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Journey to 7 Figures — Business
Journey to 7 Figures

Journey to 7 Figures is a show about entrepreneurs and the stories behind how they grew their businesses to 7 figures and beyond. We cover the good, the bad, the ugly and the lessons they learned along the way.

Latest Episodes:

How Eric Siu Saved Single Grain and Grew to $2M in Revenue Jun 12, 2018

Show notes

Single Grain was a struggling digital marketing agency before Eric Siu took over. In this episode, he shares how he took them from unprofitable to working with clients like Uber, Amazon, and Salesforce, last year generating $2M in revenue.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

[02:38] What Eric learned from his experience working at Treehouse
[04:03] What kind of shape Single Grain was in when Eric first got involved with it
[07:25] How things got worse for Single Grain
[09:11] What they did to keep Single Grain from going out of business and turn things around
[11:36] How they got their clients to stick for 12 to 18 months
[12:46] What helped Single Grain the most in terms of marketing
[18:06] How they figured out what actually works for SEO
[20:20] How they started doing a podcast and growing it substantially
[23:35] The strategies that they used to grow the Marketing School Podcast
[29:40] How to set and manage client expectations

Key Takeaways:

Whatever you do in your life, as long as you’re constantly trying to make yourself and grow, you will earn people’s respect.
You can see a lot of instability happen when sales aren’t going well.
Everything that you want to get done in a company is all based on people. Whatever you’re trying to accomplish, you have to be good with people.
If you’re starting an agency, paid advertising is fantastic. And it’s a nice gateway into other services down the road.
When the client thinks of you more as the extended arm of their marketing team versus just a vendor, that’s when your relationship with them last a lot longer.

Action Steps:

Build a relationship capital with people.
Vet every single one of your hires, no matter how senior they are.
Write evergreen content and then use Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique.
If you decide to do a podcast, publish an episode every single day.
Constantly bring new ideas to the table for your clients.

Eric said:

“As long as you’re constantly trying to grow yourself, people are going to respect that.”

“When sales are happening, things are fine; but when things aren’t going well, that’s when you start to see a lot of instability.”

More from Eric Siu:

Eric’s Instagram Single Grain Growth Everywhere Podcast Marketing School Podcast

Resources mentioned:

The Skyscraper Technique by Brian DeanMixergy Podcast Redpoint Ventures Rocket Fuel by Gino WickmanTim Ferriss Podcast Treehouse

Sponsor link

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Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How Crowdfunding Agency, Command Partners Generated $10M Jun 04, 2018

Show notes

Crowdfunding agency Enventys Partners (formerly Command Partners) has helped launch over 450 new businesses via crowdfunding campaigns. They’ve helped raise over $150M and last year generated over $10M in revenue. Roy Morejon explains how they did it.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

[01:28] How Roy got started with Command Partners
[09:58] How they started getting more projects and building their customer base
[14:57] Building a team around each project
[16:46] Setting client expectations
[25:30] How Command Partners merged with Enventys
[30:32] How they put systems and processes in place to gain more consistent results
[32:16] How they brought in the key people to step up their business
[35:37] Strategies with regards to content marketing
[38:02] Strategies to get speaking opportunities

Key Takeaways:

There is an opportunity for any company out there to run a crowdfunding campaign, whether it be reward-based with a physical product or potentially equity-based.
The unfortunate side of running a Kickstarter campaign is basically you see the worst of anybody. It’s hard to point out what’s wrong with their product or why things are not working, but it’s a conversation that you have to have.
There’s a lot of pre-launch work that needs to be done in order to have success in a business.
It’s expensive to bring a product to market. It takes about 2 to 20 years of product development before a product gets manufactured, QA tested or UL approved. But many people have this misconception that it can just be made very quickly and cheaply in China.

Action Steps:

Be transparent with everything that goes on internally and externally for your company.
Focus on the categories that you’re an expert in.
Keep educating yourself and understand how crowdfunding works and how these types of campaigns are unique and challenging on their own.

Roy said:

“You don’t bring an opinion to a data fight.”

“There’s no better time to start something than today.”

More from Roy Morejon:

Enventys Partners Roy’s Website Art of the Kickstart

Resources mentioned in this episode:

AnswerThePublic Ubersuggest Quora

Sponsor link

14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How Michael Lovitch Built a $40M Company with 350k Customers May 28, 2018

Show notes

Michael was a special education teacher before he went on to found 3 multi-million dollar companies including one that reached $40M in annual sales with 350k customers. Learn how he did it in this episode!

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

[01:28] Michael’s transition from teaching special education to entrepreneurship
[07:33] Copywriting and creating profitability through ads and affiliate marketing
[12:44] Starting out with AdWords and working with partners to provide more value
[16:24] Why you should build a team, train them and have a system in place
[22:32] Michael’s journey with Hypnosis Network
[26:50] How Michael started RealDose
[30:42] Developing the products for RealDose and building the inventory
[34:40] Media buying and getting the business going
[40:12] Baby Bathwater and what it’s all about

Key Takeaways:

You can reverse engineer anything.
You might do all right with finding some opportunity, but if you’re not really into it, you’re going to burn out fast. Don’t just look to make some cash but create a business with something you really care about.
Create something great and something that you’re proud of. So when you’re doing media buying and getting people to try it, you don’t feel sleazy in any way because you know that it’s true, you’re not lying because you know it’s the best.
Don’t neglect your email list and keep providing them with good content. Once you have a big following, people will want to partner with you.

Action Steps:

Find something you’re really into and build a business out of it.
Keep your list warm with really good content.
Build a team around your business, train them how to do things and create a system for people to follow.

Michael said:

“Make something you’re proud of that works.”

“Grind, but document as you grind and start to bring people on early.”

More from Michael Lovitch:

Michael’s Facebook Baby Bathwater Institute

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Hypnosis Network Dr. Hyman RealDose Nutrition

Sponsor link

14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How LeadMD Grew to $5.6M with Clients like Forbes and eBay May 21, 2018

Show notes

LeadMD is a bootstrapped marketing agency who have helped over 3,000 high growth and enterprise clients like Forbes and eBay. Having started in 2009, they’ve implemented over half of the Marketo user base and last year they generated $5.6M in sales! Tune in as Justin Gray shares their success story and more!

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

[05:35] Figuring out your customer type and bridging the gap between knowing the type of customers you want to serve and actually getting them
[08:00] Partnership strategies and how to get good results
[10:40] How LeadMD figured out their pricing model, why they chose to put their pricing on the site, and how they engaged their customers
[15:00] How to productize services
[17:33] Nailing down your hiring practices and the core values to look for when hiring people
[23:56] Training people to be able to deliver success for your business
[26:56] LeadMD’s content marketing strategy

Key Takeaways:

When you’re a bootstrapped organic business, you can’t afford to spend time anywhere that’s not going to yield some type of result.
There’s a high degree of customization that comes in when you’re working client to client, especially in the enterprise.
There always comes a point in the hiring process where you can’t be involved in every interview or get the entire team’s input. That’s the point where you have to have your hiring practices really nailed down.
With content marketing, it’s about targeting the right content at the right buyer at the right time.

Action Steps:

Work with a partner by embedding your business into their processes
Productize your services by defining them, identifying the milestones that go with each product, determining the tasks that roll up to those milestones, and putting a default value of time.
Deliver consistent outcomes and outputs by consistently training consultants and providing an accurate baseline scope.
Hire people focusing on their fundamental traits and personalities.

Justin said:

“Skills can be taught, they can be augmented, but someone’s personality traits cannot.”

“Customer sentiment and putting people in the organization towards managing the customer relationship is critical.”

More from Justin Gray:

LeadMD Justin’s Twitter

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor link

14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How Neil Patel Grew His Website to 1.1M Monthly Visitors May 14, 2018

Show notes

Neil Patel has built multiple seven figure businesses including an agency and marketing software Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. He gets over 1.1M monthly reader to his website. On this episode, he dishes how he did it.

In this episode you will learn:

Some of the strategies they used when they first got started [07:12]
How they were able to get big, major clients [08:31]
How he came up with the idea for Crazy Egg [08:56]
Why they started KISSmetrics [17:40]
When to focus on blogging [22:18]

Key Takeaways:

When you go after the press to try and get covered, don’t go after the top publications right away.
The way to get people to stay on your product for a longer period of time is to ask them what they want you to build and then build it.
You will get to your revenue numbers quicker than any other way when you do cross promotions.
You don’t need a blog to create a business under $10 million. It’s not worth it unless you want to create a business that’s bigger than that.
It’s okay to make mistakes. Just learn from them and avoid repeating them. That will eventually lead you to do the right thing.

Action Steps:

Join and speak at conferences.
Design your product and find developers to help you out.
Market your product and get it out to people who will use it.
Grow your blog by writing amazing content, building links, building an email list, capturing push notifications and subscribers, and doing it consistently.
Find all the other similar solutions in your space and do cross promotions.

Neil says:

“Speak at conferences. You speak enough, someone will end up paying you.”

“Reality is you suck it up, you push forward, you either make it or you won’t.”

More from Neil Patel:

Neil’s Website Neil Patel Digital Crazy Egg Kissmetrics Marketing School Podcast

Sponsor link

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Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How Pocket Your Dollars Grew to $500k a Month in One Year May 07, 2018

Show notes

Anthony Sarandrea started Pocket Your Dollars as a lead generation company for debt settlement. He spends $15,000/day on Facebook to connect as many as 5,000 people/day with settlement agencies and has scaled to over $500k/month in revenue.

In this episode you will learn:

How they got the idea for the business and how they were able to be so successful so quickly [01:33]
How they went about finding the people that they were going to connect the leads with [03:51]
How they started generating leads for their partners [06:25]
Their Facebook strategy [08:01]
Why they chose to acquire a site and how they went about doing it [25:13]

Key Takeaways:

Your partners need to be making money in order for you to be making money.
Segmentation and talking to people differently plays a big part in scaling a debt settlement business profitably.
You can go the route of really trying to draw in a lot of awareness and a lot of high balls and you can start to filter them down.
One of the biggest game changers is understanding of the full sales cycle.
Taking a business partner can have the biggest impact on your growth.

Action Steps:

Thoroughly educated individuals on topics related to your business.
Make sure the usability of your site is great.

Anthony says:

“We really try to make a substantial difference in an industry where we can help a ton of people.”

“If you want to grow, if you want to stay in business, if you want to continue to become a big player in this space, you have to do things that your competition is not doing.”

More from Anthony Sarandrea:

Pocket Your Dollars

Sponsor link

14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How MistoBox went from Shark Tank to $2.7M in Revenue Apr 30, 2018

Show notes

Samantha Meis started MistoBox, a coffee subscription business, while still in college. They launched in 2012 with a Kickstarter project, appeared on Shark Tank, made a deal with Mark Cuban and have gone on to generate over $2.7M in sales last year.

In this episode you will learn:

How they came up with the idea for MistoBox and how they got things off the ground [01:40]
How they launched a Kickstarter project for their business [03:10]
How they got their first 100 customers [04:10]
How they advertised and promoted their Kickstarter program [05:09]
What their experience was like with Shark Tank and how it’s worked with signing up Mark Cuban [05:52]
How they were able to leverage the traffic brought by Shark Tank [09:49]
What were their next steps after Shark Tank [10:27]
How they got customer feedback and implemented changes to their product [13:31]
What were the things they did really well and the things they had to overcome to raise their revenue [16:22]
How they continued to drive new sign-ups [19:01]
What they did to reach out to press outlets and get featured [21:31]
How they were able to build their email list [22:33]
How they provide value and put offers in front of people [24:18]
How they figured out what the best pricing was for their product [26:18]

Key Takeaways:

When it comes to product-based businesses, a Kickstarter pre-order model could work well for you.
The longer a customer stays around and is a part of your customer base, the faster your base is going to grow.
When it comes to making your product so good that people want to talk about it, it all comes down to expectations.

Action Steps:

Look at the behavior of customers instead of what they say they want.
Always tap into the customer experience by talking to and surveying your customers.
Make your product so good that people want to talk about it and tell their friends.
Set realistic expectations for your customers and then overperform.
Find your story, the one that tells how your company is unique, and then reach out to high-impact and aligned press outlets.
Hire the right people - people that are self-motivated, that can stay on track without needing a significant amount of oversight, and that can function socially without being around people 24/7.

Samantha says:

“Do whatever you can to make a compelling case for your business.”

“As a subscription business, retention is a function of growth.”

More from Samantha Meis:

Samantha’s Website Samantha’s Twitter Samantha’s Instagram MistoBox

Resources mentioned:

DojoMojo Harvard Business Review Slack Asana

Sponsor link

14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How Unbounce Grew to $17M in Revenue and 14,000 Customers Apr 23, 2018

Show notes

Oli Gardner shares how Unbounce used content marketing and partnerships to grow their website traffic to 800,000 monthly visitors and how focusing on the right customer helped them grow to 14k users and $17M in revenue.

In this episode you will learn:

What gave them the idea to come up with Unbounce [01:34]
What they did to be able to start the company [03:20]
How Oli handled the marketing side of things [04:09]
How they started generating awareness of their content to build an email list [07:17]
What was Oli’s content strategy [09:31]
How they launched the company [12:14]
How they got to their first 100 customers [14:44]
Unbounce’s partnership with MailChimp and how they benefited from it [15:05]
How to choose the companies to partner with [16:38]
How long it took Unbounce to hit seven figures and the things they had to overcome to get there [17:52]
How they got people to join their webinars [20:09]
What struggles they had to overcome before hitting seven figures in 2012 [23:25]
How they built their product for their ideal client [25:28]
How they figured out who their ideal client is [28:03]
How they make sure they’re targeting the right people now [31:09]
How Unbounce keeps taking things to the next level [33:36]
The one thing that had the biggest impact on the growth of Unbounce [38:51]

Key Takeaways:

Integrations like the one Unbounce had with MailChimp are the kind of things that put you on the path to being a “super sticky useful tool”.
When working with other companies, culture fit is important.
It is important to find the right partnerships.
Don’t fall prey to the big companies who pay big bucks asking you to design things for them. Rather, know who your ideal client is.
It’s not the job of your content to convert customers. Its job is to build domain authority for your website.
Relentless focus on growth can sometimes be a problem. When you start growing, be careful on the hiring side.

Action Steps:

Start blogging at the beginning stages of your company and build an audience for when you launch your product.
Come up with a solid lead magnet.
Find a company that you can partner with, that already has traffic or has similar customers to you, and figure out ways that you can collaborate.
Keep evolving the type of content and the type of things you are doing.
Consider doing webinars with partner companies and incorporate a relevant demo of your product.
Find ways of getting your ideal customer but also design an experience that communicates who you’re not for. If you’re attracting the wrong people, all your metrics die.
Get advisers for your company by establishing relationships with people you respect who are in a similar field. Don’t be afraid to ask.
Partner with the right people so that you’re building in the right direction to help your customers scale.
Mix your marketing, 50% lead generation, and 50% awareness.

Oli says:

“The small dollar changes at the beginning become big ones at the end.”

“Do whatever you can to not doubt yourself.”

More from Oli Gardner:

Oli’s Twitter Oli’s Email Unbounce

Sponsor link

14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How Rand Fishkin Built Moz to $47.4M and 36,000 Users Apr 16, 2018

Show notes

Rand Fishkin shares how he started blog SEOMoz to generate consulting clients for his design agency. He’s gone on to grow that blog to over 3.2M monthly visitors, which has helped grow SEO software, Moz to $47.4M in revenue with over 36,000 customers.

TOPICS:

How Rand started the SEOMoz blog [01:39]
Rand’s biggest struggle and the strategies he employed to initially grow traffic [05:28]
How they made $440,000 in the first six months [11:58]
What it is like to have a business in a new a space [13:25]
Rand’s main growth strategy [14:12]
What Rand would do differently now that he’s not at Moz anymore and has the chance to start over [17:05]
How Rand balanced his consulting business and the software at the same time [21:50]
How they figured out their three core groups of clients [24:46]
How understanding their audience impacted their business [26:36]
The strategies that helped grow Moz the way it has [29:14]
How they were able to build a great community around Moz [33:49]
What Rand did when he thought Moz would fail [35:33]
Rand’s advice to overcome depression [36:26]
Why Rand left Moz and started SparkToro [37:35]

“Being early to market in a new space and already capturing the attention and having the trust of that audience, I think that’s what led to that early success.” — Rand Fishkin

“A huge part of Moz’s mission and my personal mission became helping people to do better marketing.” — Rand Fishkin

More from Rand Fishkin Rand’s Facebook | Twitter Lost and Founder SparkToro

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Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

How FitAid Grew to Become a $21M Nutritional Drink Business Apr 09, 2018

Show notes

Aaron Hinde shares the strategies he used to grow FitAid into a $21M a year business. He shares how they were able to sell in 50% of Crossfit gyms across the US and in retailers like Whole Foods, Sprouts, GMC and more!

TOPICS:

How did Aaron come up with his business idea? [01:35]
How did he go from having this idea to actually creating a nutritional drink company? [02:47]
How did they come up with the formulation of a drink that’s healthy but tastes good? [03:42]
What did they do when it came to working deals and packaging their products? [05:31]
Among their multiple initiatives, how did they choose what to focus on? [06:00]
How did they get their sales on their first year? [07:22]
How did they start acquiring these different Crossfit gyms? [07:59]
What was the offer that they created for these Crossfit gyms? [08:52]
How did they follow-up on those offers and figure out the follow-up sequence? [09:33]
What did they find discouraging when they first got started? [10:42]
How did they develop their customer list and figure out the right persons to contact? [11:28]
How far did their strategy scale their business? [12:12]
How did they handle the product distribution? [12:38]
How did they increase re-orders and making sure people are recognizing their product ? [13:44]
How do they get consumer feedback to improve their product? [14:37]
How did they figure out what works for their company? [18:27]
What were the growing pains like of going from six figures to seven figures so quickly? [19:55]
What kind of team did they put in place to support their growth? [24:25]
How does Aaron manage his employees and how does he get better at it? [26:58]
What was their strategy in raising the money to scale the business? [27:50]
What made their partnerships work well? [30:41]

“The real skill set is looking at what’s working in unrelated industries and how can you apply that to your industry with your own flavor on it, speaking to your audience in a very authentic voice.” — Aaron Hinde

“Make sure that you have traction prior to burning the ships on the shore.” — Aaron Hinde

More from Aaron Hinde

LIFEAID Aaron’s Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

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