Up Arrow Podcast

William Harris
Up Arrow Podcast

This is Up Arrow Podcast where we feature successful people in the venture capital, B2B, and e-commerce industries as they discuss how entrepreneurs can improve their business and drive their profits to the next level.

  1. -3 J

    Selling on Amazon: Beyond the Basics With Will Haire

    Will Haire is the Co-founder and CEO of BellaVix, a full-service Amazon and Walmart marketing agency. He has managed over half a billion dollars worth of sales on e-commerce marketplaces. Will specializes in helping brands dominate their categories. In this episode… Many sellers understand the competitive and cutthroat nature of Amazon’s marketplace but may miss the more technical aspects like fees and pricing policies, making profitability and sales growth a recurring challenge. What tactics can you implement to maintain steady growth on the platform? With deep insight into Amazon’s e-commerce marketplace, Will Haire has witnessed brands triumph and fail based on their knowledge of the platform’s nuances. For instance, if you don’t develop and enforce a firm Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy, your brand may become vulnerable to unauthorized resellers, which decline sales significantly. To avoid sales decline or stagnation, Will proposes optimizing your product listings with quality photos, catchy titles, and compelling copy that includes key features, a description, and a brand story. You should also diversify your ad spend both on and off the platform to drive traffic to your listing and familiarize yourself with Amazon’s fees to structure your budget accordingly.  In this week’s episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris chats with Will Haire, the Co-founder and CEO of BellaVix, about optimizing sales on Amazon. Will explains Amazon’s fee structures and pricing requirements, the importance of building an audience, and the key differences between Vendor and Seller Central.

    1 h 17 min
  2. 15 OCT.

    DTC Storytelling: Why Brands Should Start With the Story With Kristian Alomá, PhD

    Kristian Alomá, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Threadline, a brand-building agency. He is also a lecturer at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Management, where he teaches branding for nonprofits, donor stewardship, storytelling, digital fundraising, and behavior design. With over two decades of experience applying narrative psychology, identity, and behavioral economics to marketing and market research, Kristian has helped some of the world’s largest brands, including Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson, and FedEx, improve their narratives. He is also the author of Start with the Story: Brand-Building in a Narrative Economy. In this episode… Advertising and marketing have poor reputations for deceiving customers, often stemming from brands that position themselves as the heroes of their campaigns to manipulate consumers into making purchases. In an economy that relies on stories to make sense of experiences, consumers are the primary drivers. How can you craft a brand story that strengthens your customer relationships? According to behavioral marketer Kristian Alomá, every brand-customer relationship must begin with a story encapsulating your unique value proposition (UVP). To identify your UVP, it’s essential to define your target audience’s main struggle, your solution to the problem, your company’s objective, and the reward customers receive from engaging with you. However, the UVP should only form the basis for your story rather than dictate how it’s conveyed to consumers. Instead, you should view your organization from the customer’s perspective, informing your approach to storytelling and services.  Tune in to this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as William Harris chats with Kristian Alomá, the Founder and CEO of Threadline, about building a brand story to foster authentic customer relationships. Kristian explains the seven elements of a customer-brand relationship, how to market ethically, and the significance of the narrative economy in brand building.

    1 h 13 min
  3. 8 OCT.

    Break Through $10M: Consistency, Discipline & Meta Ads With Anthony Ciavirella

    Anthony Ciavirella is the Co-founder of Manmade, a boxer briefs brand. He manages the brand’s online community and works with content creators to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Before co-founding Manmade, Anthony worked in the finance industry as the Co-founder and Director of Business Development at RIISK, the Senior Relationship Manager at B2Billing Payments Inc., and a Financial Advisor at TD. In this episode… If you’ve plateaued at the $10 million mark, you may have become complacent in your growth. Yet you’re limiting yourself by not striving for that next level. You must identify and align your “why” to achieve results for your business. What growth strategies can you harness to elevate your brand? Having built a brand by identifying a market need, two-time entrepreneur Anthony Ciavirella emphasizes remaining dedicated to your mission and consistent in your efforts to reach your goals. This requires aligning your team with your “why” and disciplining yourself to reach your maximum potential. Anthony also notes the role of Meta Ads in his growth, explaining that creating consistent content in-house allows you to communicate your brand’s story and generate value for the customer. You must also measure campaign performance by identifying key costs and metrics like AOV, LTV, CPA, and COGS.  In this week’s episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris chats with Anthony Ciavirella, the Co-founder of Manmade, about building and scaling a purpose-driven brand. Anthony shares his company’s early days and how he acquired his first customers, how to produce content in-house, and the innovative stunt that kick-started his brand’s awareness.

    1 h 25 min
  4. 1 OCT.

    DTC Health: Unlocking Tax-Free Money To Fight Chronic Disease With Justin Mares

    Justin Mares is the Co-founder and CEO of Truemed, a payment tool that allows health and wellness brands and providers to harness consumer tax-free funds. He is also the Founder of Kettle & Fire, the Co-founder of Surely and Perfect Keto, and an investor at Long Journey Ventures. Justin strives to make health accessible and sustainable and create a food system that heals rather than harms. In this episode… Nearly 90% of the US population is at risk of chronic disease. While health accounts like HSAs and FSAs give consumers access to tax-free healthcare, they can only use them to cover qualified medical expenses. DTC wellness brands can offer the option to pay for products with these funds. How can these brands optimize this payment method to drive conversions and growth? Health and wellness serial entrepreneur Justin Mares capitalized on a market need for affordable chronic disease prevention. Health, wellness, and supplement brands can integrate one-click HSA and FSA payment options into their Shopify sites. Consumer drop-off rates between add-to-cart and check-out are 30-50%, so when provided with alternative payment methods, consumers can save 30-40% a year on wellness products, increasing brands’ AOV, LTV, and conversion rates. Consumers can even make interest-free monthly payments on more expensive products. Join William Harris in today’s episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as he interviews Justin Mares, the Co-founder and CEO of Truemed, about his tax-free solution for consumers with chronic illness. Justin also talks about his experience bootstrapping a brand, including transitioning from DTC to retail, his methods for scaling and gaining brand awareness, and how he became a serial entrepreneur in the health and wellness space.

    1 h 11 min
  5. 24 SEPT.

    Finding Purpose: Consuming “Happiness” in a Market Economy With Dr. Christine B. Whelan

    Dr. Christine B. Whelan is an author, professor, speaker, and thought leader guiding organizations like the DeBruce Foundation and AARP’s Life Reimagined on self-improvement strategies. She is the best-selling author of the ten-lesson series Finding Your Purpose and five additional books, including The Big Picture and Generation WTF. As a Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Human Ecology, Dr. Whelan teaches classes on happiness, finance, and family and directs the MORE: Money, Relationships & Equality program.  In this episode… We’re often told that money can’t buy happiness, yet companies market products to target our basic needs and desires. This consumption-driven economy teaches us that we can choose how to expend our resources to fulfill our innate purpose. How can business owners identify their purpose to allocate resources toward a meaningful outcome? When surveyed on happiness levels, Americans often rank themselves lower than people from other countries, holding themselves to an unrealistic standard of happiness based on the false perception of others. Human ecology researcher Dr. Christine B. Whelan maintains that your journey to happiness and fulfillment should depend solely on your personal and professional core values, which determine your ultimate purpose. To identify these values, you can engage in a purpose statement exercise that involves identifying your unique strengths and leveraging them to make a positive impact personally and professionally. Accordingly, each action and decision should align with your core values and propel you toward your ultimate goal. Tune in to this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as William Harris chats with Dr. Christine B. Whelan about harnessing your purpose to achieve authentic happiness in a consumption-driven economy. Dr. Whelan talks about the etymology of thrifting, the benefits of purposeful living, and how to balance your personal and professional endeavors.

    1 h 20 min
  6. 17 SEPT.

    Freedom Entrepreneurship: Building a Brand That Gives You More Than Just Revenue With Eric Bandholz

    Eric Bandholz is the Founder and CEO of Beardbrand, a men’s beard care company. He started Beardbrand after leaving a corporate role to pursue his passion for men’s grooming and beard care. Eric is also the host of Practical Ecommerce’s podcast Ecommerce Conversations, in which he interviews startup founders and founders of brands valued at $100 million. In this episode… What does it take to be recognized by strangers on the street for your brand? You don’t have to compete with big-name brands to get widespread recognition; you just have to relate to your customers. How can you scale your brand’s reach while honing your entrepreneurial skills? While traveling, Eric Bandholz is often recognized as the charismatic face of his brand. He attributes this acknowledgment to his natural storytelling abilities and maintains that this factor sets independent brands apart from large retailers like Amazon, which doesn’t connect with consumers authentically. Eric doesn’t invest in paid ads and instead recommends creating organic content that showcases a distinctive brand personality. Developing this personality may also involve giving your products unique and memorable names that capture consumers’ attention and entice them to purchase from you. In the latest episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, Eric Bandholz, the Founder and CEO of Beardbrand, joins William Harris for a discussion about charismatic leadership and brand storytelling. Eric explains the importance of persevering during tough times, how to identify a work-life balance that aligns with your core values, and his presence on DTCX.

    1 h 18 min
  7. 10 SEPT.

    TikTok Live Streaming: Top Lessons from #1 F&B TikTok Shop With Dayne Hepner

    Dayne Hepner is the Founder and CEO of Candeeze, a freeze-dried candy company. He is also an Advertisement Specialist at TikTok, where he works with over 4,000 companies and produces 120 weekly ads. Dayne began as a content creator on TikTok before launching Candeeze on TikTok Shop. In this episode… TikTok is the Wild West of e-commerce, with its selling platform still underway. Many brands have found success selling their products on live streams. How can you optimize TikTok Shop to build your brand? At just 22 years old, Dayne Hepner has become the #1 food and beverage seller on TikTok, and it all began with a broken cell phone camera lens. He discovered that the keys to engaging, high-performing live streams are energy and storytelling. You can measure performance and engagement by analyzing your enter-room rate (ERR) and sell-through rates, which can be increased through creative set designs and offers like free giveaways and discounts. Dayne suggests promoting your live streams through video content to boost viewership, build your brand, and drive sales. Tune in to this week’s episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as William Harris invites Dayne Hepner, the Founder and CEO of Candeeze, to talk about building a brand through TikTok live-stream sales. Dayne shares the importance of consistency, how to leverage ads to promote live streams, and how to create unique content to boost sales. He also delves into his personal life, including touring with faith-based bands, growing up in Serbia, and being expelled from school.

    1 h 7 min
  8. 27 AOÛT

    The $7.8B eCommerce Growth Strategy With Sabri Suby

    Sabri Suby is the Founder and Head of Growth at King Kong, Australia’s fastest-growing direct-response digital marketing agency. The company has generated over $7.8 billion in sales in over 1,000 industries. As an author and thought leader, Sabri wrote the international best-selling book Sell Like Crazy and has been featured in publications, including Forbes and Entrepreneur, where he contributes articles on entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and business growth strategies. He was one of five investors on the 2023 season of Shark Tank Australia. In this episode… The secret to brand growth isn’t experimenting with various popular hacks and hoping something works. In reality, many brands focus on the wrong metrics. For instance, 80% of people spend 80% of their time reducing customer acquisition costs and 20% of their time increasing AOV and customer LTV. These numbers should be reversed, as nurturing your existing customers leads to lower acquisition costs. How can you uplevel the customer experience to scale your brand beyond $100 million in revenue? With experience generating over $7 billion in revenue for various e-commerce brands, Sabri Suby maintains that you can’t scale sustainably without generating value for your customers and creating exceptional experiences. This requires garnering their attention and convincing them to purchase from you through compelling brand stories and messaging. However, you can’t just distribute a catchy slogan and logo across various social channels and expect to build your brand and audience. You must identify your target customer, market and develop messaging around their central problem, and determine a product differentiator to craft a brand story.  Join William Harris for another episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as he interviews Sabri Suby, the Founder and Head of Growth at King Kong, about his $7.8 billion growth strategies. Sabri shares what DTC brands can learn about luxury brands’ customer experience strategies, the worst pitch he’s ever witnessed on Shark Tank Australia, and how he built a $500 million sales machine for MrBeast.

    1 h 18 min
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À propos

This is Up Arrow Podcast where we feature successful people in the venture capital, B2B, and e-commerce industries as they discuss how entrepreneurs can improve their business and drive their profits to the next level.

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