More about John... Our guest is the CEO of BattlBrands. After leading several successful sales organizations in the telecommunications and software space for almost a decade, He began investing in companies predominantly in the eCommerce arena. In early 2016, He decided to join the BattlBox team in a full-time capacity.
Transcript from video:
0:00 so this is where I laugh when people say that you have to be on Amazon it's a
0:05 great place it's where you know it people want to buy but you can do it on
0:10 retail you can do it on Shopify all you have to do is understand that it's
0:16 different types of marketing but um you can excel
0:23 [Music] all right
0:30 hey everyone this is Norm Farrar AKA The Beard guy here and welcome to another lunch with Norm the e-commerce and
0:36 Amazon FBA podcast let me just take a break here
0:44 there we go oh too many cigars all right so today we're going to be discussing
0:50 keys to success building content and community in 2023 we're talking about
0:55 how growing a community how to grow community in 2023 what misconceptions do
1:03 brands have about communities and content marketing and how Brands can
1:08 build their Community uh more effectively okay so that's it today well
1:14 welcome to lunch with Norm the e-commerce and Amazon FBA podcast I'll get through this one I'll get through
1:20 this one okay so today we're discussing keys to success building content in
1:26 community in 2023 something very close to my heart Our Guest today is the CEO
1:32 of battle Brands after leading several successful sales organizations in the
1:38 Telecommunications and software space for almost a decade he's begun he began
1:44 investing in companies uh primarily in the e-commerce arena in 2016 he decided
1:51 to join Battlbox and add a full-time capacity today first time guests we're talking with John
1:57 Roman okay but before we get to John we're going to have a word from our sponsor this episode of lunch with Norm
2:04 is sponsored by vaa Philippines looking for a high quality virtual assistant for
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2:27 and now let's get back to the show and enjoy the show Welcome John
2:32 hey thanks for having me Norm you had to put up with all that it was good I uh I
2:38 was pulling up the uh the the tick tock that's going viral right now I wanted to I wanted to see it
2:44 I got got my ears perked isn't that great I haven't seen the video but I
2:50 know the last one but I I think uh you know Kelsey's got a like he sucks at
2:56 most things but he's got a real I'm only joking
3:01 but you know I think it comes really natural like the way that he's coming across in those videos and uh wow so
3:09 that's their second one which is kind of cool we had another one at 10 but he
3:14 hasn't been doing it that long and uh all right let's see how that goes uh We've we've got we've got this uh
3:20 program going zero to a hundred thousand follower challenge so we'll see what happens so but let's talk about you sir
3:28 um you're into something uh why don't you explain it but I know
3:34 it's all survival and we're we're heavy into survival with our influencer program so this is kind of cool why
3:41 don't you talk about battle BattlBots battle brands for a second sure so I mean battle box is the is the brand
3:48 BattlBrands is just um the the Delaware entity that that has
3:54 has the company but battle boxes is the brand it's it's outdoor and adventure survival gear so anything that you might
4:02 need for survival or going to The Great Outdoors camping hiking um or you know just just hanging out
4:09 outside it's the full Gambit of of gear um for people that enjoy the outdoors
4:15 perfect okay so now I just posted something there just the Chuck I am
4:22 going to be in Chicago July 31st to the third I think um all right so let's talk about this
4:28 building content and Community I love it I have a Content company and we love
4:36 building communities so you're right where you're right in my sweet spot so uh I hope we get lots of questions here
4:43 but talking about that community so you're You've Got a Brand you're you're building this brand how important was
4:50 building a community and how did you start sure so so when I look at what our
4:56 secret sauces of success it 100 is is the the content in the community and and
5:02 those two things go go go truly hand in hand um we when we we started off uh
5:09 initially it was one of the first things we focused on the community piece we um
5:14 this was 2015. so things were a little bit different we had a uh Reddit style bulletin board if you will
5:21 um where it was battleboxforum.com where it was it was just open to to anybody
5:27 that whether you were a customer or not it was just a place to find like-minded
5:33 individuals if you were going hiking or or camping or going down a trail and you
5:38 wanted to talk about it um or talk about gear you got a new new piece of gear you wanted to share or you
5:45 were looking to make a purchase um you know that was that was part of our initial launch strategy so we we we
5:51 saw Roy catch fire and we were in there engaging and having the conversation and
5:56 even leading the conversation at times but it it started to really snowball
6:02 very good how many people are in your community so so right now we have
6:09 um just the so we converted that a few years ago to uh Facebook members only
6:15 group um and the the main difference now is in order to be in the group you have to be
6:22 an active subscriber to to Battlbox you have to have an active subscription any tier but you have to be active
6:28 um and we don't see everybody everybody join um you know some people just want the product they don't care about the
6:34 community but um I think right now we have a little over 8 000 active subscribers in the members only group
6:41 and for a subscription uh what does that cost so we have four tiers
6:48 um the basic which is 35 Plus um sales tax and I think at this point
6:54 like 46 States um and then shipping all the way up to the top tier which is the Pro Plus which
7:01 is 170 plus shipping sales tax ends up being about 200 all in um to full full Gambit from about 50ish
7:09 to to 200. your community uh or your product is it so I'm getting to this other question
7:16 but um the community is it strictly on Amazon are you in retail
7:21 um where are you getting your customers from so so the Uber majority is directly on our website
7:27 um we are we we are on Amazon um uh in in we have the subscription on
7:33 there but the Lion's Share of our Amazon revenue is simply just one-time products okay so you don't drive people
7:41 um from Amazon over to your listing to get them hooked into subscription model
7:47 so we we offer the the subscription we we piloted uh Amazon
7:53 um subscription um program that they had a few years ago so so we're we're on there but but no I
8:02 mean it's the Amazon piece is is a very small part of the business it's it's all
8:07 direct direct to Consumer yeah I um I I deal with this other company 45
8:13 million dollar company and uh four percent is Amazon sales so this is where
8:18 I laugh when people say that you have to be on Amazon it's a great place it's
8:23 where you know it people want to buy but you can do it on retail you can do it on
8:29 Shopify all you have to do is understand that it's different types of marketing
8:34 but um you can Excel so like I I said that the company
8:40 um was 45 million dollars with just a few million on Amazon which isn't a bad
8:46 piece of the pie but uh it was only a few million and then you had
8:51 um Chewie and you had all these other retailers but what was killing it uh was
8:56 their ability to effectively uh collect emails and do email marketing what
9:03 you're doing is brilliant by the way um I'm I was shocked when you told me
9:08 your subscription model and you've got 8 000 subscribers so imagine that if
9:13 you're listening right now like I'm looking at Cool Hand I know what he's uh he's yeah he's trying to do so this is
9:18 Luke he's got a brand that he's trying to build a community around and I would think Luke it's probably
9:25 around the cooking community it it should be pretty easy to do as
9:32 long as you give value but it's a long like this is really a Long play even if
9:37 you had a hundred subscribers at 30 bucks a piece you've got 8 000 with the mix we just we
9:45 just have 8 000 that are in the Facebook group not everybody um Oh I thought that was in your
9:50 subscriber base no that's just mem active subscribers that are actually in the Facebook Facebook group we're um
9:57 probably pretty close to double that in in actual actual subscribers geez and uh
10:04 you know and I hope Kelsey told you I go down a lot of different rabbit holes uh it's probably because I'm old and I
10:10 can't focus on one thought or as my ADHD I don't know what it is but uh anyways
10:16 uh Wilfred uh lightheart so anybody who's listened to the podcast wilford's been on a few times and he always drops
10:23 a few nuggets but he specializes in groups and we did we had a company together at one point until Facebook
10:30 shut us down for being fake which we weren't I I don't think I look too fake but uh anyways we did everything legit
10:37 above the board um and uh we got shut down for being fake and by the way we could never get
10:44 our community back so we specialized in building communities starting with uh
10:49 politics so the Republican Party the Democrat Party uh we ended up with five
10:55 million and one three million in the other and all the Republican party stuff got uh got uh deleted for being fake for
11:04 some reason just before the election so uh anyways uh that's all I'm gonna say about that but
11:10 what we did is we started to go okay what kind we've got these two groups
11:15 we've got pets everybody likes pets but what do Republicans like what do and we
11:22 did surveys what do uh Democrats like what were their favorite breeds of dogs and then we started to drill down you
11:29 know John we had a 175 000 people
11:35 in our Schnauzer group wow schnauzers yeah now just just think
11:42 what you could do with that you you know if you had the ability first of all you understand the group you understand how
11:49 the group talks but you have the ability to have like it could be a five-step
11:54 funnel where you start off with you know free plus shipping a little dog chain with a little tag with you know you're
12:01 you're a Schnauzer on it or my Schnauzer right yeah and you go right up you know
12:06 you could have Schnauzer shoes or you could have pillows but you've got a perfect platform to start targeting
12:11 Schnauzer lovers and you're in the same survival groups ain't what you it's a
12:20 perfect place to go and market and I'm curious do you trap emails
12:26 yeah yeah we um we we definitely uh capture emails we have
12:31 um a full funnel of funnels of of trying to get uh multiple campaigns based on
12:38 Behavior multiple offers to to to capture those emails email account is a
12:44 very important channel for us so how does that how is that in the um Community do you find that really
12:51 effective um yeah it's emails has been always been
12:57 a very effective successful channel for us and does it help build so a lot of
13:03 people talk about um in communities or trying to build up um find influencers or brand ambassadors
13:12 I'm just kind of curious uh within your groups do you find that there's you know the cream of the crop the the people
13:19 that want to promote your product or you have that brand ambassador that just
13:25 loves your product and will actually pay you know with a discount to to buying your product but really just that brand
13:32 evangelist yeah yeah absolutely so um you know we have we have two independent programs
13:38 one for influencers but one four brand ambassadors um and yeah I mean the brand ambassadors
13:45 are are they're they're paying customers right we do um do some surveys
13:51 um an internal uh one first that's just basically uh uh similar to like a csat
13:57 just trying to see if they're a promoter if they're gonna give us that nine or a 10 out of ten and um we have done some
14:04 funnels and some engagement and communication with them to onboard them um to be a brand ambassador
14:11 really I mean that's that's great uh and your like when you're using or when
14:16 you're working with an influencer uh do you pay them so we've we've done the full Gambit of
14:24 um of influencers that you know call it micro maybe micro Nano yeah yeah
14:30 um we've we've also done the paid ones um we've had the most success with the I
14:37 guess the the it would be micro where we're just supplying product right we're sending them a box each month it's 200
14:44 it's worth 200 it's like it's it's it's payment and if they're truly
14:50 um if if they're aligned with us and excited about the gear they're excited about the gear right and getting 300
14:57 worth of gear for free each month to review it which gives them content it it truly is mutually beneficial and we and
15:04 they're the ones that move the needle the most you know and that's what a lot of people don't
15:10 realize is if you find these influencers that love
15:15 the product and and we we talk about go out and and look at people within the
15:21 niche so survival or pets or schnauzers but if you find somebody that blogs
15:27 about schnauzers or is a micro influencer or um a nano influencer
15:33 I love Nano influencers and if I could have a hundred Nano influencers or more I would I would love it those are the
15:40 people like you say move the needle because those are the people that have 500 followers that everybody else
15:47 forgets about and they just want the product and it's bloody free
15:53 it's what great marketing yeah and and you know you see it and I'm not going to
15:59 say this is the the case for all of those larger influencers but uh more
16:04 times than not they hit a certain point with With Their audience where they they
16:10 lose some genuineness and you know genuineness actual genuine
16:16 excitement about the product when talking about it consumers see that consumers can tell that's that's what
16:22 they when they they see a product if they see that genuine excitement they're they're forming a connection
16:29 with that with that influence or whether it's micro Nano or massive
16:35 um and they can tell and that's what consumers want they want that connection so you you you truly see it with those
16:42 those smaller ones more often than not yeah I had a a friend of mine who was
16:48 the number one in his Niche um huge Niche and
16:54 he decided that he was going to go out and get this fairly big time YouTube guy
16:59 to promote his product so he sent him out the product and uh I think
17:07 during the setup of this YouTube video he was on he told me about a second and
17:14 a half but uh it probably was about five seconds and it was far enough in the
17:20 background that you couldn't even read the logo and he didn't even talk about the product
17:25 it was crazy and he had to pay 7 500 bucks for that yeah we've we've never so
17:31 we've you know through the eight eight plus years we've we've had this brand we've probably experimented
17:38 with maybe a dozen like paid like call it more than a thousand dollars influencers and we've not once seen the
17:46 engagement the the needle moving like we do with with the smaller ones like you
17:53 said give me a hundred smaller ones all day long yeah yeah well I love that okay let's talk about misconceptions about
17:59 Brands and and how they have to grow that Community or their content marketing
18:05 sure um misconceptions like yeah so let's say
18:10 that uh people who are listening right now are saying I don't want to do it because of this or it's going to take
18:16 too long or it's going to cost too much money so I'm I mean it I think at the end of
18:23 the day there there is a part where it depends a little bit on on product right so you look at where your product falls
18:30 on that that need want scale right and uh the the more the farther you are from
18:37 the um from the need where it's you know starting to be in that discretionary income
18:43 spend the more important having having community and content is you know we've
18:49 seen this trend for it's been going on for a while and every year it it moves
18:54 further you know up to the right where that discretionary spend consumers want to connect they
19:02 want to have a connection some sort of relationship with those those Brands
19:07 they're buying for they want to they want to connect with them I think you look at um you look at the success of a lot of um
19:15 influencers or YouTube stars that have then come out with products and the instant success of that it's it's
19:22 validation of that right Kylie Jenner you know comes out with this with you
19:28 know makeup brand um and it's instantly successful Mr Beast launches Beast burgers and
19:36 um the candy bars feastables and it's instant overnight successes and it's because
19:44 um Their audience they're they're people that are following them felt that connection they feel that connection
19:49 they feel like they know them we're we're in an interesting spot in society where where
19:55 um consumers are looking towards these content um creators and and forming those
20:01 relationships with them instead of you know traditional you know in real life like in in person
20:08 like like we used to when we were younger yeah you know um I I went to a a
20:13 really great I had a really great uh weekend uh attending this conference
20:19 Jason flatlin was there Perry belts who were there and they were talking about I think it was uh Jason flatland that was
20:26 talking about um don't sell the ego of your product
20:31 you have to Target the personality of your audience and as entrepreneurs a lot
20:37 of us feel that it's like building in the culture of your company it's from the top down
20:44 you're dictating you know what the culture should be and the same thing with the brand you're dictating to your
20:51 audience what you think it should be and that's completely wrong you should you
20:57 should know your audience and then build the brand around your audience or at least the messaging around that and a
21:05 lot of the times even even these larger brands that I've seen are micro Brands larger micro
21:11 Brands um they have that problem they still have that problem
21:16 um I thought that was a really good point that I picked up on the on the weekend it was very well said the other
21:21 thing I'm kind of curious you're the CEO you were brought in as a Hired Gun
21:27 um so I I was initially an investor okay and then in to invested at during launch
21:35 so so technically one of the four original Partners Founders
21:41 um and that was in February 2015 in um April of 2016 I came on full time in
21:49 the capacity of CMO and then in October 2021 when we were acquired uh by a
21:58 Canadian spec I moved into the CEO position and then when we um bought the business back in April are
22:04 you Canadian I'm not oh okay I'm just curious so we um
22:10 no we but we we have some Canadian team members we acquired a company called
22:16 Carnivore Club oh I know carnivore club I'm a member awesome okay so so yeah so Carnivore
22:24 Club um gentleman out of Toronto Tim Ray um who's a close friend of mine had
22:31 started that Dragon's Den got a deal the whole I I saw it yeah that's how I feel about them
22:37 um so we had uh I had sold two Brands to Tim smaller Brands
22:43 um in 2018 and then in 2019 he decided he was going to be done with e-commerce
22:50 um sold the smaller Brands I sold him to somebody else and then carnivore club which was the you know his Flagship he
22:57 sold it to us and then oh my God and a lot of time in Toronto but then
23:03 um so we inherited the Toronto his Toronto team and then emerge
23:08 um the SPAC that acquired Us in 20 uh 2021 they're Toronto based as well so
23:15 further further time up up in Toronto you're my new BFF
23:22 oh that's such a that's so funny and you know what okay another Rabbit Hole
23:27 carnival club so I saw them on Dragon's Den I thought oh you know that's that's
23:33 for me uh got the T-shirt I literally bought the t-shirt and um anyway uh my
23:40 buddy was the red or he owned the dot Club extension
23:45 and I told him I was in Florida and I said do you know like carnivore Club owns
23:52 carnivore club right and he goes no and I went did you see the Dragon's Den thing
23:58 have you you should approach carnivore Club to buy carnivore Club but I think somebody had already picked it up but uh
24:05 yeah you guys had this is just I and I think it still is carnivalclub.com Right
24:10 Eve car we have we have we have carnivore club.co and Dot CA or we did
24:15 I'm not involved anymore but we never had the.com oh okay I thought you did but uh anyways it was this
24:22 carnivore.club and uh uh anyways we found out like I told you down the wrong
24:27 rabbit hole but anyway let's see it's okay we're at the bottom of the hour oh wow so we got a couple of things to to
24:34 talk about so first of all if you're new to uh the podcast we have something
24:39 really cool at the end of every show and that's called wheel of Kelsey and what
24:45 it is is a giveaway uh every week uh one of our uh guests provided a giveaway uh
24:51 if they don't we provide a giveaway but at the end of every show there's some sort of prize today we've got a real
24:58 really great prize and John why don't you talk about it I thought like when
25:03 you told me about this I thought this was pretty cool sure so so we have the four tiers that I had mentioned basic
25:09 Advance pro and pro plus um and they stack so if you get the pro
25:15 you're getting everything from the basic box everything from the advanced box and then the pro box item and then there's
25:20 Pro Plus which is our um most popular and biggest box so it's everything from the basic everything
25:27 from the advance everything from the pro and then the Pro Plus item which is a
25:32 high-end premium knife so think typically about a hundred dollar um high-end premium knife so all of it
25:39 in one and the proposes it truly is our most popular we have 45 of our base is
25:45 is in that highest tier um so we're giving away our our best product the Pro Plus the Pro Plus box
25:52 wow to a winner today that is awesome so a lot of time we have service providers
25:57 on today we have a brand that's just killing it and you're getting their
26:03 product so I think that this is an a very cool giveaway Kelsey make up a name
26:10 we're going to enter it as well uh and also we have another
26:15 um special uh giveaway today this is a separate giveaway anybody who wants to attend Chicago I was talking to Brixton
26:22 Bennett he's the CEO of the company or of the the event that we're going to in
26:28 Chicago uh next week uh so that um it's called the Ecom Summit if uh well first
26:35 of all the prize he called me last night he said look uh for your podcast if you
26:41 want to um give away a ticket to the to the event uh by all means just go ahead and
26:48 do it so it's hashtag Ecom Summit and that's separate from what John's giving
26:55 away but it's a free ticket completely free uh to The Summit in Chicago now if
27:01 you can't make it don't apply if you can I know there's a few people that are
27:06 listening right now that can great if nobody's listening right because you have to be live to get this if you're
27:12 not then if we don't have anybody apply then we're gonna go and give this ticket away in the group okay in the Facebook
27:19 group but uh there's also if you don't win this and if you want to go to
27:25 Chicago then there's I think it's a 30 discount and all you have to do
27:32 I forget the code Kelsey I'll post it in there while we're talking but anyways that's it hashtag wheel of Kelsey tag
27:40 two people you'll get a second entry and now let's have a word from the sponsor this episode of lunch with Norm is
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28:05 brand create Incredible video content and increase leads without spending a
28:11 single Diamond ad spend visit suregomarketing.com today and elevate
28:17 your brand now let's get back to the show all right so that's good I see that
28:23 we're filling up here see that there's gonna be a live winner for the Ecom Summit which is great and uh lots of new
28:30 listeners so again uh if you're new we do this every podcast uh hashtag wheel
28:35 of Kelsey uh if you've never seen the wheel of Kelsey you definitely want to
28:41 stick around it's something special we do at the end of every uh podcast is a little animation
28:47 um and it's pretty cool and John you've never seen it so all right just just wait okay so let's move on and talk
28:56 about uh nope I don't know if you hear it but my whatsapp's going off what are you seeing are there any Trends
29:03 in building a community right now um no I mean
29:10 you know one of the the easiest ways is is following you know the hacks of of
29:16 content right um you know it was Tick Tock um short form video content
29:23 um and an intern YouTube um shorts and even Instagram reels
29:29 um we're seeing the most success when it comes to onboarding new
29:34 followers new members of the audience which is a it's a longer foot longer place but it's still top of funnel
29:41 um leads it's just it's a it's a much longer longer game we're seeing the most success still with short form video
29:47 content um short form okay so that's still crushing it for you yeah
29:52 so we um but but it's uh to anybody listening it's not a overnight thing
29:59 it's a it's a long game so Tick Tock is our largest Channel right now when it comes to organic organic um followers
30:07 and and organic orders and customers it was probably the first year so we launched
30:14 it we we sat on the username with no posts for for about a year in February
30:21 2021 we finally started posting with it and um it took the better part of a year
30:28 to really have like any actual major success but by you know the
30:35 12 to 18 month range after doing it non-stop it became our largest channel and it didn't exist previously and then
30:42 we took those same learnings and started applying them to YouTube um and and Instagram I think YouTube was
30:51 so we launched the YouTube channel almost immediately um of us launching the brand in 2015 and
30:58 it was a slow and steady um 500 um about 500 to a thousand
31:06 um subscribers new followers every month so we were sitting at about I think 54
31:11 000. um and it was just a slow steady growth we started doing the the real the
31:19 YouTube shorts on there and and we weren't Reinventing the wheel we were taking the same
31:24 um short form we were using for tick tock and putting it uh you know uploading it to tick tock and uploading
31:31 into YouTube and we cracked it and and YouTube we went from 54
31:38 000 to I'm gonna cheat really quick and look we're currently at 719
31:44 000. um do we have the oh right here somewhere yeah the little silver for a
31:50 hundred now we want the gold one for a million that's that's our goal this year that's that's fantastic and all that was
31:58 was taking your content repurposing the content and uh putting it on YouTube
32:06 that's great uh with your product I because
32:11 you mentioned knife and I I know there's so many things that
32:16 can get you suspended or banned do you have to be careful about what you're showing
32:23 it's it's it's it's rough it's it's a nightmare we um we didn't know so when we it just a a
32:30 funny story because it actually deals with Community um you know we launched
32:37 in 2015. we didn't know any better about diversifying we were 99 of all of our
32:42 stuff was coming from Facebook right right that's what we knew launch launch ads on Facebook and um come Labor Day of
32:50 that first year we're gonna have our biggest sale ever we know we're gonna have our biggest Revenue weekend ever and um like Friday at six o'clock all of
32:59 our ads get shut off shut down account canceled you're done
33:04 um do not do not uh pass go and we obviously you know anybody listening
33:11 if you've ever tried to get Facebook on the phone it's not try yeah good luck so
33:17 we're trying everything we actually you know posted in the Forum
33:23 um where this community that we're building hey does anybody know anybody at Facebook like we explained what
33:28 happened our ads got shut down one of our customers worked at Facebook and
33:34 this is this is pre-pandemic so people were stolen person and not only worked
33:39 at Facebook but was a couple um you know a couple feet or a couple rows
33:46 and offices away from the manual team that kills accounts and he's like I work
33:52 at Facebook and I know who did this hold on a second and he walked over there and came back reported back to us within an
33:59 hour we were back in business lesson learned at that point Diversified diversify diversify
34:06 um Facebook and met meta it in general is the toughest on um on the knives yeah
34:15 and products Tick Tock um bite dance isn't far behind it though they they're both very very strict when it comes to
34:21 that so we have to have a um unique experience for for that
34:28 traffic uh have you experienced Tick Tock shop yet
34:33 we have yeah what do you think um I like it um it's it's it's the future right yeah
34:41 um it's it's how people purchase and and it's they're they're browsing and it
34:46 just makes it easy um it's uh yeah but to answer your questions It's Tricky we have to have
34:52 microsites and special landing pages and making sure that you know the knives are
34:58 they can't get to the knives within three clicks of the landing page interesting it's a full-time job just
35:06 having these unique assets that are for for tick tock and and Facebook yeah I
35:14 know one of our clients excuse me I know one of our clients
35:19 he he sells um high-end uh chef knives and they
35:25 happen to be called Damascus knives I know Damascus yeah because the word
35:31 Damascus was in the knife we got our listing suspended and it took two weeks
35:37 to get it back yeah we um yeah Damascus uh so when we first launched
35:44 um we were our tagline was uh tactical and survival gear
35:50 and tactical is much like Damascus it's basically a four-letter word when it
35:56 comes to um digital advertising for at least near the Facebooks of the world so we
36:01 actually got rid of tactical and put survival in Outdoors um just because
36:08 it wasn't worth it right we couldn't we we don't include tactical gear anymore um because it's that much of a challenge
36:14 to to advertise with with anything like that do you see any uh any other forms of
36:22 content evolving um so so a couple things that that we're
36:28 watching you know you look at this live shopping aspect and I think everybody was pretty
36:34 Bull on it just because of the success of it in China and they they just
36:40 assumed that it's going to be successful here too um I don't know if it'll pick up at the
36:47 same speed ratio as it is in China I don't know if it ever will
36:52 um I I do think we'll see more more things in line with like Tick Tock shop
36:58 right I think eventually the streaming platforms will will have Integrations
37:03 where you know you're watching something and whether it's you know makeup they're
37:09 using or um the guy has a basketball jersey I
37:14 think you'll be able to make shop purchases that way um I think it'll be a really full
37:20 integration with just your your streaming your TV watching you know it's uh it's interesting uh our
37:27 family used to own a couple of uh uh factories in Taiwan my brother and I
37:33 would go over there and you'd be seeing people at a restaurant
37:39 this is 20 years ago and or yeah 20 years ago wow anyways the evolution of
37:47 using a phone what we're at right now we were seeing back in Taiwan and even
37:55 it's crazy but uh you go into a restaurant everybody talking on their phone everybody was talking on their
38:01 phone excuse me for a second
38:06 I gotta cut back on those cigars but uh but anyway walking in to a bathroom
38:14 people talking it drives me crazy that's one of my pet peeves by the way not gonna get into it but people talking
38:19 business or whoever while you're in the can you not turn off your phone right all of this stuff was happening back
38:26 then texting was going crazy like even in Europe you know we weren't we had not
38:32 caught on until way later and seeing what's happening in China and how they
38:37 use that instrument is crazy and guess what it is going to happen like and I I
38:43 think Elon is on to it like his announcements I think it was yesterday or the day before talking about what his
38:50 vision is for X is is right along the lines of WhatsApp
38:56 so which people had people had suggested that right in the beginning when he first bought it they had said like there
39:04 were Rumblings that that's was his vision um but to hear him now say it you know
39:09 after the death is settled from all this I'd be interesting to see what happens yeah that's a that'll be a new Evolution
39:17 of this platform at least in North America okay the next part to this so you've got
39:23 the community um you're keeping on it you did a magnificent job on YouTube but how do
39:30 you nurture your community and how do you build that loyal customer base
39:36 sure so so you know it it truly is about the customer experience
39:41 um and you know one of the ways we do that so we have this this this members only Facebook group right
39:48 um you know not all subscribers are in there but we we try to educate our subscribers as much as possible to get
39:54 them in the group um we're in there interacting um there doesn't there's normally not a
40:00 day that goes by that I'm not in there on my personal Facebook account chatting with customers
40:06 um and and it's kind of like the the culture of our entire company we have I'd say
40:13 five six seven every day there's different battle box team members in there engaging
40:20 um we're we're we're really having conversations like it's one just big
40:25 Community one big family and um having you know it's a it's a
40:32 double-edged sword um I get tagged on my personal Facebook account when there's customer issues
40:39 um so you know it goes both ways but but that level of Engagement
40:45 um and in the interactions we have that again consumers can tell when they're genuine interactions right
40:53 um is is a is is is part of the secret sauce another big thing is um so we have
40:59 a it's a little unique to us because we're you know designing this mystery Discovery box every month
41:06 um but we're weighing in heavily on our customers to help us
41:12 um because who want who's who's best at telling you what the best box and best
41:17 items to be in the Box it's going to be our customers right so we're constantly interacting with them they're they're
41:24 constantly bringing bringing us ideas we're betting those ideas and then you know when if if one of their products
41:30 gets selected we're definitely shouting from the rooftops that hey you know Tim
41:35 from from Sioux Falls found found this item and every month at
41:41 least one of the items is a is an item from one of our customers so it's it's little things like that
41:47 um but it's just really truly engaging um making sure that you're definitely on
41:53 all of your interactions the the tone is you're on the same level as as your customers and and
42:00 um and you really care I think that's the important you just said you really care as the brand and
42:10 sometimes I've seen and you know this when you get that interaction from
42:16 um I would just call it your general VA and you know from the Philippines or from wherever you know and and you could
42:23 see it's a canned response that they've just cut and paste and that that can turn you off so quickly
42:30 um you say you get tagged or if people reach out um I make it the same point that if somebody's uh direct uh messaging me I'm
42:39 answering back it might take me a few days but I'm answering back um if it's in the group there's lots of
42:45 people that can answer a question it doesn't have to be me and we have a great Community to do that so I was just
42:53 going to ask you about that because you have the community it doesn't have to be your employee you've probably got
42:59 moderators in the community that are just Brands eccentric and they just want
43:05 to be part of your brand is that correct yeah so um yeah so you know in the in
43:11 the Facebook group we have five moderators they're not battle box employees they're BattlBots they were
43:16 Battlbox customers um and they became you know they were they were brand ambassadors they were
43:23 um when people were asking questions and might tag me to your point Norm they were jumping in and answering because they knew the answer
43:29 um and they knew that that the workings of the of the brand just as well as we do
43:35 um because they're passionate so it's a it's a natural progression for them to
43:41 um to become you know moderate is that in between but we know we've had some
43:47 some pretty cool stories two of them come to mind so we had a customer he was
43:53 you know brand ambassador super engaged in the community interacting with everybody answering questions uh he's a
44:01 uh he was a nurse professional nurse and he um ended up becoming a moderator and then
44:09 at that point he was like you know I'm I'm looking for you know some extra work do you have any ideas do or do you guys
44:16 have any part-time stuff we said you know we could always use some part-time customer service help and he did that
44:22 part-time um and then it got to the point where he was passionate and really enjoying it
44:28 and doing a really great job he now fast forward a few years he's our head of customer experience wow you put the the
44:35 scrubs down and joined us full-time um another story of it is
44:43 um we're you know part of our initial go-to Market strategy was sending about 30 boxes out to YouTubers for just you
44:51 know organic reviews weren't paying them they need content here's free gear
44:56 Etc and um to date ourselves of 2015 and and and
45:02 clearly not running conversion optimization tests on our site uh we had
45:08 a pre-purchase survey where we were asking customers how'd you hear about us right and it's all your usual suspects
45:14 you know Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest and there was an other and
45:20 we were you know tracking this and the second month we saw a large amount of
45:25 other it was like 20 25 and they were writing this name in Currin
45:30 um current 1776 Brandon Curran a bunch of different ways but the same thing and
45:36 we um we start googling trying to find it we find this YouTube channel and this guy's
45:42 reviewing our boxes perfect this was our plan yeah we jump into our Google spreadsheet he's not there he's not one
45:49 of the 30. um so we do some investigating and he's
45:55 a full paying customer um in our top Pro Plus box and uh so
46:01 another month goes by and he's he's again he's getting us a lot of customers so we reach out to them we're like hey
46:07 Brandon we love what you're doing uh you don't have to pay for your box anymore we're gonna keep sending you
46:13 about the three just keep doing what you're doing and then a few months go by
46:19 and it's continuing and he's he's starting to get followers and we're like Brandon change of plans we're gonna pay
46:25 you 500 every month keep doing exactly what you're doing um is perfect and then a few months go
46:33 down um and we're like hey Brandon uh please uh career HVAC guy been doing it for two
46:39 decades um longer than two decades in uh North Carolina we're like we're in Georgia do
46:46 you want to quit your job um join Battlbox full-time be the face of our brand
46:52 um obviously you have to convince your your wife and three kids but do you want to do that and he he retired from HVAC
46:59 this was on a nighttime side hustle passion he enjoyed doing reviews on
47:05 YouTube I like his job and now he's joined us full time and if you see anything battled box related video wise
47:12 you see Brandon he's the uh big cool bearded guy
47:22 here and now he's the face that's crazy what
47:27 a great story it's like the ultimate um tale of community yeah it kind of leads into my other
47:34 question but it seems like you know Brandon started off it just uh you know
47:40 becoming part of your community then you evolve this into where it's at now but what about the small seller just took a
47:48 course excited about getting into um into Amazon or whatever and they want
47:54 to start building that Community where can they start um I think I think it's easy and it's
48:01 it's it's you can start small just by putting out some sort of consistent content online or starting on a Reddit
48:09 uh or a bulletin board or even just creating a Facebook group right I think
48:14 I think all brands should have um some sort of Facebook group or some sort
48:20 of place for Community to to um to join right yeah people are looking
48:27 for a community yeah if they're if they're passionate about what their hobbies are then yeah
48:33 for sure and then it's almost for anything yeah you know there there's certain things that yeah you're not going to build a community for but for
48:40 the most part you know I would probably say the high majority of of Amazon
48:45 sellers fit right into communities 100 I mean you the the you can quickly
48:53 find and just searching on like Facebook and seeing it the hundreds of thousands
48:58 of of group of of groups right that are the small niches or even in larger ones
49:05 of Amazon sellers in fact if you're going up this is a Stephen black thing
49:10 is going becoming a part of a community to understanding how they talk what's
49:16 the lingo so you become an expert and you can talk that lingo and put it into your
49:21 um into your titles and bullets and yeah you know and so if you do that and this wouldn't be kosher in some communities
49:28 but if you join let's say of a Schnauzer community and you're looking for
49:33 Schnauzer pet owners well there's your influencer base right there if you reach out to the moderator
49:39 and ask if you can put a post in and just asking for people to become influencers and you give them a product
49:47 I don't think people are going to be too upset now if you're a brand doing it you might be if another Brand's trying to do
49:52 it but um I I think that's another really great way to recruit influencers just go into
49:59 a group wherever your Niche is and ask the modern just don't post it because
50:04 that could be against their terms but ask the moderators yeah and I mean it's it truly is a mutually beneficial offer
50:13 you're trying to make right you want to send people product you want and and you in turn obviously get the eyeballs so
50:19 yeah and there's there's a there is a Facebook group for everything there is
50:24 yeah everything yep you're 100 right okay so just to keep on track here uh
50:32 Kelsey I think there's a few questions you want to get to them yeah so we've got a couple people talking about their
50:38 their brands and let's see from Cool Hand 99 uh sustainable living is the
50:43 community I'm building the whole go green eco-friendly lifestyle I'm incorporating Healthy Home Cooking in my
50:49 content to incorporate the bamboo steamer um I've seen uh Luke's group too and uh
50:55 I know he's just looking for more tips so I think uh hopefully he got some tips today but that's just a little comment
51:02 from Luke and from rad uh we sell outdoor portable products for campers
51:07 hunters and hikers do you accept outside vendors to sell in your battle box if yes is it a commission base how can we
51:13 do it yeah um so I guess I could interpret the
51:19 question in two different ways one um if if you're looking to sell battle
51:25 box products um yeah we we have an affiliate program you can you can um go to our site and
51:33 search for Affiliates or just go to Google type in Battlbox Affiliates and we're on share sell and Avant link
51:40 um on the flip side to have your product in Battlbox um absolutely so what we do is we have a
51:48 very stringent procurement process but um you would just go to our site and there's a I'll cheat really quick and
51:55 see I believe it's under so you go to our main site you click on
52:03 um let's see Community I believe community
52:08 and there's yeah you go to the community tab go down to vendors and there's a form to fill out if you want your
52:14 product in Battlbox and that's through some automation kicks it over to our team procurement team will reach out and
52:20 give you kind of walk you through the process all right very good there you go red
52:27 okay and our last question uh from drip uh drip fit uh when starting a
52:32 subscription plan for a product uh where do I start
52:38 sure um so so drip if you have any clarification on that
52:44 um by all means toss it in there but I guess on a high level um you know you
52:50 most products do have some sort of subscription element it could be a
52:57 subscribe subscribe and save if it's a replenishable product um you know with Battlbox for more of
53:02 the Discovery Model but we have some replenishable products on our site that we do you know Amazon started at the
53:10 Subscribe and save Model A lot of products are a perfect perfect fit for that
53:15 um and then on the you know there's other ways too there's the the membership um subscription model where you could
53:22 just be giving yourselves a you know it could be a small month your annual fee and it's a membership and with that
53:29 additional um value add whether it's discounts off of products um or you know discounts from vendors
53:36 and and partners um making sure I replenishing
53:42 replenishing monthly okay thank you drip um so there's a bunch of tools you can use
53:49 um so just to talk about Battlboxes Tech stack um you know we're we have a if you're
53:56
54:01 for the subscription Boeing and it's it's fairly fairly easy to set up
54:07 um on the the Amazon side um normally you could probably keep me honest here I you'd think you don't have
54:13 to you can set up subscribe and say but all it's doing is is putting another purchase through right yeah and um I
54:21 don't particularly like uh Amazon subscribe and save model at least for my
54:26 products because my products I might want to put them on sale or play around
54:31 with price optimization and then I'll always get the nasty email saying you know if you don't stop this uh you know
54:39 uh your um your eligibility for subscribe and save will be terminated and thank you
54:46 so I just for me I put an insert into my product the
54:52 insert drives people I like that they'll have you know any of the beauty let's say beauty or pet drive it over to the
54:58 website there'll be something there of added value maybe it's a new uh soap scent or something along those lines
55:05 something to get them engaged and then uh I get them into the subscription so
55:10 it's upsell down so cross-sell once they get to the site and that's where we would pick up our subscriptions not so
55:16 much on subscribe and save on Amazon it's it's funny the the reasons you gave
55:22 for why not on Amazon are the same reasons as a consumer I don't on Amazon I don't do the Subscribe and save
55:27 because I know that on our side we're always testing stuff and like that doesn't work yeah
55:34 [Laughter] yeah so uh okay so I think that's the end of
55:39 the questions uh John how do is that right Kelsey
55:48 [Music] so I just thought it was my eyes but uh anyways how do people get a hold of you
55:56 or your team if they're interested uh in uh Battle box subscribing to Battlbox uh
56:03 just seeing some of the stuff that you're doing sure so best way
56:08 um I think Kelsey just dropped it is is battlebox.com there's no e in though
56:13 there's no e in there so b-a-t-t-l b o x um you can also go to Netflix search for
56:19 battlbox um we have a Netflix original series um on there called Southern survival
56:25 where it's it's literally every episode we're testing gear to determine if we're gonna put it in a battlbox
56:32 um to for for me personally um I'm most active on LinkedIn and then
56:38 uh but I am on all channels and uh online queso
56:44 um online queso one word it's it's my blog where I'm just literally talking about e-commerce stuff but talking about
56:51 everything um it's it's not all victories it's not all wins yeah and I try to share honestly
56:58 more losses because there's always some learnings there that uh I'm taking from
57:04 it and if I can if I can share those losses and learnings it might save someone else from making the same
57:09 mistakes that that I made because I make a lot so I call that fail to succeed
57:16 yeah you have to fail to succeed right okay so uh let's see last call if you're
57:24 interested in uh any of our giveaways today we have two so the first one and most important is the battle box Pro uh
57:33 which is worth 200 it really has a value of about 300. um so uh John is giving that away uh all
57:40 you have to do is hashtag Willa Kelsey tag two people you'll get a second entry and then our second giveaway today
57:47 completely separate if you're in the Chicago area next week and you want to go to Ecom Summit uh Braxton Bennett uh
57:55 has given us a free ticket he just let me know uh yesterday just said here you go if you want to give it away on your
58:02 lunch with Norm go ahead just to give you a quick uh bit of information about
58:07 it this isn't like every other event uh Kevin's gonna be there he's going to be
58:12 doing some hacks but for the most part it's going to be workshops so you'll actually be able to get into work
58:19 Workshop you'll have action items he's uh he set it up a little bit different than any other event that I've gone to
58:26 this year so just check that out if you're interested hashtag Ecom Summit and we'll do
58:34 one lucky winner as long as you're in Chicago next week um you'll uh you'll have a chance to win
58:41 and that's it last uh last word from a sponsor then we'll get over to wila
58:47 Kelsey this episode of lunch with Norm is sponsored by Jeff chick legal Amazon
58:53 suspensions are very real but how do sellers like us protect ourselves against these costly suspensions without
59:00 spending thousands of dollars for a very low monthly retainer of just 89 get full
59:07 access to Amazon attorney Jeff Schick mention lunch with norm and receive 50
59:12 off the first two months visit jeffshick.com today that's j e f f s c h
59:20 i c k.com now let's get back to the show
59:26 okay so Kelsey it's time John's never seen it
59:33 [Music]
59:43 there we go ah that was awesome all right cows don't leave us hanging
59:50 don't leave us hanging all right sorry my wife I was just cutting out a little bit but here we go I'm gonna pull up the
59:56 wheel we've got two wheels happening and we've got an extra entry from Caitlyn that I gotta sneak in here as well
1:00:05 okay uh we're all set so we do this every single podcast um so make sure you come back for the
1:00:11 next one we're gonna Shuffle these up uh if you are the winner please email me
1:00:16 okay lunch with norm.com and drip is on a roll trip just one last
1:00:23 week or Monday you did congrats congratulations
1:00:29 trip uh if you can I guess I'm guessing just uh your address I send that over to
1:00:34 me and I'll connect you with John and then we've got uh one more okay yes for
1:00:41 drip let's send them over uh a lunch with Norm mug as well
1:00:46 get him one of those all right sounds good and then
1:00:51 um let's see who today's winner is okay hold it before you spit spin that yeah I just want to make sure
1:00:57 if everybody on the wheel can actually like just say you know uh
1:01:04 just let us know if you win if you you have to be in Chicago uh for
1:01:10 this ticket okay for next week so just in case you win and you're not there uh
1:01:16 just let us know and we'll spin again all right so I'm gonna spin this this for the Ecom Summit
1:01:22 and let's see who today's winner is I wonder if it's going to be dripped twice no I was thinking I was wondering if I
1:01:28 was going to be all right chuck all right congratulations
1:01:33 [Applause] very good okay so that's fantastic I
1:01:40 know Chuck's in Chicago I know Steve's in Chicago uh so anybody else let us know might have this Meetup
1:01:47 um and uh or a cigar night whatever whatever you'd like but uh this has been
1:01:52 awesome John we're gonna pull you backstage just stick around for a second but you've been great thank you for all
1:01:59 the information too want more great information don't forget to subscribe by clicking here
1:02:05 also if you want to check out our latest podcast click over here
1:02:13 [Music] foreign [Music]
