

The Thoughtful Entrepreneur
Josh Elledge of UpMyInfluence.com
You’re gonna love this DAILY, commercial-free entrepreneur spotlight show. We feature CEOs and founders of 6-9 figure B2B companies. Agencies, coaches, consultants, and other leaders share not only their success stories - but their advice for business leaders focused on business growth.
You’re going to hear real stories from real people all in 15-25 minutes time - perfect for your commute.
On this podcast, your host, Josh Elledge encourages entrepreneurs to share not only their expertise but their stories and their hearts.
We believe that every person has a unique message which can positively impact the world. Even YOU! If you’d like to be featured on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, apply here: https://UpMyInfluence.com/guest/
You’re going to hear real stories from real people all in 15-25 minutes time - perfect for your commute.
On this podcast, your host, Josh Elledge encourages entrepreneurs to share not only their expertise but their stories and their hearts.
We believe that every person has a unique message which can positively impact the world. Even YOU! If you’d like to be featured on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, apply here: https://UpMyInfluence.com/guest/
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 1, 2022 • 17min
1089 - Influencer Marketing in 2022 with Markerly's Justin Kline
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Markerly, Justin Kline. Markerly is a technology company and agency that works in the influencer space. They began in 2012 and work in a massive variety of verticals. Justin and Josh explore how influencer marketing has evolved from its origins. It’s become easier to become an influencer, but the space has also matured. Justin explains that marketing and advertising came about through the desire to influence in general. This concept predates even modern advertising and marketing, he shares. Markerly runs large scale influencer campaigns and they work in a couple of ways. One half of their business is the influencer database they maintain, and the other half is their advertising services. Justin shares that niche content creation and audience targeting gets harder and harder over time, but Markerly amplifies content by recognizing how to market to these niches using influencer marketing.Justin and Josh also explore certain aspects of influencer marketing to be aware of. You should be asking questions about engagement rates – and doing your own research on these topics. Influencers aren’t exactly keen on sharing these details necessarily. Justin shares some tips on looking at these indicators. Use third party engagement tracker tools and external data sources. Also, follow your intuition. If something pings as fishy to you, it probably is. Look at the types of accounts following the influencer you’re looking at, for instance. You also want to think about brand alignment. You have to pair the right influencers with the right brands – and the right customers. Brand affinity, especially with larger brands, is one way to target specific audiences with the right influencers. If an influencer has looked at similar brands and align with the ethos of a brand, that’s how Markerly chooses brands and influencers to pair together.Josh also asks about performance indicators. You have to remember that bigger influencers are much busier, and require more touch points than just an affiliate code. However, if you’re willing to pay for more ‘expensive’ influencers, you’ll see a larger return more quickly. It all depends on what your brand is striving to do and what your goal is for your influencer campaign. Smaller influencers are likely less expensive but don’t underestimate their reach. If they really speak to their niche, and you see an opportunity in that niche, consider trying to work with them on a single campaign to see what happens. Establishing relationships with the influencers you work with is not only good public relations, it’s pragmatic and can only serve to improve the work you do together. Want to learn more? Check out Markerly’s website at https://markerly.com/. Check out Markerly on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/markerly/. Check out Justin Kline on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/klinejustin/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 28, 2022 • 17min
1088 - Innovative Tech Solutions with Comtec Systems' Mike Vertolli
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the President and CEO of Comtec Systems, Mike Vertolli. Almost 30 years ago, Mike started Comtec Systems. In high school, he worked in telecommunications and installation and he had an unprecedented opportunity to work in the budding tech space in the 90’s. Today, Comtec Systems works with 300 agents that sell their services nationwide. Their current mission is simple; they help their clients run their companies better through technology. Their client base is scattered across various industries. Mike shares the number one vertical he serves that has the most pain points is the healthcare space. They teach various different technological skills to healthcare teams in order to execute working with patients more effectively. Many healthcare professionals are shocked at how much business they lose every year because their automated systems are not good. Mike shares that some practices are skeptical of their services – until he shows how poor these analytics really are. Josh and Mike also explore the lack of awareness with the customer journey experience. You might think you have a good thing going, but your blindspots are just that; you don’t know what you don’t know. Mike shares that a poor customer experience is the quickest thing to be shared and circulated online, and you need to make it your goal to have exceptional customer service. Average service isn’t acceptable; complete excellence should be the bar. Mike also shares ways to better convert online traffic, as well as some tips on optimizing how your staff communicates. Can they handle phones and website inquiries at the same time? If that’s feasible, optimize time by stacking applicable tasks that can be done back and forth with ease. Mike also shares some thoughts on how remote work will likely be the permanent future of many industries. You can use tools like what Comtec Systems offers to source top talent nationwide. If you don’t have to keep your hiring pool to your immediate geographical region, absolutely leverage and take advantage of high-level talent sourcing software. This, believe it or not, ties into your customer experience. You might have been underutilizing high-level talent across the board, which means you don’t have a top notch team to manage and facilitate the customer experience. Investing into this type of talent is another amazing way to boost your customer journey through innovative tech solutions. Don’t turn a blind eye to your customer journey; do a deep dive and see what you can improve for immediate results. Want to learn more? Check out Comtech Systems’ website at https://comtecsystems.net/. Check out Comtec Systems on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/comtec-systems-inc-/. Check out Mike Vertolli on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-vertolli-66b60112/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 28, 2022 • 12min
1087 - Help Your Neighbors in Minutes with NeighborShare's Diana Zhang
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization NeighborShare, Diana Zhang. NeighborShare’s mission is to help our neighbors through moments of pivotal need with 400 dollars or less. NeighborShare helps our community by empowering community frontline heroes – teachers, social workers, and more. They spotlight these major needs in communities and provide help through this empowerment. This type of platform allows you to know exactly where your help is going. It’s a little difficult to know how to help your neighbors in your local community, Diana shares. NeighborShare’s platform tells you who in your area needs help, what they need help for, and it’s all laid out in small, affordable incremental donations.The success of a society is the strength of its safety net, and helping others is not something most of us would say no to, sometimes we just don’t know the best ways to help as donors. NeighborShare addresses this need and vets everything in the process. You know exactly where things are needed and who has need in your immediate community.Diana shares that NeighborShare strives to fill in the gaps and provide that extra safety net so that people aren’t being forgotten or neglected. Any neighbor that has a desire to help someone can benefit from using NeighborShare’s platform.Diana shares that helping others doesn’t need to be as complicated or difficult as it has become – you can browse NeighborShare’s network based on need and location. You can help in a way that resonates with you in just a few minutes. According to NeighborShare’s website, 40% of American families can’t afford a $400 emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionally affects lower-income Americans who were already struggling to make ends meet.Facing low wage growth, high unemployment, and expensive healthcare and housing, millions of Americans don’t have the resources to withstand the economic and public health impacts of an extended pandemic. Local nonprofit and government assistance programs do great work, but they often can’t help everyone who needs it. That's where you, and NeighborShare, come in.This is why NeighborShare’s threshold is 400 dollars – this symbolically and literally shows this statistic and how close any given family (40% of them) is to a make or break incidental or emergency. NeighborShare has become the additional resource – they’re a non-profit looking to be the extra safety net for struggling individuals and families across the nation.Want to learn more? Check out NeighborShare’s website at https://nbshare.org/. Check out NeighborShare on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/neighborshare/. Check out Diana Zhang on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-zhang-02b4aaa4/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 27, 2022 • 19min
1086 - Build Rich, Structured Fun Into Your Remote Workplace with Get Some Class's Joseph Gerstel
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Get Some Class, Joseph Gerstel. Get Some Class is a virtual events provider that builds high-end virtual events for corporate teams. Joseph shares that much of the world has gone virtual permanently. This spawns a challenge – how do you connect your team so that there isn’t social friction and so that there is a sense of workplace community. How do you replace parties and watercooler chats, though? Joseph and his company provide these high-end virtual events that are semi-regular and are actually legitimate fun for your team. There are tons of different options that are curated specifically for your team and business. Practically speaking, Get Some Class utilizes Zoom. Joseph shares that the challenge with Zoom is that you have to make things engaging. This has to be executed strategically and thoughtfully. You don’t want your team just sitting in a Zoom meeting for hours – the experiences have to be designed to be fun and not feel time consuming. Another challenge with Zoom is that on its own, it doesn’t support individual interactions. Joseph shares that there are other video programs out there that revolutionize this. Video tech and virtual avatars allow your team to enjoy a more unique, engaging experience, all on a virtual platform. Joseph shares that these challenges for companies aren't going to go away; most of the workforce that is remote will stay remote. Over the next few years, we’ll only see more of a boom in remote work. Honor the challenge and be willing to experiment and be thoughtful with your team bonding experiences. Josh and Joseph also explore how to make general meetings more engaging and interactive. Incorporate new, fun things into the daily grind for your remote team. First of all, don’t overcomplicate things. Introduce things casually – let your team make small talk before a meeting, or designate and facilitate simple team bonding activities. You can start small and work up to bigger events as you observe your team’s response. Chill out the social environment a bit and signal that being light and social when appropriate is completely okay.Fostering this environment in a remote workplace is very important, especially if you want honest feedback and thoughts from your team. You can be mindful and proactive by simply paying attention to your team. Increase your own awareness through connecting to your team personally, sharing things about yourself, and encouraging them to share things. Be open to this sort of engagement and invite your team to participate consistently. Want to learn more? Check out Get Some Class’s website at https://getsomeclass.com/. Check out Get Some Class on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/getsomeclass/. Check out Joseph Gerstel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephgerstel/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 26, 2022 • 22min
1085 – Maximize Your Marketing with Parkin Consulting’s Tim Parkin
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with marketing consultant and the President of Parkin Consulting, Tim Parkin. Tim is a marketing advisor to global marketing executives. He helps them dramatically improve the effectiveness of their marketing and their marketing teams. In short, he discovers what works and what doesn’t for specific teams. His journey throughout his career has been wild, but he shares that he realized along the way that software and products weren’t the issue with businesses he encountered – it was their marketing. Marketing is understanding the consumer, how they think and what they feel. He shares that you have to deeply connect with and understand your audience in order to execute marketing successfully. If you aren’t connected to what resonates with your target audience, you’re probably wasting a lot of money on poor strategies. Consumers are as sophisticated and savvy as ever – and there is now pushback on data privacy. With data privacy challenges, you have to be creative and find new ways to tune into your audience. Tim sees some common issues as companies grow; they either hit a wall as far as scaling, or they struggle to accelerate that growth. Tim offers expertise on accelerating growth and addressing bottlenecks – as well as implementing the long term solutions that permanently bridge the disconnect between consumers and businesses. Josh and Tim also explore the issues with companies that think they’re customer-centric. The truth? They aren’t talking to their customers at all. Data and numbers are great, but it’s not keeping eyes on the customer’s needs and thoughts. Don’t just send out a survey, actually make an effort to engage with and find what your customers want and need. Tim shares a trick to get better customer data – read your own reviews and the reviews of your competitors. Take those reviews into account and take them to heart. Another trick? Hire your customers! Hire those who would purchase and use your product or service and build an internal community around that. This is a great way to have access to real, impactful feedback that will resonate across your customer base. No more assumptions, just reliable data straight from the source. Tim works in a wide range of industries (B2B and B2C businesses) and shares some of his predictions for 2022 in the world of marketing. Data and privacy changes are at the top of the list – he believes in the next year, more data breaches will cause more privacy issues and blocks. Data is integral to marketing, and relying on advertiser data isn’t ideal. Use authenticity and sensitivity with your customers as these issues continue to change. Want to learn more? Check out Tim Parkin’s website at https://www.timparkin.com/. Check out Parkin Consulting on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/parkin-consulting/. Check out Tim Parkin on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketing-consultant-tim-parkin/#experience. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 25, 2022 • 35min
1084 - Build Your Online Community with Find Calm Here's Deb Schell
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the Creator and Founder of Find Calm Here, Deb Schell. Deb helps entrepreneurs build online communities with newfound peace and ease. Deb shares that having a thriving online community while running a successful business can be chaos. She wanted to help other entrepreneurs find calm in running an online business, so Find Calm Here began as a wellness community. The more people joined, the more she realized there she filled a need – she helped guide entrepreneurs create and utilize their own self-made communities. Now, that’s what she does with the Find Calm Here community. Josh and Deb also explore how resourceful and collaborative a community can be. As a business owner, you may not have all eyes on your customers and their issues at all times. The more you scale, the more relevant this problem becomes. Having a self-driven community can help, but it takes work and really investing into connecting your network in order to have something effective that fills the role. Deb also talks about how community-based softwares have evolved over time. There are many different options out there, especially when you’re looking to get away from Facebook groups. A popular option that both Deb and Josh have used and loved is Might Networks. Using a platform like this empowers your customer base to become impactful within itself. Deb shares that ‘community’ is more often than not the missing magic in your business. If you’re an entrepreneur, agency, wellness or mindfulness professional, or a coach/consultant, building a dedicated community is always a best practice. Josh also asks about how to build a community truly. It’s not just the software, Deb shares. You want to notice those who are engaging with your community already (perhaps on social media or in a Facebook group you’ve implemented) and invite them to join the community you’re building. You want to establish a community with those who already like to engage with you – and you want to ask them what they really want to see. Collaborate with your community and make them part of the direction it goes in, don’t just take them along for the ride. Your community knows what it wants, so leverage that by asking them! Deb suggests using something like a Google Form to ask your audience questions about building your community – do some trial “market” research here to see what’s actually in demand in your network and client base. Want to learn more? Check out Find Calm Here’s website at https://findcalmhere.com/. Check out Find Calm Here on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/find-calm-here/. Check out Deb Schell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/debschell/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 24, 2022 • 17min
1083 - Helping Consumers Earn the Credit They Deserve with Trackstar's Clint Lotz
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the President and founder of Trackstar, Clint Lotz. Trackstar is a consumer advocate brand. It tackles problems in the space uniquely by building software that helps people help people. Specifically, they innovate the loan space. They saw an opportunity to put state of the art technology into the hands of lenders – they wanted consumers to be protected from false negative credit reporting by giving lenders data that’s fast, efficient, and accurate. Clint shares that there are many false negative reports floating around the American credit system, and Trackstar can build software to identify these false reports so that someone’s credit isn’t ruined. Clint also talks about how difficult it is as a consumer to identify and report these damaging false reports. For the most part, it’s an entirely manual process and it’s tedious and time consuming. Trackstar tackles this issue and allows for these types of checks and balances to be available quickly and efficiently. Josh and Clint also explore where Trackstar fits into the industry more holistically. He shares that most credit bureaus listen to their consumers, but their data is almost always inaccurate. They don’t seek to improve the quality of their data, Clint shares, and they’ve been aware of this for a long time. At the end of the day, this bad data and these errors are bringing consumer credit scores down. It’s a major issue, but it doesn’t improve their bottom line, so little has been done to address it. Who uses Trackstar’s tech? Those on the customer experience team are often the first to consider using this type of advanced data technology. Those who take charge of the customer journey are the number one candidates that Trackstar will connect with; they care about their consumer’s experience, which makes the investment in this technology all the more attractive. Clint shares that he believes lenders should do more than just lend money; they should invest in making the consumer journey fair, easy, and equitable. Trackstar identifies errors on credit reports and they are looking to work with personal, mortgage, auto, and other types of lenders. They also work with online aggregators who work with multiple lenders to extend their reach across the board. If you’re a lender or aggregator, there’s likely a big data oversight occurring somewhere in your business. Trackstar will help you serve your existing client base now – and actually add something positive, and in protection of the consumer, to the lending space. Want to learn more? Check out Trackstar’s website at https://trackstar.ai/. Check out Trackstar on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/trackstar-ai/. Check out Clint Lotz on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/clint-lotz/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 23, 2022 • 28min
1082 - The Balance Between Automation and Relationship Building with Time on Target's Kevin Snow
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to veteran and the founder of Time On Target, Kevin Snow. Time On Target was originally launched as a public speaking and training company to train businesses on networking and sales. After being launched, Kevin was deployed with the Army overseas. With that, he had to pivot and then began offering prospecting services. He focused on tech firms and helping companies grow and optimize their sales teams. From there, Time On Target niched down even more and now they focus on helping companies discover how they sell and how their buyers make buying decisions. They add technology and automation to make things run faster so that sales teams have optimized ease of use. Kevin shares that building relationships is still extremely important when it comes to sales. You can’t assume your sales teams can cultivate good relationships - they sometimes jump too quickly to the sales processes. This is a byproduct of the environment of COVID. When we’re not interacting face to face, it’s harder to build those personable relationships. Kevin shares that he had to manually build in the “relationship” process into his sales funnel. You need to ask questions and actually get to know these leads. From there, you can educate them on where they could improve or automate, and this trust and expertise will lead to sales far more often. Josh and Kevin also share how being an introvert is actually a strength in the sales process. Introverts are curious, good listeners and are detail-oriented. Utilizing these skills helps you dig deeper so you can actually sell a real solution, not what you assume they need. You need to build your solutions to serve the lead first and foremost – a cookie cutter approach isn’t going to see success. It’s a lengthy process and it requires dedication and attention to detail, but you have to sell from a place of service first. Sales aren’t about convincing people, it’s about helping them know, like, and trust you AND your authority. If you can solve problems, that’s great, but listen to your market first. Ask yourself how many meaningful conversations you can have in a day and try your best to hit that target. Don’t pitch to someone – listen to them and offer a tangible solution. Accept that not everyone will be a fit for your solution and don’t chase and force leads that just aren’t fits. That’ll detract from your business’s value. Be a true solution provider and only pursue leads you can deeply serve. Want to learn more? Check out Time on Target’s website at https://www.time-on-target.com/. Check out Time On Target on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/time-on-target/. Check out Kevin Snow on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinesnow/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 22, 2022 • 22min
1081 - Best Practices for Podcast Guests with Outlier Audio's Spencer Carpenter
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Outlier Audio, Spencer Carpenter. Outlier Audio began during COVID-19. Spencer shares he worked extensively in the music industry before the pandemic in talent representation. During this time, he realized those who relied on in-person networking needed alternatives. Podcasting was an opportunity for people to perform virtually. Spencer shares that many people in the space either didn’t know how to podcast or didn’t have the time. This is how Outlier Audio was born!Spencer shares that the need for the space was the initial draw for him to podcasting, but what he realized was that in a world where advertising is constant, podcasts get you in front of audiences who actually want to listen to you. Inviting someone onto your show invites them to become a fan after their own interview and creates the impression of the personal touch of a genuine conversation. Listeners like what you have to say – you don’t have to sell yourself, you just have to be authentic. Josh and Spencer also explore what makes an amazing podcast guest. He shares that he’s scoured for the best tips across the web and compiled them (while also leaving out the redundancies and creating a succinct guide.) Optimizing the quality of your own audio is key. Also, don’t waste your opportunity as a podcast guest. You’re there to educate an audience, not sell your program or product. As a guest, be authentic and be a respectful, considerate guest to your host. Josh shares his take; a podcast is like a first date. Don’t run out of the gate trying to make a pitch. Spencer also shares that you don’t need to make a pitch to sell to someone’s audio. Just showing your authority and expertise in a real conversation will draw the right clients to you just from an audience base who hears you once and wants to learn more. It doesn’t matter what vertical you work in; you’ll only draw business to yourself from podcasting if you start from a place of service and value as a guest. Bring stories, anecdotes, and real nuggets to the table. But how does one get on podcasts, or prepare themselves beforehand? Spencer shares to keep things short and sweet when you pitch yourself as a guest and make sure to curate which shows you want to be on. Don’t throw spaghetti at the wall – go on podcasts in your niche and branch out as you gain more experience as a stand out podcaster. Want to learn more? Check out Outlier Audio’s website at https://www.outlieraudio.com/. Check out Outlier Audio on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/outlier-audio/. Check out Spencer Carpenter on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-carpenter-49988166/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Feb 21, 2022 • 23min
1080 - Starting and Growing Your E-Commerce Business with BeefySites' Jared Mitchell
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the owner of BeefySites, Jared Mitchell. BeefySites started as Jared’s passion project and it has now become an extremely successful company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their e-commerce businesses. Jared shares that the methods e-commerce businesses are using to grow aren’t actually improving their brand or business because it doesn’t build upon it. When your business depends on other factors, like platforms you don’t control, you have to build things from the ground up so you aren’t relying on those factors entirely for success.He also discusses things like the risks of relying mostly on Amazon for your e-commerce business. He shares that he's been shut down at least ten times by Amazon – so if you tell yourself it can’t happen to you, think again. Even competitors can shut you down between leaving false bad reviews and opening false trademark disputes. Amazon is a slippery slope for e-commerce companies, so absolutely do not put all your eggs in that one basket. Jared and Josh explore how to diversify your strategy and approach. Number one, you need to strive for perfection. First of all, sell QUALITY products and don’t cut manufacturing corners. Ship on time and have a competent and prepared customer experience team right off the bat. If you don’t, your brand and its reputation will suffer. Next, invest in selling e-commerce you’re passionate about. Yes, you can be passionate about making money, but that’s not going to be enough drive for you eventually. Sell products you use, care about, and enjoy talking about. Base your brand around things you care about on a personal level. Differentiating yourself in a busy market is another aspect that requires a tactical approach. Find your niche and be AMAZING at it. You need to then hone in on that audience, ideally one that needs a solution provided, and operate in that area. Become an expert in that niche and don’t make the mistake of trying to branch out into areas outside your zone of genius thinking you need a broader, more extensive reach. Only sell products you know well and like the back of your hand. Jared shares that people don’t want to be sold to, they want to be helped. You need to be the right solution to their problem and show your business is the expert in your space very quickly. You need to establish yourself as a real brand to your audience. As far as utilizing influencer marketing, Jared stresses caution. You need to manually check not just the size of an influencer's audience, but also the engagement they have with their audience. Influencers can often have “fake audiences”, so do this research before you even approach an influencer regarding a marketing campaign. Want to learn more? Check out Beefysite’s website at https://www.beefysites.com/. Check out Jared Mitchell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jareddmitchell/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.


