Why Travis transitioned from optometry

In this episode, host Josh interviews Dr. Travis Zigler, a former optometrist who founded "Eye Love", a brand focused on healing dry eye naturally and funding free eye care clinics. Travis shares his journey from optometry to e-commerce and Amazon PPC, leading to the creation of Profitable Pineapple Ads. He discusses the importance of finding personal fulfillment beyond business, explains the 80/20 rule for Amazon advertising, and offers actionable strategies for optimizing PPC campaigns and product listings to drive growth and impact.

Chapters:

Introduction to Dr. Travis Zigler and His Journey (00:00:00)
Josh introduces Dr. Travis Zigler, his background in optometry, e-commerce, and founding "Eye Love" and Profitable Pineapple Ads.

Starting Profitable Pineapple Ads and Finding Personal Worth (00:01:08)
Travis discusses starting the agency, the importance of finding self-worth beyond business, and his and his wife's personal missions.

Mission Trips and Foundation Work (00:02:59)
Travis shares about their charity work, mission trips, and the value they find in giving vision to those in need.

Pivot to Amazon PPC and Agency Origins (00:03:33)
Transition to discussing Profitable Pineapple Ads, why Travis started focusing on Amazon PPC, and the agency’s early challenges.

Simplifying Amazon PPC: The 80/20 Principle (00:05:50)
Travis explains the 80/20 rule in PPC, focusing on what works, and how this approach improved results for their clients.

Scaling the Agency and Using Software (00:06:47)
Describes the agency’s growth, adoption of software, and scaling to 120 clients with a team of 11.

Simple PPC Strategies and Case Studies (00:07:55)
Travis outlines actionable PPC strategies, focusing on top-performing products and keywords, and how this benefits clients.

Optimizing Listings and Campaign Structure (00:10:00)
Details on optimizing product listings, using professional images, and structuring ad campaigns for maximum impact.

Three Actionable Takeaways and Final Thoughts (00:11:25)
Josh summarizes key takeaways: self-reflection, the 80/20 principle, and implementing focused PPC or blog strategies.

Episode Wrap-Up (00:15:02)
Closing remarks, gratitude, and looking forward to future meetings.

Links and Mentions:

Companies and Foundations
Eye Love
Eye Believe Foundation
Profitable Pineapple Ads Agency

Websites
ProfitablePineapple.com

Concepts and Strategies
80/20 Pareto Principle: 00:05:50
Single Keyword Ad Campaigns: 00:10:00

Transcript:

Josh 00:00:00  Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Doctor Travis Zigler. He is a recovering optometrist turned ecommerce entrepreneur. He is the founder of Eye Love, whose mission is to heal 1 million dry eye sufferers naturally. Doctor Travis and his wife, Doctor Jenna Zigler, used the profits from Eye Love to Fund free clinics in Jamaica and the US through their charity, the Eye Believe Foundation. And due to the success of Eye Love, others have asked if Doctor Travis would help them grow their businesses online and more specifically with Amazon, which led to the creation of the profitable Pineapple Ads Agency. Well why pineapple? Well, why not specializing in Amazon PPC? Doctor Travis blogs about Amazon PPC and selling on Amazon, and also has a free Amazon PPC Masterclass, which you can check out at Profitable pineapple.com. So welcome to the podcast, Travis.

Travis 00:00:57  Josh, happy to be here and glad to be glad to be providing value to your audience, so looking forward to it.

Josh 00:01:03  You had previously started profitable pineapple ads before the exit.

Josh 00:01:07  Is that true?

Travis 00:01:08  Yeah, so we started about four years ago and the exit was about a year ago. Okay.

Josh 00:01:12  And so so yeah, you had already started it. So you already had something else going on, right? Do you feel like that helped?

Travis 00:01:18  It did help. But to go back to your question about tips and pointers, it's all about where you find your worth in life. And a lot of us as entrepreneurs find that worth in what we're doing in our business. We bury ourselves in busy work because that's what we feel like is our worth. And it's all about that is finding what makes you feel. I don't want to say worthy, but find out what makes you feel good inside. I'm a creator. I love to educate and so I educated with my dry brand. We had a show called The Dry Eye Show. It was a podcast and a YouTube station. But then in the agency side, I also am. I teach people all the strategies that we used. And so I love to educate people on how to do stuff.

Travis 00:02:05  And I was a professor at Ohio State. So I find my value in education, in masterminding with people, in networking. And so as long as that didn't go away when we sold our business, then I would be fine. My wife, on the other hand, I don't think she knows as much. She finds it in motherhood a little bit. But we have we have two kids and they're in school during the day, so. But she also finds it in I think writing is her kind of passion. Is email, copywriting, blog posting and creating that value for people in the written form. But when Eye Love kind of is going away or has gone away, and it's changed over the last year and a half, she didn't get to do that as much as she used to. And so her kind of value and her worth that she felt kind of went away. And so she kind of felt empty inside. And it's very hard. So as an entrepreneur, we need to find our worth in something that we can continue doing even when the business is gone.

Travis 00:02:59  That doesn't mean busywork. It just means focusing on what you feel like you were put on this earth to do. And mine is education. And then focusing on our foundation's mission, which is giving people vision that don't have access to eyecare. And so we go on mission trips three, two to 3 to 4 times a year, and we donate to those causes as well. And that's because that's where we find value, is giving people vision because that helps their lives, of course. And then also educating and creating for people to help them learn things as well.

Josh 00:03:33  All right. Let's pivot now Travis, into profitable pineapple ads. you know, tell us why you got started in PPC. And let's talk about some of the, you know, tactics that have been working in PPC specifically for now. And then. I know you've got in the Billion Dollar seller summit. you shared some advanced tactics about implementing blog strategies and some of that cool stuff. And so we'll get to that. But let's talk about just regular old PPC to begin with and your journey to where it got to you.

Josh 00:04:06  Right now with your agency?

Travis 00:04:08  Yeah. So the agency was just born out of a need that we had. And again, listening to the universe and how it's coming at us and taking action on it. And so what happened was we hired multiple agencies, seven agencies total tried six softwares. This was back in 2016 and 2017. And finally I hired a good friend of mine who had a very respectable agency and software. And I thought, you know, I think they're going to do a great job. If they can't do it, then I got to figure it out. And unfortunately, it just didn't work out. And what I found with agencies constantly is they just spend a lot for a little return. And they always promised, yeah, it's coming, it's coming. We're just getting the data. The problem is I kind of knew what to do with the Amazon PPC, ...