What I Learned from the Best Business Pod of the Year #27

What I learned from the Best Business Pod of the Year #27

Hey team! 👋

Feeling good and recharged after a relaxing weekend with the little ones.

Focused and ready to finalize our H2 Goals as a business for our great clients and our own Marketing and Business Development.

Last week seem to resonate with a lot of readers so I am going to share something from a similar vein…

My favorite learnings from the best business podcast of 2023…

9 Figure Operators

Who are these guys? 🤔

• Jason Panzer, President, Hexclad

• Sean Frank, CEO, Ridge

• Mathew Bertulli, CEO, Lomi & Pela Case

• Mike Beckham, CEO, Simple Modern

Seasoned leaders in DTC Ecomm.

They started a WhatsApp group asking each other questions and sharing insights. To join their chat, your company just needs to generate $100,000,000 in revenue per year, no biggie. 😎

They share tactical advice, bring on helpful guests, and provide a dose of entrepreneurial and life inspiration.

I wanted to share some of their best takes, “Panzerisms” and “Frankensence” with you here today.

Hopefully, it helps you improve how you think about DTC EComm, your business, and how you “operate.”

Let’s dive in! ☕️

Founders need stellar operators.

How many businesses do you see with dynamic duos of great internal operators and strong external evangelists or product visionaries with technical pros?

Each of these DTC Ecomm leaders underscored the importance of complementary skill sets for leaders and how critical it is to their growth.

Mike, my COO, and I are rocking this, it is fun, and it’s working. We are still improving and optimizing. Mike is one of the best people/client managers + operators I have worked with and it allows me to set the vision, and plans, and manage marketing, BD, channel partnerships, and recruitment.

This is easier said than done and can take years to build, improve, and align.

Money is Important, but there is a Limit. 💰

Mike Beckham of Simple Modern shared that “money is like going to the buffet and getting full, once you get to enough, more money does not make you happier.”

There is a law of diminishing returns on the happiness and money factor. If you are not happy at a comfortable level of wealth will you really be happy with exponential wealth?

Scarcity Creates Focus 💧

DTC going from $0 to $10M per year requires narrowing down and doing something very specific and doing it very well.

“Focus Wins” - Brian Balfour and many others (as shared in this newsletter)

We have seen this first hand and doubled down on our focus on 1) Affiliate Marketing with 2) Paid Marketing as a complementary force to accelerate and dedupe via data-driven attribution.

Clients are responding well 🙌

Founder Knows the Numbers like no one 📊

Yes, you need a finance team and operational excellence there, but the founder / CEO needs to have a very strong handle on the P&L and Cash flow.

A great thread on this topic, in particular emphasizing the importance of cash flow:

Know when to take the money 💰

Some businesses and entrepreneurs need to know when to say when.

Do not strive for perfection or the perfect valuation. Some entrepreneurs get too hung up on hitting a specific number at all costs and lose a deal completely.

Sometimes you need to take the money to drive your business if you are in the DTC Ecomm space.

Reminds of the great song…The Gambler by Kenny Rogers

Keep it simple and focus on the customer

This market is not easy, so far in 2023, a ton of DTC Ecomm brads are flat year over year. Sean Frank while known for spicey and controversial takes on Twitter outlines this and he is not alone in the observation.

In a harder environment for DTC Ecomm than in the past 5 years focusing on fundamentals rather than shiny objects is a good call and I appreciate his level of simplicity here:

The harder I work, the luckier I get. 💪 🍀

This is also a throw break to Ronny’s Code of the West that has been so well received here.

Shout out to Jason Panzer, Hexclad CEO on this one as it’s one of his now-famous “Panzerisms.”

Use the sage advice of these four fine 9-figure operators to your advantage. I know I will!

Have an amazing rest of your week!

Tye