and a lot of others rely heavily on Jungle Scout to tell what and how much is selling on Amazon, and when I first started the Me-too product thing. I still look at Jumbo sales numbers when developing my new product and tried to give the market what it seemed like it needed, based on personal preference and examining reviews of other products on Amazon. Beyond that, though it's a little bit of a crapshoot. Would love to hear some input on this." So, Brett, great question. In terms of how to make absolutely sure your product sells before you sink thousands of dollars into it, while you can gauge market interest online by looking at Google Trends, you can look at similar products that are selling to yours on Amazon and look at the reviews. Ultimately, if you are bringing a proprietary product to market that is a new version of something that already exists and something that you patent and something that has IP that you own, versus doing the white label side of things by slapping your brand on to an existing product, that information you get from Jungle Scout, Amazon and others like Google Trends, is really limited. So, how do you know that people are actually going to buy your product? A few weeks ago now, I was going through Netflix late on a Saturday night, we'll say, and I came across a documentary called Mad Men. It is a behind the scenes look at Steve Madden, the fashion shoe brand as of a couple of years ago, was doing over a billion dollars in sales in the fashion industry. And because I didn't know much about this brand, I know that I like the shoes, but in terms of the founder, I hadn't really heard much about him, so I press play. And within the first few minutes of the documentary it shows their office in Brooklyn, I think, New York, and there's something that they did that really stood out to me. It's really the reason, in my mind, why Steve Madden is such a powerhouse of a brand and why they've successfully brought products to market over and over and over again, that have been best sellers. And what it comes down to is Steve Madden, when they get an idea for a design, so their head of product design gets an idea, or Steve feels inspired by something he sees on the street, then they bring it back to their office. They sketch up a prototype of this new design that was inspired, and they have two choices at this point. If they think, "Wow, this is a great shoe and it's going to be a best seller," they can go and create 10,000 units of this thing right off the bat, and spend thousands of dollars and start to plan to roll it out into their stores. But doing that, they don't have actual concrete evidence of whether the shoe is even going to sell. They get great ideas all the time, but how do you know that all of their ideas are good. Instead what Steve and his team do, is they have a litmus test. They take this new prototype. They develop about eight to ten different pairs of these, or maybe 12. But a very limited number, and what they do is on a busy Saturday afternoon they go to Soho in New York. They put the new shoes up and there are a couple of people from their head office will sit and watch how people react to the new shoe. And their litmus test is on a busy Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. If they go and sell 8 out of 12 pairs at this one store, then this is a product that is going to be successful. When they pass the litmus test, that's when they bring it to manufacturing. That is how they gauge with confidence whether this thing will sell. But not only that, when someone goes to buy their shoe, Steve's team, that will go up and asks this person, what do they like about the shoe, see who they are, and really get to understand the demographics and what it was about the shoe that drew someone to it. So, they're using a litmus test to prove it will sell, but also gauge customer reaction by asking them, really, what it is about the product. When they get that feedback, then this is a checkmark in their brain, that, "Okay, this is 100% a product that will sell. So we have confidence in investing in manufacturing and then planning a product rollout." It's very similar to... that's what a lot of very successful retailers do. They will do a test run with a limited number of units, see how it sells before investing a lot of money to do a full product launch rollout. And I know that Steve Madden is a billion-dollar brand, and they have the resources to quickly turn around ideas, and you work out of your parents' garage or in your basement, may not have the luxury of testing ideas that quickly. What I want you to take away from that, is the idea of having your own version of a litmus test. The only thing that is going to give you certainty in your product being successful, is by creating a prototype of it and having it interact with customers. If you have the resources, best case, what I want you to do is I want you to do an initial manufacturing run of say five to ten different units and get people, who you think your customer is and your network. Send the product home with them and get them to use it for a two week or 30 day period. And then get feedback. And what you do is you use this as a beta test. There are many different ways to do this, but ultimately the main way to make sure that your product is going to sell is to solicit customer feedback. Because you think you have a great idea now, and when you use Jungle Scout or tools online that will tell you, verify for sure, that this is an industry that people are spending money in. And your product type are things that people are still buying and it's on the rise, and it seems like a good investment. What you don't have though is intimate understanding of why your customer actually loves your product, or what they hate about your product. And so you're going to use your customers feedback to craft an awesome product. And this quote I want to leave you with, from Steve Madden, I absolutely love it. It's, "The selling is just as important as the creating." So, while you go to think of how to sell this product, ultimately the only thing that's really going to give you longevity and a chance at success is to focus on designing an amazing product. This is like a two-part episode, does my product sell? Okay, yes you have that, but in the product design phase, I think that a lot of people don't go to their customer enough and really use their customer interacting with their product and understanding how they use it. They don't use that enough. I want to leave you with that. If you want full confidence that your product will sell, you have to really bring it to the customer level and gauge interest and make iterations based on feedback, until you have something that people really love. So, that is my take on Brett's question, which is ultimately how do you make sure that you have faith that someone will buy your product before you sink thousands of dollars into it? And have a litmus test. Apart from that, if you have a product that you were looking to launch online, be it your current e-commerce brand or you're starting from scratch, and you want to talk to me, do head over to khierstyn.com/schedule. I do strategy sessions to map out the course of your product to the market. It's a free session. I'd love to see how we can work together. So, my name is pretty impossible to spell so it's khierstyn.com/schedule. There you'll be able to schedule a free 45-minute session with me, tell me a bit about your product and your launch goals and then we'll take it from there. I'll talk to you guys next time.

Hey guys, welcome to the Launch and Scale podcast, I'm Khierstyn, this is episode two and this episode is covering how the heck do you know if someone really wants to buy your product before you sink thousands of dollars into it. Which is going into, how do you validate your ideas quickly and move on to ones that are actually going to sell for you? This is a question that was posed by Brett Buxton, so this is a question that he emailed into me after I asked everyone on our email list, really, what is the question you want me to cover in the new podcast? And so I broke his question into two episodes where we covered the first part of the question in episode one. So, if you missed that in terms of the debate between do you develop a Me-too, or a brand type product, head over to episode one and grab that. Today's episode is going to be focusing on how to really validate and give you confidence in your idea, prior to sinking thousands of dollars into it. As a recap, here is the question that Brett asked. "If we're all hoping to avoid the price wars on Amazon as a seller, how can we be sure people will want what we decide to make? I know myself and a lot of others rely heavily on Jungle Scout to tell what and how much is selling on Amazon, and when I first started the Me-too product thing. I still look at Jumbo sales numbers when developing my new product and tried to give the market what it seemed like it needed, based on personal preference and examining reviews of other products on Amazon. Beyond that, though it's a little bit of a crapshoot. Would love to hear some input on this." So, Brett, great question. In terms of how to make absolutely sure your product sells before you sink thousands of dollars into it, while you can gauge market interest online by looking at Google Trends, you can look at similar products that are selling to yours on Amazon and look at the reviews. Ultimately, if you are bringing a proprietary product to market that is a new version of something that already exists and something that you patent and something that has IP that you own, versus doing the white label side of things by slapping your brand on to an existing product, that information you get from Jungle Scout, Amazon and others like Google Trends, is really limited. So, how do you know that people are actually going to buy your product? A few weeks ago now, I was going through Netflix late on a Saturday night, we'll say, and I came across a documentary called Mad Men. It is a behind the scenes look at Steve Madden, the fashion shoe brand as of a couple of years ago, was doing over a billion dollars in sales in the fashion industry. And because I didn't know much about this brand, I know that I like the shoes, but in terms of the founder, I hadn't really heard much about him, so I press play. And within the first few minutes of the documentary it shows their office in Brooklyn, I think, New York, and there's something that they did that really stood out to me. It's really the reason, in my mind, why Steve Madden is such a powerhouse of a brand and why they've successfully brought products to market over and over and over again, that have been best sellers. And what it comes down to is Steve Madden, when they get an idea for a design, so their head of product design gets an idea, or Steve feels inspired by something he sees on the street, then they bring it back to their office. They sketch up a prototype of this new design that was inspired, and they have two choices at this point. If they think, "Wow, this is a great shoe and it's going to be a best seller," they can go and create 10,000 units of this thing right off the bat, and spend thousands of dollars and start to plan to roll it out into their stores. But doing that, they don't have actual concrete evidence of whether the shoe is even going to sell. They get great ideas all the time, but how do you know that all of their ideas are good. Instead what Steve and his team do, is they have a litmus test. They take this new prototype. They develop about eight to ten different pairs of these, or maybe 12. But a very limited number, and what they do is on a busy Saturday afternoon they go to Soho in New York. They put the new shoes up and there are a couple of people from their head office will sit and watch how people react to the new shoe. And their litmus test is on a busy Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. If they go and sell 8 out of 12 pairs at this one store, then this is a product that is going to be successful. When they pass the litmus test, that's when they bring it to manufacturing. That is how they gauge with confidence whether this thing will sell. But not only that, when someone goes to buy their shoe, Steve's team, that will go up and asks this person, what do they like about the shoe, see who they are, and really get to understand the demographics and what it was about the shoe that drew someone to it. So, they're using a litmus test to prove it will sell, but also gauge customer reaction by asking them, really, what it is about the product. When they get that feedback, then this is a checkmark in their brain, that, "Okay, this is 100% a product that will sell. So we have confidence in investing in manufacturing and then planning a product rollout." It's very similar to... that's what a lot of very successful retailers do. They will do a test run with a limited number of units, see how it sells before investing a lot of money to do a full product launch rollout. And I know that Steve Madden is a billion-dollar brand, and they have the resources to quickly turn around ideas, and you work out of your parents' garage or in your basement, may not have the luxury of testing ideas that quickly. What I want you to take away from that, is the idea of having your own version of a litmus test. The only thing that is going to give you certainty in your product being successful, is by creating a prototype of it and having it interact with customers. If you have the resources, best case, what I want you to do is I want you to do an initial manufacturing run of say five to ten different units and get people, who you think your customer is and your network. Send the product home with them and get them to use it for a two week or 30 day period. And then get feedback. And what you do is you use this as a beta test. There are many different ways to do this, but ultimately the main way to make sure that your product is going to sell is to solicit customer feedback. Because you think you have a great idea now, and when you use Jungle Scout or tools online that will tell you, verify for sure, that this is an industry that people are spending money in. And your product type are things that people are still buying and it's on the rise, and it seems like a good investment. What you don't have though is intimate understanding of why your customer actually loves your product, or what they hate about your product. And so you're going to use your customers feedback to craft an awesome product. And this quote I want to leave you with, from Steve Madden, I absolutely love it. It's, "The selling is just as important as the creating." So, while you go to think of how to sell this product, ultimately the only thing that's really going to give you longevity and a chance at success is to focus on designing an amazing product. This is like a two-part episode, does my product sell? Okay, yes you have that, but in the product design phase, I think that a lot of people don't go to their customer enough and really use their customer interacting with their product and understanding how they use it. They don't use that enough. I want to leave you with that. If you want full confidence that your product will sell, you have to really bring it to the customer level and gauge interest and make iterations based on feedback, until you have something that people really love. So, that is my take on Brett's question, which is ultimately how do you make sure that you have faith that someone will buy your product before you sink thousands of dollars into it? And have a litmus test. Apart from that, if you have a product that you were looking to launch online, be it your current e-commerce brand or you're starting from scratch, and you want to talk to me, do head over to <a href="http://khierstyn.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com/schedule</a>. I do strategy sessions to map out the course of your product to the market. It's a free session. I'd love to see how we can work together. So, my name is pretty impossible to spell so it's <a href="http://khierstyn.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com/schedule</a>. There you'll be able to schedule a free 45-minute session with me, tell me a bit about your product and your launch goals and then we'll take it from there. I'll talk to you guys next time.

LS02 - How to be sure people want your product

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.

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 <a href="http://yourproductname.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">yourproductname.com</a> it could be <a href="http://yourpersonaldomain.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">yourpersonaldomain.com</a> 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 <a href="http://foundrmag.com/kickstarter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">foundrmag.com/kickstarter</a> so even though <a href="http://foundrmag.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">foundrmag.com</a> 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 <a href="http://Khierstyn.com/lso4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Khierstyn.com/lso4</a>. 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 <a href="http://Khierstyn.com/lso4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Khierstyn.com/lso4</a> 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 <a href="http://kiersten.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">kiersten.com/schedule</a> again, that's <a href="http://K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N.com</a> you're listening today, guys. We will see you next time.

LS04 - My software stack for building a targeted audience

Transcript Hey guys, welcome to Launch and Scale. This is episode seven. In this episode, we are taking a look at what is the best route to market for your product. A while there are several types we could talk about, two that I come across most in the eCommerce space is do you launch your product on Amazon first or do you launch on Kickstarter first? This is the question that was inspired by Stein Devolder. He asked, really, what are the benefits of first launching your brand on Kickstarter and then going to Amazon instead of just launching your brand on Amazon? And so that is an awesome question. I wanted to dedicate an episode to that. And keep in mind if you guys do ... If you have a question that you want to be answered on the show, you can do so by going to khierstyn.com/ask, how you spell that is K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N dot com slash ask, and you'll be able to ask a question through a voicemail or email it in and then we'll be able to cover it on a future episode.  So which one should you start with? Should you do Amazon or should you do Kickstarter? And I think that really depends on where you're at in your journey. If this is your first product, then the question is going to be, do I start on Amazon or do I start on Kickstarter? But what if you are already selling on Amazon? What does that look like? So I get, I think my audience is an even split between those that sell on Amazon and they're looking at building a brand off of Amazon for reasons I'll get into in a second. But then I have first-time product creators that want to get their product online and they're like, do I do Kickstarter? Do I do Amazon? And so we'll get into that, as well.  In terms of benefits of Amazon, Amazon is a global marketplace, so it gives you the same benefits as Kickstarter does in that it gets your product in front of people that otherwise may not have known or caught an opportunity to learn about your brand.  So I think that way, as a marketplace, it is extremely powerful and you should, if you're selling a product online, you should absolutely be on Amazon. But having your product exclusively on Amazon has its drawbacks. Where Amazon could be a really great place to get started online, if you white label a product, whereas you go to Alibaba, you find an existing product and then you put your label on it and create a brand and sell that exclusively on Amazon. That is a great way to get into selling online. However, it has its drawbacks because as you start to scale on Amazon, you don't have complete control over your listing. Essentially, Amazon owns all your customer data. So you don't have a direct way to contact your customers. And you are very susceptible to price wars on Amazon. Where when if you first go into a category where it's very profitable and there isn't a lot of competition on your product, very soon, competitors are going to come in and start undercutting your prices, which means it's a very quick race to the bottom for you.  With Amazon being a go-to marketplace, it is a great place to get started, but it's extremely competitive and it is very volatile. So you can get your listing shut down at any point. You don't own customer data. And it's really not, it's not safe, essentially, to have your brand only on Amazon, in my opinion. And while there are ways around it, I believe the best way to build a foundation and a legacy for yourself and your family online is to have complete control over where your product is listed. So that's why I, regardless of whether you're on Kickstarter or Amazon, you 100% need to have a spot where your product lives online, be it your own website.  So regardless, again, Kickstarter, Amazon, you need to be building yourself a spot offline. So the reason I get a lot of Amazon guys coming to me is that they understand the risk they take by only selling on Amazon and they want to be able to expand, to be able to scale and build a brand. Because building a brand, if you go back to episode one about the difference between having a brand and a me, too product, that's really where you are going to be able to build something that the people love. Build something that really serves a person and you're going to be able to build that seven, eight-figure company a lot more easily than you will by only listing on Amazon.  So if you are an Amazon seller, you need to be looking at building a brand and building an awareness of your product and what you do, off of Amazon. And whether Kickstarter's good platform for you or not, that's a conversation that you can email into me, to get my opinion on your product to see. But generally, if your product sells to consumers and there is a need for it, and there's something unique about it, it is definitely worth looking into Kickstarter to get your product momentum for the brand. So we'll get into Kickstarter in a second, but you can email me at support at K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N dot com, and I'm happy to vet your product and just give you my opinion on whether I think as a Kickstarter product or not.  So that's the first thing, is if you are an Amazon seller listening to this, you should 100% be looking to build a brand off of Amazon so that you are using Amazon as a sales channel, not your main hub. So that's the first half. But the second half is should you go to Kickstarter first. So again, if you're a current Amazon seller, you by default cannot go to Kickstarter first because you're on Amazon, but you should still consider Kickstarter.  But what if you are a first-time product creator or you have been selling products offline in retail and you want to start building a presence for yourself online? I did this with Sago Mini Pillow Play Sets. It was a children's company residing in Toronto, Canada, that sold into multiple retail stores across Canada. And they were launching this cool throw pillow that converts into a children's play set because they really wanted to start getting serious about selling online.  So this was a really great gateway product for them. And so they went to Kickstarter. So if this is you, if you are that first product or you're selling offline and you want to get momentum for your brand online, I believe that Kickstarter 100% needs to be the go-to route that you take. Because when you go to Kickstarter, and you have the right product, you have the right messaging, and you're successful, Kickstarter is able to get your product in front of hundreds of new people. You're able to walk away with that customer data and a relationship with these people. And those hundreds of backers, if not thousands of backers that you have taken off of Kickstarter, you then have a really strong foundation to then continue and transition that over to having a strong launch on Amazon and other sales channels online. But by going to Kickstarter first for that product, you're able to establish brand credibility and social proof for your product that makes your Amazon launch really, really great.   So instead of starting with that, so I do believe that, yeah, just, you need to have a brand online if you're serious about playing the eCommerce game. And if you want, if you fall into the category of having a brand versus a me-too product. And again, if you are just doing your research at this point, check out episode one, it'll help give you some clarity as to what kind of product and company really wants. And if it is a brand that you are looking to create, then I 100% think that Kickstarter is the right platform for you. But again, if you don't know, just email me support@khierstyn.com.  This wraps up this episode. More awesome questions and topics to come. I guess if you guys are looking for free resources, case study, or even just to set up a call to talk about your product launch goals, please head over to khierstyn.com/schedule. Again, my name is impossible to spell, so it's K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N dot com slash schedule. Apart from that, we will see you in the next episode.

Transcript Hey guys, welcome to Launch and Scale. This is episode seven. In this episode, we are taking a look at what is the best route to market for your product. A while there are several types we could talk about, two that I come across most in the eCommerce space is do you launch your product on Amazon first or do you launch on Kickstarter first? This is the question that was inspired by Stein Devolder. He asked, really, what are the benefits of first launching your brand on Kickstarter and then going to Amazon instead of just launching your brand on Amazon? And so that is an awesome question. I wanted to dedicate an episode to that. And keep in mind if you guys do ... If you have a question that you want to be answered on the show, you can do so by going to <a href="http://khierstyn.com/ask" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com/ask</a>, how you spell that is K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N dot com slash ask, and you'll be able to ask a question through a voicemail or email it in and then we'll be able to cover it on a future episode. So which one should you start with? Should you do Amazon or should you do Kickstarter? And I think that really depends on where you're at in your journey. If this is your first product, then the question is going to be, do I start on Amazon or do I start on Kickstarter? But what if you are already selling on Amazon? What does that look like? So I get, I think my audience is an even split between those that sell on Amazon and they're looking at building a brand off of Amazon for reasons I'll get into in a second. But then I have first-time product creators that want to get their product online and they're like, do I do Kickstarter? Do I do Amazon? And so we'll get into that, as well. In terms of benefits of Amazon, Amazon is a global marketplace, so it gives you the same benefits as Kickstarter does in that it gets your product in front of people that otherwise may not have known or caught an opportunity to learn about your brand. So I think that way, as a marketplace, it is extremely powerful and you should, if you're selling a product online, you should absolutely be on Amazon. But having your product exclusively on Amazon has its drawbacks. Where Amazon could be a really great place to get started online, if you white label a product, whereas you go to Alibaba, you find an existing product and then you put your label on it and create a brand and sell that exclusively on Amazon. That is a great way to get into selling online. However, it has its drawbacks because as you start to scale on Amazon, you don't have complete control over your listing. Essentially, Amazon owns all your customer data. So you don't have a direct way to contact your customers. And you are very susceptible to price wars on Amazon. Where when if you first go into a category where it's very profitable and there isn't a lot of competition on your product, very soon, competitors are going to come in and start undercutting your prices, which means it's a very quick race to the bottom for you. With Amazon being a go-to marketplace, it is a great place to get started, but it's extremely competitive and it is very volatile. So you can get your listing shut down at any point. You don't own customer data. And it's really not, it's not safe, essentially, to have your brand only on Amazon, in my opinion. And while there are ways around it, I believe the best way to build a foundation and a legacy for yourself and your family online is to have complete control over where your product is listed. So that's why I, regardless of whether you're on Kickstarter or Amazon, you 100% need to have a spot where your product lives online, be it your own website. So regardless, again, Kickstarter, Amazon, you need to be building yourself a spot offline. So the reason I get a lot of Amazon guys coming to me is that they understand the risk they take by only selling on Amazon and they want to be able to expand, to be able to scale and build a brand. Because building a brand, if you go back to episode one about the difference between having a brand and a me, too product, that's really where you are going to be able to build something that the people love. Build something that really serves a person and you're going to be able to build that seven, eight-figure company a lot more easily than you will by only listing on Amazon. So if you are an Amazon seller, you need to be looking at building a brand and building an awareness of your product and what you do, off of Amazon. And whether Kickstarter's good platform for you or not, that's a conversation that you can email into me, to get my opinion on your product to see. But generally, if your product sells to consumers and there is a need for it, and there's something unique about it, it is definitely worth looking into Kickstarter to get your product momentum for the brand. So we'll get into Kickstarter in a second, but you can email me at support at K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N dot com, and I'm happy to vet your product and just give you my opinion on whether I think as a Kickstarter product or not. So that's the first thing, is if you are an Amazon seller listening to this, you should 100% be looking to build a brand off of Amazon so that you are using Amazon as a sales channel, not your main hub. So that's the first half. But the second half is should you go to Kickstarter first. So again, if you're a current Amazon seller, you by default cannot go to Kickstarter first because you're on Amazon, but you should still consider Kickstarter. But what if you are a first-time product creator or you have been selling products offline in retail and you want to start building a presence for yourself online? I did this with Sago Mini Pillow Play Sets. It was a children's company residing in Toronto, Canada, that sold into multiple retail stores across Canada. And they were launching this cool throw pillow that converts into a children's play set because they really wanted to start getting serious about selling online. So this was a really great gateway product for them. And so they went to Kickstarter. So if this is you, if you are that first product or you're selling offline and you want to get momentum for your brand online, I believe that Kickstarter 100% needs to be the go-to route that you take. Because when you go to Kickstarter, and you have the right product, you have the right messaging, and you're successful, Kickstarter is able to get your product in front of hundreds of new people. You're able to walk away with that customer data and a relationship with these people. And those hundreds of backers, if not thousands of backers that you have taken off of Kickstarter, you then have a really strong foundation to then continue and transition that over to having a strong launch on Amazon and other sales channels online. But by going to Kickstarter first for that product, you're able to establish brand credibility and social proof for your product that makes your Amazon launch really, really great. So instead of starting with that, so I do believe that, yeah, just, you need to have a brand online if you're serious about playing the eCommerce game. And if you want, if you fall into the category of having a brand versus a me-too product. And again, if you are just doing your research at this point, check out episode one, it'll help give you some clarity as to what kind of product and company really wants. And if it is a brand that you are looking to create, then I 100% think that Kickstarter is the right platform for you. But again, if you don't know, just email me support@khierstyn.com. This wraps up this episode. More awesome questions and topics to come. I guess if you guys are looking for free resources, case study, or even just to set up a call to talk about your product launch goals, please head over to <a href="http://khierstyn.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com/schedule</a>. Again, my name is impossible to spell, so it's K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N dot com slash schedule. Apart from that, we will see you in the next episode.

LS07 - Amazon first, or Kickstarter?

Blake Lively

Regardless of where you are in your online journey, at some point, you'll want to increase your reach by getting your product into retail and other distribution.  In this in-depth interview with Sarah Shaw, we go through best practices when approaching retailers for the first time, as well as how to make sure that even when your product is on shelves, that it's selling.  As a bonus, we explore how she's had her clients' products into the hands of both A and B level celebrities like Blake Lively. 

Regardless of where you are in your online journey, at some point, you'll want to increase your reach by getting your product into retail and other distribution. In this in-depth interview with Sarah Shaw, we go through best practices when approaching retailers for the first time, as well as how to make sure that even when your product is on shelves, that it's selling. As a bonus, we explore how she's had her clients' products into the hands of both A and B level celebrities like Blake Lively.

LS08 - Getting your product into retail (+ how to get your products to celebrities like Blake Lively)

Marcus Rader

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...

LS05 - What to do when your pricing structure doesn't support scale, with Marcus Rader of Host Away

Not having a strong understanding of who your customer is, niching down, and focusing on who you want to serve is by far one of the biggest barriers to success on Kickstarter (and launching products successfully) that I see.  Struggling to find your niche or narrowing down your message can seem limiting, but trust me, it’s the opposite.  Ever heard the phrase: “If you end up trying to reach everyone you reach no one”. Here’s a test for you to see how focused your niche and message are. Transcript:  Hey, everyone, welcome to Launch and Scale. This is episode six and today I'm really excited to dive into a topic that comes up on every single phone call I have with you. People that are really looking to launch products, be it Kickstarter, Amazon, or just online, in general. And that question is how to discover your niche, or even if you have an idea of who your customer is, how do you narrow it down to the right one that's going to resonate with your product to make sure that you have maximum success when it comes to your product launch. So in this episode, we're going to be having a deep look into what that looks like and why it's so important with your launch and how even having the wrong niche or not focusing on this can really bomb your launch.   Before we get into that, this episode is brought to you by Launch and Scale. It is a group program that helps take creators and anyone launching a product from zero to getting them funded on Kickstarter and be able to create a foundation for a strong E-commerce brand. I've been working on Crowdfunding campaigns and product launches for the last four years, and I've raised multiple six figures with the clients that we've worked with. So to find out more, please do head over to khierstyn.com that's spelled K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N .com. Click and if you want to book an actual session with myself, or the team, please do go to khierstyn.com/schedule, and you can line up a time to talk about your product launch needs.   Apart from that, how do we pick a niche for our product and why is this even important to begin with? When it comes to having a strong launch on Amazon, Kickstarter or any really online marketplace that looks to rank projects and products based on popularity, it's important that you come in with an audience of people ready to buy your product because it helps you rank on the site. With Kickstarter specifically, if you've followed my work on the Crowdfunding podcasts or even just the talks that I've done and stuff like that, you will know that the biggest mistake that people make when it comes to Crowdfunding and product launches, in general, is they assume just because Kickstarter has this huge audience that all you have to do is rock up, and you're going to raise $100,000. It's quite the opposite. You do have to prove to the platform that you're popular and worth being shown to other community members.   And the way that's done is by understanding how the algorithm works. And so right up until now, you may have an understanding or whatnot that you need an audience of people ready to buy your product as soon as you go live. But when we go into looking at why product launches underperform, so not do as well as the person-creator hoped, it's generally because they're niche, and the audience that they built up or the person that type that they were trying to sell their product to was actually misaligned and it was wrong. So when comes to niching down, I wanted to have an open, honest conversation about this because this is somewhere that first time creators, and even if this is your second or third product, you may, if you're struggling to sell and you're struggling to get a good conversion rate with your sales, it is most likely because the product offering that you have is not in alignment with what the niche is that you're going after. So how do you get it in alignment?   The first thing to know is that the mistake that most people make is they don't want to limit their options. So your first instinct may be to go broad and have you ever heard the phrase, "If you end up trying to reach everyone, you reach no one?" The reality is that when you focus your messaging, and you focus your product to serve a specific niche, so a really narrow audience and a narrow kind of person, you're actually giving yourself a lot more leverage because your messaging is more specific, and it's going to resonate way more with that target market.   But, unfortunately, what I've noticed that our clients, people I have spoken to on the phone and just anyone that is new to launching a product online or fairly early in your E-commerce journey is that you may not really have taken the time to define who the person is that you want to serve and really, really focus on serving a specific kind of person. And so what I want to do in this episode is I have four questions that I want you to ask yourself. And these four questions are meant to give you clarity on who your niche is because I guarantee if you are listening to this episode, it's because you may feel that your product messaging or being more like really honing in and narrowing down your niche is something that you could work on or can always be improved on, or maybe this is the first time you've ever considered this.   So I want to take you through four questions that's going to help you gain clarity on who your niche is because this is so important. It's often very overlooked and not something people really think of until their product launch doesn't do as well as they'd hoped, and then they have to go back and really analyze what happened. And knowledge is power. Hindsight is 20/20 I can go on with all these different quotes, but the reality is that this homework and taking the time to really define who your niche is and then going out into the field and testing that hypothesis, that's really going to increase the chances that you are going to hit the goals that you want with this launch.   So I want you to pull up pen and paper, and when you do that write down these questions. So what I would do is I would take one or two sheets of paper, just give yourself enough space to write and take notes. And after each one of these questions you're going to write this down. And then I want you to pause the podcast, answer the question, and then come back and then proceed to the second step. Okay?  So the first question is if you have a landing page or if you have a website. So question number one, "Is the copy of my landing page clear and concise? Does it clearly state what my product is about and what the main benefit of it is?" Okay. And if you don't have a website yet, then here's a second version of that. "When you describe your product to a friend, do they fully understand what your product is about and what the main benefit of it is?" So question number one is really about clarity. So please write that down, pause the video, write it down, and then when you're done, proceed to question number two.   Okay, now that you've done question number one, question number two, is this, "Is it clear who my target audience is?" Pause the video, come back. Question three, "Is it clear why my target audience should want to buy my product?" Again, pause and then come back. And the last question, question number four is, "How does my product stand out and how is it different?" Awesome. So now that you've gone through and, of course, I'm not going to sit on the podcast waiting for you to go do that. Just pause it and do this exercise. Thank me later. If you did go through these questions, and you breeze through them, and you already have complete clarity over your product and who your demographic is, then awesome. If not, then I really encourage you to start there. This should absolutely be one of the first things you do prior to starting your audience building.   But hey, even if you have been in business for two plus years, you are launching product number three or four that's cool. Please go back to the drawing board because you may, for the new product that you're launching, your niche is always going to be slightly different. So you really do want to become hyper-clear on who your niche is and what your messaging is so that it conveys a strong point of differentiation between your product and what's already on the market and making sure that when you go and launch your product that it is in alignment with what your niche is looking for and then you perform, and you get funded.   So apart from that, this is a critical step that you need to take. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you do have questions you want to get in touch, or you want to submit a question for the podcast, you can do so by going to khierstyn.com/ask, A-S-K. And, yeah, my name is spelled K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N .com/ask and apart from that really stoked. We have a ton of awesome resources on the website from the podcast to free case study to even a spot for if you want to talk about protocol and strategy and how to make sure that you're getting the best results out of your launch. Please do go to khierstyn.com and schedule a call. Apart from that, we will see you in the next episode.

Not having a strong understanding of who your customer is, niching down, and focusing on who you want to serve is by far one of the biggest barriers to success on Kickstarter (and launching products successfully) that I see. Struggling to find your niche or narrowing down your message can seem limiting, but trust me, it’s the opposite. Ever heard the phrase: “If you end up trying to reach everyone you reach no one”. Here’s a test for you to see how focused your niche and message are. Transcript: Hey, everyone, welcome to Launch and Scale. This is episode six and today I'm really excited to dive into a topic that comes up on every single phone call I have with you. People that are really looking to launch products, be it Kickstarter, Amazon, or just online, in general. And that question is how to discover your niche, or even if you have an idea of who your customer is, how do you narrow it down to the right one that's going to resonate with your product to make sure that you have maximum success when it comes to your product launch. So in this episode, we're going to be having a deep look into what that looks like and why it's so important with your launch and how even having the wrong niche or not focusing on this can really bomb your launch. Before we get into that, this episode is brought to you by Launch and Scale. It is a group program that helps take creators and anyone launching a product from zero to getting them funded on Kickstarter and be able to create a foundation for a strong E-commerce brand. I've been working on Crowdfunding campaigns and product launches for the last four years, and I've raised multiple six figures with the clients that we've worked with. So to find out more, please do head over to <a href="http://khierstyn.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com</a> that's spelled K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N .com. Click and if you want to book an actual session with myself, or the team, please do go to <a href="http://khierstyn.com/schedule" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com/schedule</a>, and you can line up a time to talk about your product launch needs. Apart from that, how do we pick a niche for our product and why is this even important to begin with? When it comes to having a strong launch on Amazon, Kickstarter or any really online marketplace that looks to rank projects and products based on popularity, it's important that you come in with an audience of people ready to buy your product because it helps you rank on the site. With Kickstarter specifically, if you've followed my work on the Crowdfunding podcasts or even just the talks that I've done and stuff like that, you will know that the biggest mistake that people make when it comes to Crowdfunding and product launches, in general, is they assume just because Kickstarter has this huge audience that all you have to do is rock up, and you're going to raise $100,000. It's quite the opposite. You do have to prove to the platform that you're popular and worth being shown to other community members. And the way that's done is by understanding how the algorithm works. And so right up until now, you may have an understanding or whatnot that you need an audience of people ready to buy your product as soon as you go live. But when we go into looking at why product launches underperform, so not do as well as the person-creator hoped, it's generally because they're niche, and the audience that they built up or the person that type that they were trying to sell their product to was actually misaligned and it was wrong. So when comes to niching down, I wanted to have an open, honest conversation about this because this is somewhere that first time creators, and even if this is your second or third product, you may, if you're struggling to sell and you're struggling to get a good conversion rate with your sales, it is most likely because the product offering that you have is not in alignment with what the niche is that you're going after. So how do you get it in alignment? The first thing to know is that the mistake that most people make is they don't want to limit their options. So your first instinct may be to go broad and have you ever heard the phrase, "If you end up trying to reach everyone, you reach no one?" The reality is that when you focus your messaging, and you focus your product to serve a specific niche, so a really narrow audience and a narrow kind of person, you're actually giving yourself a lot more leverage because your messaging is more specific, and it's going to resonate way more with that target market. But, unfortunately, what I've noticed that our clients, people I have spoken to on the phone and just anyone that is new to launching a product online or fairly early in your E-commerce journey is that you may not really have taken the time to define who the person is that you want to serve and really, really focus on serving a specific kind of person. And so what I want to do in this episode is I have four questions that I want you to ask yourself. And these four questions are meant to give you clarity on who your niche is because I guarantee if you are listening to this episode, it's because you may feel that your product messaging or being more like really honing in and narrowing down your niche is something that you could work on or can always be improved on, or maybe this is the first time you've ever considered this. So I want to take you through four questions that's going to help you gain clarity on who your niche is because this is so important. It's often very overlooked and not something people really think of until their product launch doesn't do as well as they'd hoped, and then they have to go back and really analyze what happened. And knowledge is power. Hindsight is 20/20 I can go on with all these different quotes, but the reality is that this homework and taking the time to really define who your niche is and then going out into the field and testing that hypothesis, that's really going to increase the chances that you are going to hit the goals that you want with this launch. So I want you to pull up pen and paper, and when you do that write down these questions. So what I would do is I would take one or two sheets of paper, just give yourself enough space to write and take notes. And after each one of these questions you're going to write this down. And then I want you to pause the podcast, answer the question, and then come back and then proceed to the second step. Okay? So the first question is if you have a landing page or if you have a website. So question number one, "Is the copy of my landing page clear and concise? Does it clearly state what my product is about and what the main benefit of it is?" Okay. And if you don't have a website yet, then here's a second version of that. "When you describe your product to a friend, do they fully understand what your product is about and what the main benefit of it is?" So question number one is really about clarity. So please write that down, pause the video, write it down, and then when you're done, proceed to question number two. Okay, now that you've done question number one, question number two, is this, "Is it clear who my target audience is?" Pause the video, come back. Question three, "Is it clear why my target audience should want to buy my product?" Again, pause and then come back. And the last question, question number four is, "How does my product stand out and how is it different?" Awesome. So now that you've gone through and, of course, I'm not going to sit on the podcast waiting for you to go do that. Just pause it and do this exercise. Thank me later. If you did go through these questions, and you breeze through them, and you already have complete clarity over your product and who your demographic is, then awesome. If not, then I really encourage you to start there. This should absolutely be one of the first things you do prior to starting your audience building. But hey, even if you have been in business for two plus years, you are launching product number three or four that's cool. Please go back to the drawing board because you may, for the new product that you're launching, your niche is always going to be slightly different. So you really do want to become hyper-clear on who your niche is and what your messaging is so that it conveys a strong point of differentiation between your product and what's already on the market and making sure that when you go and launch your product that it is in alignment with what your niche is looking for and then you perform, and you get funded. So apart from that, this is a critical step that you need to take. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you do have questions you want to get in touch, or you want to submit a question for the podcast, you can do so by going to <a href="http://khierstyn.com/ask" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com/ask</a>, A-S-K. And, yeah, my name is spelled K-H-I-E-R-S-T-Y-N .com/ask and apart from that really stoked. We have a ton of awesome resources on the website from the podcast to free case study to even a spot for if you want to talk about protocol and strategy and how to make sure that you're getting the best results out of your launch. Please do go to <a href="http://khierstyn.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">khierstyn.com</a> and schedule a call. Apart from that, we will see you in the next episode.

LS06 - Niche clarity

What do you do when you launch your product and you think it's failing? In this episode, we explore: * how to know for sure if your Kickstarter is failing * why it might be failing * what to avoid at all cost * how to handle a failed campaign

What do you do when you launch your product and you think it's failing? In this episode, we explore: * how to know for sure if your Kickstarter is failing * why it might be failing * what to avoid at all cost * how to handle a failed campaign

LS16 - Campaign failing? Here's what to do

Hiring a videographer for your Kickstarter product video can be one of the more expensive investments you make in your product launch. This is also one of the areas many business owners get wrong. Listen to this episode to learn some best practices when hiring a videographer, including, how to find them, how to select them, and what to look for.

Hiring a videographer for your Kickstarter product video can be one of the more expensive investments you make in your product launch. This is also one of the areas many business owners get wrong. Listen to this episode to learn some best practices when hiring a videographer, including, how to find them, how to select them, and what to look for.

LS09 - Kickstarter video: How to make sure you're hiring the right videographer

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.

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.

LS 13 - Hiring A Facebook Ads Expert For Your Launch

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

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

LS14: Why people buy results, not features

Ryan Daniel Moran

In this guest episode with Ryan Daniel Moran, we have a frank conversation about how most entrepreneurs have it backward. It's not about finding the product first, it's about discovering the audience to sell to. In this episode, we uncover Ryan's process for finding and attracting untapped audience potential.

In this guest episode with Ryan Daniel Moran, we have a frank conversation about how most entrepreneurs have it backward. It's not about finding the product first, it's about discovering the audience to sell to. In this episode, we uncover Ryan's process for finding and attracting untapped audience potential.

LS11 - Finding untapped potential in your audience, with Ryan Daniel Moran

 How much do you set your Kickstarter goal to? What should your public and your private goal be? Here's what you really need to consider before setting these marks to make sure you're covering your funding bases.

How much do you set your Kickstarter goal to? What should your public and your private goal be? Here's what you really need to consider before setting these marks to make sure you're covering your funding bases.

LS12 - Setting your Kickstarter goal -- what agencies won't tell you

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

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 <a href="http://www.workwithKR.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.workwithKR.com</a> to learn more

LS25 - PART 1: How to Launch Your Product Online (Mini Series)

Ainsley Moir

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.

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:  <ul> <li>The single piece of paper (double-sided) you need to get your product into a retail store</li> <li>How to find CPG buyers and get a meeting</li> <li>What it is that Food and Beverage buyers actually want (and it’s not flavor)</li> <li>How to test your message and assumptions about your market cheaply before you blow a bunch of money developing a product no one wants</li> <li>Why some products lose money for each unit sold… and how to avoid it</li> <li>How to get proof of demand before you’ve even sold a single item</li> </ul> Want to learn more about how to get your FAB product off the ground? Check out <a href="http://ainsleymoir.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AinsleyMoir.com</a> **** Want to work with Khierstyn directly to launch and scale your product? Go to <a href="http://www.workwithkr.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.workwithKR.com</a> to learn more.

LS24 - How To Get Your Food And Beverage Product Into Grocery Stores, with Ainsley Moir

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

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 <a href="http://www.workwithKR.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.workwithKR.com</a> to learn more

LS23 - How To Determine If You Have Effective Ads | Funnel Creation Metrics

Would you like to get a celebrity endorsement or two to help fuel your Kickstarter launch and not have to pay them or give up any equity in your business? How about 13 endorsements?  Well, that’s exactly what Jon “Of The Chords” Ng did to raise over $300K on Kickstarter for “Lord of the Chords: The Punniest Music Theory Card Game in the World”. While doing his research on how to launch a Kickstarter Campaign, Jon noticed a pattern: A large percentage of campaigns that raised over six-figures had a celebrity endorsement. The problem was that he had no connections to anyone famous in the music industry and so had to “find another way” (as he likes to put it).   In this episode, Jon reveals the L.O.R.D. framework he developed that enabled him to get 13 celebrity endorsements.  L - Locate O - Offer an amazing gift… Something unique and relevant to your project R - Record their reaction D - Don’t quit when things go wrong… and find another way!   We also cover:   Jon’s Top Strategies for Locating celebrities and how to get past their “people” to meet them backstage at concerts What to Offer them that will make them go “WOW” and remember you forever How he recorded the endorsements for use in future product sales How he edited a video with those recordings to make “marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing” to grow his email list How he set up his Facebook Ads Campaign to build the email list...and what he would do differently if he was going to do it all over again The Classic AIDA advertising formula, and why the first “A” is the hardest. How he tactfully promoted his campaign on Reddit and got over 800 upvotes, without getting banned  Want more details on the LORD Framework? Check out Jon’s article on LinkedIn here:  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-secrets-lord-chords-used-build-social-proof-from-13-ng/  ** Can I work with you to launch your product? Go to www.workwithKR.com to learn more

Would you like to get a celebrity endorsement or two to help fuel your Kickstarter launch and not have to pay them or give up any equity in your business? How about 13 endorsements?  Well, that’s exactly what Jon “Of The Chords” Ng did to raise over $300K on Kickstarter for “Lord of the Chords: The Punniest Music Theory Card Game in the World”. While doing his research on how to launch a Kickstarter Campaign, Jon noticed a pattern: A large percentage of campaigns that raised over six-figures had a celebrity endorsement. The problem was that he had no connections to anyone famous in the music industry and so had to “find another way” (as he likes to put it).  In this episode, Jon reveals the L.O.R.D. framework he developed that enabled him to get 13 celebrity endorsements. L - Locate O - Offer an amazing gift… Something unique and relevant to your project R - Record their reaction D - Don’t quit when things go wrong… and find another way! We also cover:  <ul> <li>Jon’s Top Strategies for Locating celebrities and how to get past their “people” to meet them backstage at concerts</li> <li>What to Offer them that will make them go “WOW” and remember you forever</li> <li>How he recorded the endorsements for use in future product sales</li> <li>How he edited a video with those recordings to make “marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing” to grow his email list</li> <li>How he set up his Facebook Ads Campaign to build the email list...and what he would do differently if he was going to do it all over again</li> <li>The Classic AIDA advertising formula, and why the first “A” is the hardest.</li> <li>How he tactfully promoted his campaign on Reddit and got over 800 upvotes, without getting banned</li> </ul> Want more details on the LORD Framework? Check out Jon’s article on LinkedIn here: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-secrets-lord-chords-used-build-social-proof-from-13-ng/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-secrets-lord-chords-used-build-social-proof-from-13-ng/</a> ** Can I work with you to launch your product? Go to <a href="http://www.workwithkr.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.workwithKR.com</a> to learn more

LS22 - How to get celebrities to endorse your Kickstarter Launch (without needing to pay them)

The best podcasts about ourselves as well as the world through the lense of Science. Specific topics include things about our brain, emotions to biology, physics and more!

Best Episodes on Science, Humans & The World

The best podcast episodes on Startups. For anyone working in a startup, or anyone interested in the incredible stories behind how people built companies like Instagram, and Facebook. Offering both practical advice and insights, as well as the stories for how many of the biggest startups got to where they are today. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!